It just so happened that, on the same Wednesday night, the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse-Minoa wrestling teams met up with, arguably, the area’s two top programs.
For the Brothers, that meant facing Fulton, and taking a 57-28 loss to the Red Raiders. Meanwhile, the Spartans ran up against Phoenix and were overwhelmed by the Firebirds in a 76-12 defeat.
Fulton had, a week earlier, seen its long-time coach, Mike Conners, reach 500 career wins, and he added to that win total against CBA/J-D, despite some fierce resistance, especially in the middle weight classes.
At 145 pounds, J.T. Romagnoli pinned Fulton’s Aaron Yablonski in 1:21, just after Aaron Benedict (138 pounds) took 2:35 to pin Matt Holcomb. Matt Lauro won at 132 pounds in an 11-3 decision over Michael Eddy.
The Red Raiders won every contest from 99 to 126 pounds (including four pins), and were five-for-seven in the higher weight classes. Ben Honis, at 182 pounds, offered an exception for CBA/J-D when he pinned Derek Owen in 1:45 as Zach Shapiro (220 pounds) finished off Chris Bixby at the end of the second period.
Against Phoenix and its legendary coach, Gene Mills, ESM could only scratch out two wins. Sam Legro, at 126, pinned Christian Houghton in 1:55, long before Jon Britton got his turn at 220 and pinned Mike Mironti 38 seconds into the second period. Otherwise, the Firebirds rolled with seven pins, three forfeits and two technical falls.
