In years past, when the Baldwinsville wrestling team made its way to the Section III Class AA championships, it went there expecting to win or, at the very least, contend for team honors.
That wasn’t the case last Saturday, though, as the Bees, with 108 points, finished seventh in a nine-team field. Host West Genesee won five of the 15 weight classes and, with 185 points, held off Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA (177.5 points) for the title.
Still, B’ville’s Luke Eberl claimed the 182-pound championship in a particularly dramatic manner, finding himself in overtime with Auburn’s Keyshin Cooper in the final, only to pin Cooper 17 seconds into the extra period.
Prior to that, Eberl had to wrestle a semifinal against his own teammate, Dom Sposato, and it only took 38 seconds for Eberl to pin Sposato, who went on to take fifth place by pinning WG’s Joe Conmy in 89 seconds.
Aiden Cali and Mason Clark each lost semifinals at 99 pounds, Clark in a 7-2 decision to Christian Hogan (Auburn), but won their next bouts to set up a head-to-head consolation bracket final. Cali won it, pulling away to top Clark 9-1.
At 195 pounds, Mike Letizia dropped a 7-1 semifinal to J-D/CBA’s Adam Honis, but then won third place, topping Adam Rush (Cicero-North Syracuse) 9-4 and beating Liverpool’s Hamier Williams-Borges 9-3 in the consolation bracket final.
Billy Loadwick also finished third at 285 pounds, rebounding from a pin by Syracuse’s Carveion Wright to edge J-D/CBA’s Will Laun 2-0 and then beat Syracuse’s Josiah Carnegie by that same margin in the third-place bout.
Max Naples, beaten in the 113-pound quarterfinals, rebounded to finish fourth. Nate Hahn lost a 138-pound semifinal to Fayetteville-Manlius’ Justin Bedell 7-3, but did finish fifth by edging Liverpool’s Dom Ianno 4-1. Jacob Mitts finished fifth at 220 pounds.
All of these wrestlers are going to SRC Arena this Saturday, vying for top honors in the sectional Division I (large school) tournament and berths in the Feb. 22-23 state championships at Albany’s Times Union Center.
