Enjoying the role of host, the Canastota wrestling team beat all but one opponent on Saturday during the course of the Center State Conference Tournament.
In all, the Raiders finished with 191.5 points, topping 11 other squads — but still behind Adirondack, who won the event with 245.5 points. Morrisville-Eaton (148.5 points) edged past Ilion for third-place honors.
Zach Zupan highlighted the day for Canastota, winning at 130 pounds and sharing Most Outstanding Wrestler honors with M-E teammates Ryan LeBlanc and Ethan Childs.
Having to win four times, Zupan started by pinning Matt Barrett (Herkimer) in 1:37, then took just 59 seconds to finish off Cody Dye (Mount Markham) in the quarterfinals.
Continuing to roll, Zupan earned a semifinal technical fall over Paul Greenfield (Ilion) 14 seconds into the third period, leading to the final against Daniel Hicks, from Sherburne-Earlville. Dominating that match, too, Zupan ripped Hicks 13-1 for the title.
At 145 pounds, Sean Wilkinson came out on top. He started with pins of Jake Donnenworth (Frankfort-Schuyler) and M-E’s Mike Hackney in the first two rounds, then took just 1:09 to pin T.J. Brown (Mount Markham) in the semifinals.
Only in the finals, against Jared Hoffman (Ilion), did it get a bit tougher. Going the full six minutes, Wilkinson backed up his toughness and beat Hoffman 9-5 for the top spot on the podium.
Elsewhere, Jake Labarre advanced to the 160-pound finals, beating Kyle Crawford (Mount Markham) and Jon Treen (Ilion) on decisions, but dropping a tough 2-1 decision to Tom Eganczyk (Adirondack) in the championship match.
Six other Raiders made it to the consolation finals. Tyler Sirota got third place at 112 pounds, beating Matt Prentice (Frankfort-Schuyler) 9-1, while Schuyler Jayson (125 pounds) held off Nikolaus Reff (Little Falls) 5-3 in his consolation match and Nate Hopkins got third place at 135 pounds, pinning Mike Croft (Cooperstown) in 47 seconds.
A trio of teammates — Brandon Durfee (103 pounds), John Carver (171 pounds) and John Coonrod (189 pounds) — all had fourth-place efforts. Durfee dropped his consolation match to Alec Sheddon (Sherburne-Earlville) 3-2.
As if that wasn’t enough, Jake Popple (119 pounds), Brian Brodfuehrer (140 pounds) and Sam Stagnitti (215 pounds) all finished fifth. Popple pinned Tyler Colton (Mount Markham) in 1:28, while Brodfuehrer beat Jordan Doroshenko (Morrisville-Eaton) 8-5 and Stagnitti got a 58-second pin over Little Falls’ Jacob Gillard.
This busy week of action began last Monday night with a trip to Solvay and an easy 55-18 victory over the Bearcats.
Five times, Solvay (a combined team with Westhill) had to forfeit matches, resulting in 30 of Canastota’s points as Durfee, Matt Avery (112 pounds), Jayson, Zupan and Coonrod didn’t have to wrestle.
Others did, though, including Sirota, who won a tough 119-pound match over Mitch Anthony 10-5 before Raymond Walker (125 pounds) pinned Dan Toscano midway through the second period.
Canastota had two other pins, where Brodfuehrer finished off Ian Rogers in 3:05 and John Tiller (152 pounds) needed 2:22 to pin Paul Clisson. In between, Hopkins rolled past Mike Warne 12-2.
Originally, the Raiders were set to meet Vernon-Verona-Sherrill last Wednesday, but it got moved to this Tuesday, in between the CSC event and this Saturday’s Section III Class C championship meet — which Canastota will also host.
