Now in the state Division II rankings, the Canastota wrestling team continued to back up that high status.
The Raiders met Morrisville-Eaton Wednesday night and, despite some good resistance from the Warriors, emerged with a 48-33 victory to improve to 4-0 in the Center State Conference and 8-1 overall.
Three matches ended in less than a minute. Nate Walker, at 96 pounds, pinned Dylan Lehr in 31 seconds, while Zach Zupan (171 pounds) took 56 seconds to finish off Colin Pearsall and Anthony Finocchiaro (130 pounds) got his pin over Rodney Buyea in 59 seconds.
Tyler Sirota wasn’t far behind at 160 pounds, pinning Nick Krause in 1:10, while Wyatt Albanese (152 pounds) earned his fall over Tyler Curtin in 2:35. Travis Conklin (215 pounds) beat Jake Holcomb 8-1 as Billy Rinauto (135 pounds) and Fred Sherman (189 pounds) claimed forfeits.
M-E also got two wins by forfeits to Orin Brouillette at 103 pounds and Jonathan Metz at 145 pounds. On the mat, the Warriors got three pins as Barney Prince (119 pounds) gained a fall over Chris Bradley in 2:37.
Wyatt Morris (285 pounds) took two more seconds than Prince to pin Jacob Morris and Brian Schenk (140 pounds) was quickest, his pin over Jacob Lighthall coming at 2:26. The night’s closest decision, at 125 pounds, featured M-E’s Hunter Roberts beating Joe Tiller 5-3.
Two days before the encounter, both teams had meets, with Canastota holding off Sherburne-Earlville 45-39 and M-E falling to Ilion 75-9.
The Raiders used Tiller’s 90-second pin of Brian Meade and Finocchiaro’s technical fall of Steve Youngs to move in front of Sherburne-Earlville, then started to make its decisive move in the middle stages when Rinauto pinned Donovan Gale at the end of the first period.
In short order, Sirota and Sam Farfaglia and both had pins in 1:31 – Farfaglia over Dalton Sopchak, Sirota over Garrett Duvall – with Zupan pinning Cody Conklin in the second period and Sherman routing Cody Santiago 15-3. Walker’s forfeit at 96 pounds ultimately provided the clinching points.
M-E, meanwhile, only got two wins against Ilion, as Patrick Ashcraft (112) beat Chris Welch 17-4 and Prince beat Andrew Bruch in a 17-2 technical fall. The Golden Bombers won every other match, nine of them with pins.
