Eight different members of the Marcellus wrestling team emerged with top-eight finishes from the Dec. 27-28 Kenneth Haines Memorial Tournament at SUNY-Oswego.
All of this helped the Mustangs rise to eighth place in a 24-team field with 98.5 points, though it was still well behind the winning 273 points put up by Fulton, the state’s top-ranked Division I (large school) side.
No Marcellus wrestler could reach the finals, but four of them got into consolation bracket championship bouts, with Dylan Price earning third place at 138 pounds when he shut out Fulton’s Samuel May 3-0 after a 5-3 semifinal defeat to Niagara-Wheatfield’s Justin McDougald.
With multiple wins in their respective consolation brackets, Colin Scherer, at 99 pounds, and Carl Santiarello, at 106 pounds, each finished fourth, with Kyle Brown fourth at 285 pounds, denied a higher finish by Copenhagen’s Josh Freeman in a tight 2-1 decision.
Zach Grolling took sixth place at 182 pounds, with Ryan Moses finishing seventh at 138 pounds. Ethan Ciota (113 pounds) and Nate Farino (195 pounds) each had eighth-place efforts.
West Genesee was 21st in the Haines meet with 43 points, most of it from Nate Wade, who at 132 pounds blanked Mark Kuhn (Niagara-Wheatfield) 12-0 in the semifinals before a 2-0 defeat to Mexico’s Dean Shambo in the title bout. The Wildcats’ Colin McAvan edged Camden’s Tyler Pelton 1-0 for sixth place at 160 pounds.
Taking part in Saturday’s Victor Duals, WG went 2-3, taking defeats to Canandaigua (45-34), Hilton (66-21) and Perry (54-19), but beating the host Victor Blue Devils 60-3 and topping Caledonia-Mumford 60-12.
Against Victor, Nate Wade (106) and Colin McAvan (160) gained pins, while against Caledonia-Mumford that pair was joined by Jacob Gonzalez (145 pounds), Preston Elia (182 pounds) and Peter Dwinell (195 pounds) earning falls.
