So close, in so many different ways.
Chittenango wrestling teammates Wes Blanding and Cody Carbury, along with Canastota’s Anthony Finocchiaro and Zach Zupan, made it to the semifinal round during this weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division II championship meet at Times Union Center in Albany, only to fall just short of reaching the title match. Blanding and Finocchiaro would recover for third-place finishes.
Blanding, a junior wrestling at 135 pounds, opened Friday with an 11-4 decision over Adis Radoncic (Riverdale/Kingsbridge), then topped Dustin Greene (Chenango Valley) 6-0 in the quarterfinal round. In a tight, tense semifinal on Saturday against A.J. Rue (Ravena-Coeymana-Selkirk), Blanding led 5-4 going into the third period, only to surrender that lead and take a 7-6 defeat.
Relegated to the consolation bracket, Blanding beat Drew Hull (Royalton-Hartland) 11-2, then won third place over LeRoy’s Tyler Fenstermaker in a 5-2 decision. Rue lost the final to Holley’s Quentin Murphy.
Meanwhile, Finocchiaro, at 130 pounds, started with a 2-0 win over Jordan McGregor (Tonawanda) and dominated Wayland-Cohocton’s Jon Miller in a 12-3 quarterfinal. But he could not hold a 2-0 lead in his semifinal match, falling 5-2 to North Salem’s Ryan Osleeb, the eventual winner.
Finocchiaro then won a 6-3 rematch with McGregor and pinned Palmyra-Macedon’s Ben Mowry in 3:40 for his third-place effort. It was his best finish to date in three state meet appearances, the first two coming at Baldwinsville.
Just like Blanding, Carbury won twice on Friday in the 96-pound opening rounds, blanking Chieck Ndiaye (Brooklyn International) 6-0 and surviving a 5-4 quarterfinal with Midlakes’ Sean Peacock.
Then, in a semifinal rematch of the Section III title clash with General Brown’s Zach Snow, Carbury led 2-1 in the third period, only to have Snow take him down and hang on to win 3-2. Carbury lost twice more and fell back to sixth place.
Zupan, recovering from his late-season bout with mononucleosis, started at 171 pounds by beating Chris Clark (Port Jefferson) 8-2 before meeting Brandon Mills (Canisteo-Greenwood) in the quarterfinals.
Down 6-4, and getting encouragement from injured teammate Tyler Sirota (who tore an ACL at the sectional meet), Zupan got a late takedown to force overtime, then gained another takedown early in the OT to beat Mills 8-6.
In a tense semifinal, Cody Lock (Pioneer) beat Zupan 8-4, leaving the Canastota sophomore to end up in fifth place when Phoenix’s Austyn Hayes could not continue due to injury. Zupan was fourth at 160 pounds in the 2010 state meet.
As for Vernon-Verona-Sherrill senior Dylan Kavanaugh, he lost twice at 125 pounds in his third and final state meet appearance, falling in the first round to David Ciaramella (Newfane) 6-0 and to Frewsburg’s Kevin Strong, while sophomore Kasey Proper got pinned by Edgemont’s John Aslanian, the eventual runner-up at 103 pounds.
