In a contest that went down to the final match, the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt wrestling team went to Cortland last Wednesday night and put together a 34-26 victory over the Purple Tigers.
It was 28-26 heading into the 106-pound finale. Here, CBA/J-D’s Lucas Campbell stepped up and pinned Cortland’s Dane George 33 seconds into the third period to clinch his team’s win.
Back at the start, Arsen Bagiryan, at 113 pounds, routed Ian George 13-1, before Cortland took the next three matches, including Brad Carr (132 pounds) falling to Alec Edwards 14-10.
Then Aaron Benedict, with a 56-second pin of Drew Towers at 138 pounds, began a stretch of four consecutive match wins for CBA/J-D. At 145 pounds, J.T. Romagnoli routed Ryan Webber 15-1, while Tucker Benedict (152 pounds) beat Mike Southwick 7-4 and Mark Friske (160 pounds) earned a 12-1 decision over Hunter Brandon.
Ben Honis won a pivotal match at 182 pounds, holding off Antonio Bustamante 5-4, and Theodore Pappas (195 pounds) pinned Kevin Parker in the final seconds. Cortland won the next two matches, staying alive before Campbell finished things off.
East Syracuse-Minoa went to Mexico on the same night and put up a big effort, though the Tigers still prevailed by a score of 45-36.
In fact, Mexico won the first five matches, including Steve Loder (152) edged by Trevor Allard 5-4 and Alex Seamans (160) dropping a 2-1 decision to Dominic Sesso. It took Coy Whitaker, at 182, to get ESM on the board, pinning Aaron McCarthy in 1:34, and Alex Moss (195) used the same amount of time to finish off Nick McCarthy.
After Jon Britton (220) and Jon Fannetti (99 pounds) claimed forfeits, Sam LeGro (126 pounds) and Kyle Parrella (132) got pins, LeGro over Cody Woolson in 2:31 and Parella over Jay Kissilstein with three seconds left in the match.
Fayetteville-Manlius fell to Liverpool 67-6, only getting on the board when Tom Quinlan, at 145, pinned Darren Breen in 2:32. Jake Norton (126) fell to Luay Ashkar 3-2, while Pat Quinlan (120) dropped a 10-7 decision to Nate Hathaway. Tim Byrnes (152) and Angelo Pavone (160) lost 6-2 matches to, respectively, Mende Cukalevski and Bryan Merril.
Both CBA/J-D and F-M went to Canastota Saturday for the Richard New Memorial Tournament, where the Brothers finished seventh in an 18-team field with 125 points and the Hornets (61 points) settled into 12th place.
Aaron Benedict nearly won the title at 138, pushing Canastota’s Anthony Finocchiaro hard in the championship match before taking a 6-5 defeat. Romagnoli lost to Finocchiaro in the semifinals, but beat Matt Norris (Homer) 9-0 for third place at 138, while Matt Lauro was fourth at 126 and Pappas took fifth at 195. Honis lost in the semifinals at 182.
Tom Quinlan got just as close as Benedict to a championship at 145, taking Chittenango’s John Regan to overtime, but dropping a 2-1 decision. Pat Quinlan lost the 126-pound final to Gouverneur’s Skylar Way 14-4.
