An entire season’s worth of sweat and toil would lead to the Cazenovia wrestling team sending a handful of its top performers to SRC Arena for Saturday’s Section III Division II championship.
Of the Lakers’ wrestlers, none had a better chance at advancing to the Feb. 28-29 state meet than Kevin Valentine, who entered the tournament as the top seed at 170 pounds.
Amid a 14-wrestler field, Valentine had a first-round bye, and in the quarterfinals was able to advance thanks to a pin over Holland Patent’s Eden Koperda late in the second period.
But in the semifinals, Valentine lost a tight 3-2 decision to South Jefferson/Sandy Creek’s Justin Thayer, which sent him to the consolation bracket, where he would go 1-2, ultimately defeating Canastota’s Casey Bixby 5-1 for fifth place.
That was still the best finish among the Cazenovia wrestlers as no one else could get on the podium.
Shaun Zampetti, at 106 pounds, ran into top seed Carl Santiarello (Marcellus) in the quarterfinals and lost to the eventual sectional champion after he had won 8-1 over Nate Randall (Dolgeville) in the opening round.
The same thing happened to Lucca Ferreira at 132 pounds, Ferreira beating Troy Brayman (Morrisville-Eaton) with a pin in 3:17 before a quarterfinal loss to top seed and eventual champion Marek Bush from Central Valley Academy.
Matt Knutsen (126 pounds) had an opening-round defeat to Little Falls’ Mason Rowlery, with Jake Tobin (160 pounds) falling to Zander Johnson (Homer) in a second-period pin. John Frega, at 220 pounds, lost on a last-second pin to Marcellus’ Wilvon McKee.
Chittenango had Andrew Bailey, at 145 pounds, win 14-4 over Phoenix’s Ethan Bruno before another top seed and eventual champion, Ande Klosner (CVA), pinned him in the quarterfinals. The Bears’ John Spencer (285 pounds) lost his first-round match to Marcellus’ Kyle Brown 3-1.
