As is the custom each winter, the Cicero-North Syracuse wrestling team opened the 2007-08 season by hosting 17 other teams in the annual Andersen Tournament on Dec. 1.
The Northstars, under the direction of head coach Dereck Bigford, are young — just four seniors on its 31-man roster. Among the departed seniors from 2006-07 was Anthony Maiorano, a fifth-place finisher at 119 pounds in last March’s state meet in Albany.
This youth was evident at Andersen, where CNS finished 12th in the 18-team field with 76.5 points. That was far away from a great team duel between Burnt Hills (Section II) and Chenango Forks (Section II), where the Spartans edged past the Blue Devils, 175.5 points to 169.5
Only one CNS wrestler got into a final — and he won it. Patrick Dyer, taking over Maiorano’s spot at 119 pounds, went 3-0 on his way to the title.
After a first-round bye, Dyer dispatched Jason Heggelke (West Genese) in an 18-0 technical fall, then went to the semifinals and pinned Noah Schilling (Elmira) in 1:29.
In the title match between Patrick Dyer and Chenango Forks’ Jordan Dyer (no relation), the two battled for six long minutes before, by a 3-2 margin, Patrick came out on top.
Todd Hagger, at 140 pounds, finished in third place, edging Chris Snow (Fowler) 9-7 in that consolation match. Jamison Sacco finished fifth at 215 pounds, pinning Jon Scheidrich (Rome Free Academy) in 2:33 for that spot on the podium. Josh Cassidy (285 pounds) took sixth place.
Jamie French (135 pounds) and Anthony Dolson (171 pounds) both took first-round defeats — but both recovered to win their next three matches.
Going into league play last Wednesday night, the Northstars had just enough to pull out a 34-33 victory over Rome Free Academy.
Of those 33 points RFA gained, 18 of them came from matches CNS forfeited at 103, 145 and 152 pounds — meaning that, once they got on the mat, the Northstars had the advantage.
Dyer romped past Brent Valentine 9-1 to get CNS on the board. Jordan Ramos began another streak, at 130 pounds, holding off Jeff Brown 5-3. French took just 1:02 to pin Kyle Roderick and Hagger worked even faster, pulling off a 42-second fall of Kyle Simmons.
Dolson, working at 189 pounds, piled up the points in a 17-2 technical fall over Steve Pawlikowski, as Chris Hovis, at 160 pounds, routed Dan Secor 14-4.
It all came down to the final match, at 112 pounds, where Anthony Racchetti beat Kristie Richardson 15-7.
After the Blindman’s JV Tournament at CNS last weekend, the varsity Northstars go to Oswego Wednesday and compete in the Tri-Valley Tournament at Whitesboro, a two-day affair, beginning on Friday.
