True, the Marcellus wrestling team only managed 11th place among 13 entrants at Saturday’s Section III Class B championship meet at Cazenovia’s Buckley Gym.
But the Mustangs’ Jon Cavaretta stood out as the 220-pound champion, the junior sweeping his way to the title and improving his record to 26-5 on the season.
Cavaretta pinned Isiah Herron (Herkimer) in 23 seconds and Dave Kiernan (Homer) in 3:48 before a tense title match where he held off South Jefferson’s Antonio Diaz 3-2.
Elsewhere for the Mustangs, Ben Hood earned fifth place at 99 pounds, topping South Jefferson’s Jared Carroll 7-5 for that mark, and Zach Ruggles was sixth at 106 pounds.
Meanwhile, West Genesee would earn seventh place among 11 entrants in the sectional Class AA championship meet at Cicero-North Syracuse. The Wildcats picked up 101 points, well off the total of Baldwinsville, who with 226 points edged Liverpool (222.5 points) for team honors.
Connor Grome was the lone WG wrestler to reach the championship round, at 132 pounds. Grome routed Nigel Shellman (Institute of Technology Central) 12-2 and edged Mike Madonna (Rome Free Academy) 4-1 to get to the finals, but Liverpool’s Tyler Eason beat Grome 5-2 for the top spot on the podium.
Matt Nichols, at 152 pounds, won the consolation bracket, edging B’ville’s James Eustice 4-2 for third place, while Evan Stefano beat another B’ville wrestler, Gunner Stuphen, 5-0 for third place at 170 pounds. After making the 195-pound consolation bracket final, Matt Kemp fell to C-NS’s Noah Whritenour 4-1 and finished in fourth place.
Four of WG’s wrestlers ended up in fifth place. Tyler Heggelke (120 pounds) got past Luke Rufo (Fayetteville-Manlius) 7-5, while Matt Calascibetta (160 pounds) won a 4-3 decision over C-NS’s Sam Ruiz. Vasyl Podarunok (220 pounds) pinned RFA’s Zach Thomason in exactly three minutes and Matt Nichols (182 pounds) beat ITC’s Kadre Flowers 5-3.
Now all the local wrestlers will go to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena for this Saturday’s Section III meet, which starts at 9 a.m.
