Continuing to build upon the Morrisville-Eaton wrestling tradition, Alex Meyers came home from the 31st Empire State Games in Binghamton with a gold medal.
Meyers achieved it in the scholastic 192-pound Greco-Roman division, where he did not lose a match at SUNY-Binghamton’s West Gym on his way to the finals against his Central region teammate, Baldwinsville’s Sean Hennigan.
After a 2-2 opening round, Meyers took over in the second period and, by a 6-0 margin, secured the ESG title.
Up in the open division, Paul LeBlanc, a 2005 state champion at M-E, earned the bronze medal at 167 pounds in the freestyle discipline. Beaten before he could reach the finals, LeBlanc bounced back and beat Central’s Jose Cruz (Camillus) with a pin 27 seconds into the third period of their third-place match.
Elsewhere at the Empire State Games, several Hamilton and Morrisville athletes took part in events, including track and field, also held at the SUNY-Binghamton campus.
Mitch Miller threatened to medal in the open men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, but took fourth place in a time of 10:12.13. Adam Quinn (Adirondack) won in 9:33.28.
Working his way through 10 grueling events in two days, fellow M-E track alum Matt Holmes took seventh place, with 4,448 points — but at least he finished, unlike two fellow competitors who dropped out. Steve Esler (Western) set a new ESG record with 7,113 points in taking the gold On the open women’s track side, Carolyn Verne could not make it all the way through her 3,000 steeplechase run.
