In wildly contrasting ways, Morrisville-Eaton wrestlers Ryan LeBlanc and Alex Meyers emerged with Section III Division II championships Saturday at Utica Memorial Auditorium.
LeBlanc, after a second consecutive state small-school championship, dominated so much at 160 pounds that, at meet’s end, he was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler.
As for Meyers, he nearly didn’t make it out of all three of his elimination-round matches at 215 pounds, but somehow pulled them out to join LeBlanc in advancing to this weekend’s state meet at Times Union Center in Albany.
Having not lost in 36 matches so far this winter, LeBlanc would never be in any danger of seeing that perfect mark get blemished.
In fact, in the quarterfinals, it took just 20 seconds for LeBlanc to pin Onondaga’s Kevin Eipp. As a follow-up, in the semifinals LeBlanc methodically pulled away from Phillip Clarke (Copenhagen), who nearly made it to the wire before a technical fall with 17 seconds left.
All that was left was for LeBlanc to beat Canastota’s Zach Zupan in the title match. That didn’t prove difficult at all, as LeBlanc needed just 2:47 to get the 15-point margin necessary for another technical fall — and the sectional title.
Meyers, by contrast, would have to earn everything on this day. The top seed with a 33-3 record and a first-round bye, Meyers immediately got into a battle with Canastota’s Sam Stagnitta in the quarterfinals, but pulled out a 7-4 win.Again Logan McNitt (Sandy Creek) in the semifinals, it proved even closer, but Meyers held on and won 5-4.
This set up the final between Meyers and Holland Patent’s Matt Rees. Once Meyers took the lead, he did everything in his power to stay there, never letting Rees get the move he needed to tie or go in front. By a score of 6-5, Meyers joined LeBlanc as a 2009 sectional champ.
As a whole, M-E finished seventh in a field of 35 entries, earning 76 points. Phoenix earned the team crown with 182 points as South Jefferson (148.5 points) took second.
Dalton Villnave earned third place at 189 pounds. He advanced to the semifinals before running into eventual champion Dan Fruscella (Holland Patent), who pinned him.
Recovering, Villnave beat Derrick Snell (Little Falls) and Josh Dieterich (General Brown) to get to the consolation final, then held off Beaver River’s Cody Keefer in an 8-4 decision to claim third place.
Likewise, Cody Frost took the third spot at 140 pounds. He, like Villnave, advanced to the semifinals before an eventual champion, in this case Watertown IHC’s Ken Kampnich, got in the way with a pin.
And just like Villnave, Frost would come right back, handling Nate Crawford (Homer) 7-1 to get to the third-place match, then beating Adirondack’s Matt O’Rourke 10-6 to win the consolation bracket.
