Midway through the first week of 2012, activity picked up again for the Cazenovia and Chittenango wrestling teams following some holiday rest.
For the Lakers, that meant taking on Homer Thursday night at Buckley Gym, and a key push in the latter stages of the meet helped Cazenovia beat the Trojans 42-34.
Teddy Kugler, at 138 pounds, opened with a 3-2 defeat to Matt Norris, and Cazenovia trailed 15-0 thanks to a pair of Homer pins before Jake Wilson, at 160 pounds, got his side on the board by pinning Dakota O’Gorman with 19 seconds left.
It started to get close when Dan Phillips (182 pounds) earned a 62-second pin over Josh Sands, followed quickly by Hayden Polhamus (195 pounds) pinning Travis Bergmark in 1:56 and John Nannery (220 pounds) getting a pin over Bailey Goddard in 3:07.
But with Homer still ahead 31-30, Cazenovia still needed one more push, and got it. Carter Biviano, at 113 pounds, fought his way past Jacob Cline 7-4, just before Nick Petroff (120 pounds) pinned Ereik Alexander in 1:51.
Dylan Evans, at 126 pounds, clinched the team victory when he beat Matt DeWitt 11-6, and even Awng Hung (132 pounds) was close in the final match, a 10-9 defeat to Eric Petrie.
Chittenango was 13th in the 22-team field at the Windsor Christmas Tournament on Dec. 28. Wes Blanding beat Connor Lapresi (Lansing) 2-1 in overtime for the 132-pound title, while Cody Carbery lost the 106-pound final to Lucas Malmberg (Marathon) 5-0. John Regan took fifth place at 145 pounds, topping Mason Updike (Corning) 4-1 for that honor.
Back home on Wednesday night, Chittenango had to run into Fulton, no. 6 in the state among large schools, and took a 55-20 defeat to the Red Raiders.
Early on, Zach Graham, at 195 pounds, pinned Matt Marshall in 2:20 as Casey Placito (220 pounds) claimed a forfeit. From there, though, only Carbery and Blanding won, as Carbery defeated Austin Whitney 7-1 and Blanding overwhelmed Johan Ambach in a 21-4 technical fall.
Fulton won the other 10 matches, even as Brad Phelps (138 pounds) fought hard in a 5-3 loss to Mike DeMauro and Matt Bixby (120 pounds) did the same in a 7-3 defeat to Wilmer Jiminez.
A busy weekend tournament slate followed, Chittenango going to the Richard New Memorial at Canastota and Cazenovia going west for the Port Byron Invitational.
The Bears finished eighth in an 18-team field at Canastota with 122.5 points as Indian River (242 points) won the event.
Blanding won at 132, outlasting Holland Patent’s Matt Herringshaw 3-1 in the finals, while Regan rose to the title at 145 by beating Tom Quinlan (Fayetteville-Manlius) 3-2 in overtime. Carbery settled for second place at 106 after a 7-2 loss to Indian River’s Nick Toutant in the finals.
