Giving its home fans an exciting regular-season finale Wednesday night, the Chittenango wrestling team relied on Ryan Schiedo’s clutch performance to make the difference in a 31-28 victory over the Homer Trojans.
Through 12 matches, the Bears and Trojans were dead even, 28-28, meaning that whoever won the last match on the agenda, between Schiedo and Ryan Murray at 171 pounds, would claim the contest for their team.
For six minutes, Schiedo and Murray struggled, with points a rare find. However, Schiedo found all of them, beating Murray 4-0 to give Chittenango the decisive points.
As it turned out, the Schiedo brothers began and ended the night’s order of events. Kyle Schiedo, in the 189-pound opener, got the Bears moving as he pinned Joe Dunham midway through the third period.
After Josh Wright (215 pounds) and Gunnar Brooks (103 pounds) claimed forfeits, Cole Farsaci won big at 119 pounds, beating Ben McBride 16-5 after Farsaci’s brother, Rudy, took a narrow 8-6 defeat to Dave Birchenough.
When Wes Blanding (125 pounds) held off Cody Sandy 3-1, the Bears had a 25-3 lead. But that vanished as Homer took the next four matches to produce a 25-25 tie with three matches remaining.
Zach Hamelinck (152 pounds) earned a tough 5-4 win over Nick Shanahan, but Karl Chappell (160 pounds) couldn’t clinch it, falling to Ryne Austin 5-1 to set up Ryan Schiedo’s decisive performance.
Chittenango will head next Saturday to Indian River to participate in the Section III Class A tournament, which sets up the field for the sectional championships on Feb. 23-24 at Cicero-North Syracuse.
