Both inside and outside of Central New York, the Baldwinsville wrestling team experienced a whole heap of excitement.
During the last weekend of 2007, the Bees traveled to Middlebury, in Vermont, to compete in the weekend-long Hubie Wagner Invitational.
Overall, the Bees would win the tournament, beating 17 other teams with 254 points as Bristol Center (Conn.) finished a distant second, with 168 points.
Anthony Finnochiaro won at 103 pounds, pinning Devin Sandon (Essex) in the third period of their title match. Nate Russell took the 140-pound title as he beat Dave Ashley (Middlebury) in a 9-3 decision, while Sean Hennigan (152 pounds) used a single escape to beat Ty Sutherland (Goshen) 1-0 and win his weight class.
Joe Senf finsihed second, at 135 pounds, while David Richards did the same at 145 pounds. Corey Buyck (171 pounds) and Justin Elliot (189 pounds) both earned runner-up finishes, too, and Keith McComb (125 pounds) got a third-place finish.
Jeff Needle (96 pounds), Cookie Caloia (119 pounds), Andrew Giormini (160 pounds) and Kyle Sheridan (215 pounds) all had fourth-place efforts, while Peter Cole got fifth place at 130 pounds. Tim Hamm (112 pounds) and David Stoetzel (285 pounds) both had sixth-place efforts.
Returning to the local ranks, B’ville began 2008 with an exciting non-league meet against Cortland where it took a 30-27 loss to the Purple Tigers.
They started at 130 pounds, where Cortland would take seven of the first nine matches to build an insurmountable lead. Russell broke up the string, pinning A.J. Meldrim 25 seconds into the third period of their 140-pound match, while Sean Hennigan (152 pounds) edged past Montana Sanders 6-3.
B’ville would boost the point total down the stretch with a trio of pins. Finnochiaro finished off Tyler Thayer in 1:29, while Hamm got his pin over Anthony Stento with three seconds left in the second period and McComb pinned Garret Morse in 2:24.
After a week of practice, the Bees will be home again Wednesday night to face West Genesee.
