It took all of three days for the Baldwinsville wrestling team to cast aside its season-opening defeat at Holland Patent and attain a much bigger prize.
The Bees would finish ahead of 19 other teams at Saturday’s Andersen Tournament at Cicero-North Syracuse, despite having just one individual champion – Pat Nasoni, at 195 pounds.
Overall, B’ville had 158.5 points, enough for the top spot as Amsterdam (Section II) claimed the second spot with 135 points. South Jefferson, with 124 points, was third, while host CNS had 116.5 points for fourth place.
Pat Nasoni began his run by toppling Quintin Reid (Carthage) 10-2 in the quarterfinals. He pinned Institute of Technology Central’s Dalton Nyumah in 2:59 to reach the title match and, once there, Nasoni took control against Windsor’s Jesse Angevine, winning an 8-1 decision.
Meanwhile, Joe Nasoni, at 182 pounds, pinned CNS’s David Griglock in 3:43 and shut out Windsor’s Luke Zakrajsek 6-0 to reach the championship round before running into South Jefferson’s Logan LaFlamme and losing a tight 9-7 decision.
Up at 106 pounds, Kevin Paul started with a 6-0 decision over CNS’s Drew Dyer before going to the semifinals and edging Rush-Henrietta’s Kevin Palmieri 7-6. Paul was overwhelmed in the finals, though, dropping a 16-1 technical fall to Chenango Forks’ Kyle Kelly.
Two more B’ville wrestlers managed third-place finishes. Tim Sposato did so at 113 pounds, dropping a 1-0 semifinal decision to Windsor’s Nate Hayes but recovering to beat Rome Free Academy’s Colin Newman in a technical fall and blank Bryce Mortier (Rush-Henrietta) 7-0 in the consolation bracket final.
Anthony Rafkis followed the same path at 160 pounds. After a 4-2 semifinal defeat to Watertown IHC’s Aaron West, Rafkis pinned Matt Calascibetta (West Genesee) in 2:58 and, in the third-place match, beat South Jefferson’s Dan Smith 4-2.
Connor Ross claimed fifth place at 132 pounds when Jon Crast (South Jefferson) had to default due to injury. Four other Bees – Jabr Bengabr (120 pounds), Chad McArdell (126 pounds), Jake Norton (138 pounds) and Brent Grippe (170 pounds) – had sixth-place efforts, giving B’ville more valuable points, and Jacob Florack won seventh place at 285 pounds when he pinned Oswego’s Erik Doviak in 44 seconds.
B’ville has its home opener Tuesday, against Auburn, where it is a heavy favorite, and will head north to Dexter next Saturday for the General Brown Duals.
