A busy and important week for the Skaneateles wrestling team culminated Saturday with its appearance in the Onondaga High School League Liberty/Patriot division tournament.
In that meet, the Lakers picked up 68.5 points, leaving them in 10th place among 12 entrants. Cazenovia, with 195 points, earned the top spot.
Tyler Saunders, in the 126-pound semifinals, lost a tight 7-4 decision to Onondaga’s Tyler Field. Relegated to the consolation bracket, Field made it to the finals there and, with a 3-1 overtime decision over Cazenovia’s Dylan Evans, secured third place.
Jake Brillo reached the 170-pound semifinals before Fabius-Pompey’s Ben Young pinned him, and Brillo would finish in fourth place after a 4-2 decision to Tully’s Drew Steiger.
Jacob Kipp (195 pounds) also fell in the semifinal round, but did pin Homer’s Bailey Goddard in 4:55 to finsh fifth. Max Collier (106 pounds), Russ Burkhardt (160 pounds) and Connor Gray (182 pounds) each had sixth-place effort.
Before all this, the Lakers visited Cato-Meridian last Wednesday night and dominated that non-league meet, ripping the Blue Devils 60-17.
That included six pins, the quickest from Burkhardt, who took just 49 seconds to finish off Nate White. Ryan Dick, at 132 pounds, pinned Chris Wein in 1:23 as Brillo needed 1:44 for his pin over Seth House.
Elsewhere, Collier pinned Kyle Spratt 31 seconds into the second periods, while Saunders took a bit longer to pin Marshall Touron in 2:54. To win at 285 pounds, Garrett Navaroli had to pin Jacob Mapley with 13 seconds left in their match.
As Kipp, Nevan Rourke (99 pounds) and Cooper Pitman (220 pounds) gained forfeits, Gray had to work all six minutes to get past Ben Jeffries 2-0. Also, Josh Brillo (113 pounds) worked hard for his 4-3 decision over Eric Arnett.
This concluded the Lakers’ regular season at 12-10, with a 2-3 OHSL Liberty record – a solid effort, given that nine seniors have left from the 2010-11 season and another was lost for the season due to injury.
Skaneateles won its last five in a row, including the sweep of its own Jan. 21 dual meet, and will look for more honors this Saturday in the Section III Class C championships at Sherburne-Earlville. Top finishers advance to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena for the Feb. 11 overall sectional meet.
