All winter long, the West Genesee wrestling team had stayed in the fight for the CNY Counties League National division regular-season title, beating all six of its league foes.
That made the Wildcats’ meet with Baldwinsville last Tuesday night in Camillus a clash for the league title — but the Bees would lead from the start, handing WG a 44-21 defeat and taking the championship.
They started at 160 pounds, where WG did not have a wrestler to face Sean Hennigan. B’ville also won the next three matches, quickly going ahead 21-0 as Pete Schoeneck (215 pounds) put up the best home effort in a 7-0 loss to Kyle Sheridan.
WG got back into the meet starting at 103 pounds, where Ian Coolican took 2:43 to pin Joe Shaheen. Connor Grome followed up at 112 pounds by pinning Tyler Reynolds 18 seconds into the third period, and Jon Fetterolf (119 pounds) won a 7-6 classic over Nick Jacobs.
Now the Wildcats were only down by six, 21-15, But B’ville won each of the five remaining contested matches, stopping only when Heitham Wady (145 pounds) claimed a forfeit. Erik Krohl, at 140 pounds, came close to points, but fell to Antonio Peck 4-2.
The Wildcats and Bees will see each other again on Saturday, at Cicero-North Syracuse, when the Section III Class AA championship meet takes place.
