One big event remained for the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool wrestling teams before they entered the post-season – namely, their meet against each other.
The two neighbors and rivals clashed Wednesday night in the C-NS gym, and nearly split the 13 contested matches. Fueled by a quartet of pins, the Northstars beat the Warriors 40-30.
Both sides were coming off first-round defeats in the Jan. 21 Section III Dual Meet – C-NS to Sandy Creek, Liverpool to Holland Patent – and they were well-matched. If there was a difference, it was that the Northstars got four falls, to the Warriors’ two.
C-NS’s Tony Battista had the night’s quickest pin, at 120 pounds, taking just 27 seconds to finish off Sebastian Lum. Drew Dyer, at 99 pounds, was just as effective for the Northstars, earning a 90-second pin over Peter Nash.
Meanwhile, at 182 pounds David Griglock waited until the final 30 seconds to get his pin over Connor O’Conner, and Jared West (220 pounds) did the same, pinning Patrick Smith with 22 seconds left in their match.
Kiel Dyer prevailed at 152 pounds, edging Mende Cukalveski 4-2. Tom Peterson (145 pounds) had an easier time of it, beating Darren Breen 10-2, while Sam Ruiz, at 160 pounds, rolled past Bryan Merril 15-7. Joe Copani claimed a forfeit at 113 pounds.
Liverpool’s pins came in back-to-back matches. At 126 pounds, Luay Ashkar gained a fall over Tobi Leahey in 2:38, with Tyler Eason (132 pounds) following up with a pin over Jacob Murdock in 3:19. Other points were more difficult, such as Travis Chewning Kulick outlasting 106-pound opponent Connor Osborne 7-4.
Also, Casey Guilfoil (138 pounds) scraped past Matt Dunham 8-6 as Matt Call (170 pounds) beat Andrew Osborne by that same score. Joe Pizzuto, at 195 pounds, rolled past Noah Whritenour 9-2 as Pat Carroll-Marsh (285 pounds) won by forfeit.
C-NS followed up on Friday by beating Oswego 69-18, a meet that saw the Buccaneers have to forfeit 10 different matches to Battista, Whritenour, West, Peterson, Connor Osborne, Andrew Osborne, Kiel Dyer, Joe Copani (113), Dan Drake (170) and Matt Dunham (138). Murdock got a 16-0 technical fall over Matt DiFabio as Drew Dyer beat Austin Coleman 13-5.
The Northstars will host Liverpool and eight other entrants in this Saturday’s Section III Class AA championship meet, which starts at 9 a.m. Top finishers advance to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena for the overall sectional meet on Feb. 11.
