Entering last weekend, East Syracuse-Minoa wrestler Mick Letcher was the only Division I (large school) wrestler with an undefeated mark.
And that is still true — but not before Letcher passed a huge test in last Friday’s 145-pound final at the Section III championship meet at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
With a mark of 41-0, Letcher had breezed through the early rounds on Friday, pinning Corby Reynolds (Cortland) in 56 seconds and taking just two periods to record a 15-point technical fall over Brad Burridge (Fulton) in the semifinal round.
Now Letcher would face the hometown hero, CNS’s Anthony Dolson, in the championship match. Dolson was 35-4 and had pinned his semifinal opponent, David Minney (Fowler), in just 42 seconds.
It turned into a fierce contest. Every time Letcher would earn points, Dolson would counter and make his own moves, something Letcher had rarely seen this winter. However, Letcher still proved to be too much to handle, beating Dolson in a 15-9 decision to make it 42 wins in a row.
Letcher will his unblemished mark to Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena for next weekend’s state meet, where he will try to improve upon the fourth-place finish (at 140 pounds) he recorded in 2007.
As it turned out, Letcher was the lone ESM winner at the sectional meet, as Brett Adams, the top seed at 189 pounds, could not quite match that finish.
Adams took just 58 seconds to pin his first opponent, Shane Bartrum (Oswego), and followed that up in the semifinals with a third-period technical fall over Mexico’s Troy Benjamin.
The final featured a rare matchup of two reigning sectional champions, as Adams (who won at 215 pounds a year ago) met Carthage’s Homer Dobransky, the defender at 189 pounds.
Dobransky would take charge of the match, keeping Adams on the defensive most of the time and piling up enough points to prevail, 12-6, and return to the state meet. Adams, with a mark of 28-5, could join him as an at-large entrant as he, like Letcher, finished fourth in last year’s state meet.
Elsewhere, Matt Letcher finished a fine season by taking third place at 135 pounds. He started as the no. 4 seed and pinned Joe Senf (Baldwinsville) with 25 seconds left in their match before a semifinal defeat to the eventual champion, Watertown’s Luke Bohn.
Matt recovered in the consolation bracket, ripping Jacob Frezza (Carthage) 12-2, and would claim the third-place match over CNS’s Jamie French with a third-period technical fall.
As for Dustin Moss, he earned fourth place at 152 pounds, starting with a pin over Zach Hamelinck in 1:17 and following that up with a 3-1 win over Fulton’s Travis France before a semifinal defeat to Mexico’s Ron Majerus, the eventual champion.
Moss went on to beat Stefano Iodice (Rome Free Academy) 3-0, and nearly snagged third place in the consolation bracket final before taking a 10-9 loss to Cortland’s Brandon Fitzgerald.
