Strong efforts from the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool wrestling teams meant that they both would earn invitations to the Section III Dual Meet, which took place Saturday at the C-NS gymnasium.
Yet both the Northstars and Warriors fell in the first round of the 16-team tournament, as C-NS fell to Sandy Creek 55-21 and Liverpool took a 49-22 defeat to Holland Patent.
Never leading, the Northstars saw the Comets get pins in the first three matches, leading to an 18-0 deficit before David Griglock, at 182 pounds, beat Dan Luberto 9-3.
In all, Sandy Creek won six of the first seven matches. Only Noah Whirtenour got close, at 195 pounds, falling to A.J. Wills 5-1.
C-NS’s best stretch followed, as Drew Dyer (99 pounds) claimed a forfeit, Connor Osborne (106 pounds) pinned Jacob Kirchner in 52 seconds and Joe Copani, at 120 pounds, got a pin over Jared Williams in 3:49. But the Comets won the last four matches, including Tom Peterson (145 pounds) falling to Jake Benedict 9-5.
Earlier that day, Liverpool took its shot at Holland Patent and opened, at 152 pounds, with Mende Cukalevski routing Marc Grogan 11-1. Three matches later, Joe Pizzuto (182 pounds) put his team in front with a second-period pin over Brandon Lake.
But the Golden Knights took charge with five wins in the next six matches, the only exception Pat Carroll-Marsh’s pin of Lonnie Harris. In a close 113-pound match, Travis Chewning-Kulick fell to Nick LaMarque 4-3.
After Sebastian Lum, at 120, pinned Erick Ward midway through the third period, HP would pull away with wins in the last four matches, including Luay Ashkar’s 1-0 defeat to Josh Evans at 126 pounds.
HP would lose in the quarterfinals to South Jefferson 44-34 and Sandy Creek took a 57-20 loss to General Brown in that same round. Phoenix and Fulton reached the finals, with the Firebirds edging the Red Raiders 33-32 for the Dual Meet title, avenging a loss to Fulton earlier this month.
Liverpool started the week by going to Oswego last Wednesday night and winning in a one-sided manner, ripping past the Buccaneers 78-9.
Alex Gilson, at 285 pounds, took just 42 seconds to pin Eric Doviak, while Ashkar (106) earned a pin over Matt DiFabio in 2:38. Otherwise, the Warriors claimed its points through 11 different forfeits.
Lum, Cukalevski, Tammy Ly (99), Liam Davies (113), Mark Saba (126), Larry Nguyen (138), Rob Kennedy (145), Nathaniel Knox (160), Bryan Merril (170), Mike Denley (195) and Emir Hadzic (220) claimed those forfeits.
All of this leads to Wednesday night’s annual showdown between Liverpool and C-NS, which will determine who finishes second to Baldwinsville in the CNY Counties League National division.
