In their own unique ways – one quite methodical, the other quite dramatic – Kevin Paul and Pat Nasoni gave Baldwinsville a pair of Section III Division I wrestling titles Saturday night at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
Paul emerged with the 106-pound title and Nasoni earned the 195-pound crown, both of them advancing to the Feb. 24-25 state meet at Albany’s Times Union Center.
For his title match, Paul met Indian River’s Nick Toutant, the top seed, and got a takedown late in the first period to take a 2-0 lead.
From there, Paul spent the rest of the match in protection mode, allowing Toutant a single-point escape, but taking the bottom spot in the t and preventing any sort of move as time ran out, giving Paul a 2-1 decision and a seasonal mark of 32-8.
By contrast, Nasoni found himself in trouble early in his 195-pound final against APW’s Dana Palmer. Trailing 5-2 at one point, Nasoni, at the end of the second period, put Palmer’s shoulders on the mat long enough to earn a pin at the 3:57 mark – and the sectional title, too, with a 38-4 record for the season.
To reach the finals, Paul beat James Lamson (Watertown) 6-2 and Tory King (New Hartford) 2-0, while Nasoni gained a second-period pin over Cody Loope (East Syracuse-Minoa) in the quarterfinals and pulled away from Watertown’s Dennis Williams 15-6 in the semifinals.
Overall, the Bees finished third in the Division I (large school) team standings with 143 points. Only Indian River (167.5 points) and Fulton (151 points) fared better.
Tim Sposato, despite the top seed at 113 pounds, could not quite prevail. Sposato, 35-5 on the season, pinned Mar Htoo (Rome Free Academy) in 31 seconds and blanked Dan Fancett (New Hartford) 10-0 to reach the finals, but ran into Fulton’s Thomas Hill in the title match and lost a 5-2 decision.
As for Anthony Rafkis, he made an impressive run to the 160-pound final, pinning Alex Seamans (East Syracuse-Minoa) in 3:40 and, in the semifinals, getting a pin over CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt’s Mark Friske with 36 seconds left.
Fulton’s Nick Woodworth proved too tough in the final, though, holding off a late charge from Rafkis to prevail 5-3. Rafkis is 32-8 this winter.
As for Joe Nasoni, he earned third place at 182 pounds and improved his mark to 33-9, falling in the semifinals to Indian River’s Garrick Cook, but recovering to beat ESM’s Alex Moss and, in the consolation bracket final, West Genesee’s Matt Nichols in a 12-0 shutout.
Connor Ross, wrestling at 138 pounds, lost a 10-0 semifinal to WG’s Connor Grome, but turned around to top Tony Karam (New Hartford) 5-1 and Jacob Murdock (Cicero-North Syracuse) 13-4 to finish third and improve his mark to 33-15.
Wrestling at 126 pounds, Chad McArdell dropped his semifinal to eventual champ Antonio DeLuco (Rome Free Academy) 7-1, yet recovered in time to pin Liverpool’s Luay Ashkar in 3:48 to take fifth place.
Ryan McArdell, at 160 pounds, beat teammate James Eustice 3-2 in the first round, but lost in the quarterfinals to Fulton’s Tony Torrese, like Cook an eventual sectional champion.
Steve Petrelli (152 pounds) met the same fate, beating Frank Davenport (Cortland) in the first round, but falling in the quarterfinals to Tom Quinlan (Fayetteville-Manlius) 23-10. Jake Norton (145 pounds), after a first-round pin of ESM’s Kevin Morris in 1:09, ran into Fulton’s Adam Wallace in the quarterfinals and got pinned himself.
Jabr Bengabr (120 pounds) took a quarterfinal defeat to Liverpool’s Nate Hathaway in a technical fall. Jake Florack (220 pounds) lost in the first round, but still had a 23-8 record, and Gunnar Sutphen (170 pounds) also fell in the first round.
