Neither the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt nor East Syracuse-Minoa wrestling teams were able to find wins against tough OHSL Freedom division opponents in last Wednesday night’s meets.
CBA/J-D was fresh off sharing top honors with Vernon-Verona-Sherrill in the Dec. 1 Morrisville-Eaton Duals, able to claim bragging rights because it beat the Red Devils head-to-head in a 33-31 thriller at the end of that tournament.
But when CBA/J-D encountered Mexico in its league opener, it saw the Tigers take over with six consecutive victories in the early and middle stages, leading to a 41-32 defeat.
All of this followed an early 15-0 edge for CBA/J-D. Ben Honis won the 195-pound opener, pinning Alex Bailey in 2:10, and after a forfeit to Zach Shapiro (220 pounds), Ramy Guindy, at 285, earned a tough 6-4 decision over Jason Bond.
Mexico responded with those six straight wins. Though it included a pair of forfeits, it also had Cole Murphy (120) and Arsen Bagiryan (126) losing close decisions – Murphy to Mitch Shambo 9-6, Bagiryan to Ben Blaiser 3-2.
Only a forfeit to Nigel Knox-Shelman at 138 broke the spell, but the Tigers would hang on with wins in three of the last five matches. J.T. Romagnoli, at 152 pounds, did step in to pin Jay Kisselstein in 1:07, and Mark Friske (182) pinned Connor Campbell at the end of the second period.
On that same night, ESM met up with Chittenango, and though the Bears have seen standouts Wes Blanding and Cody Carberry graduate, it still had enough on hand to get past the Spartans 45-33.
Still, ESM, like CBA/J-D, won the first three matches, as Kyle Parella (145) edged Tyler Lewis 8-5, Steve Loder (152) pinned Ryan Stanton in 3:45 and Alex Seamans (160) blanked Correy Wilmer 5-0.
Chittenango took five of the next six contests, only interrupted by Cody Loope, at 220, who took just 40 seconds to pin Ken Miscerola. Later, Jon Fannetti (106) claimed a forfeit before Keith Hall, at 113 pounds, got a 10-4 decision over Kanisteo Tarbell to tie it, 27-27.
But the Bears clinched matters with three straight pins in the homestretch before Sam LeGro, in the 138-pound finale, got a fall over Erik Elefson midway through the second period.
Both teams now went to Saturday’s Herkimer Invitational, where CBA/J-D had a terrific performance, rising to fourth place in the 22-team field with 120.5 points, not far from Canastota’s winning total of 141.5 points. ESM was 10th, with 68.5 points.
On CBA/J-D’s side, Friske won at 170 pounds, defeating Herkimer’s Joseph Aiello in an active 13-7 title match. Romagnoli made it to the 145-pound final, only to fall 9-4 to Dolgeville’s Triston Engle, who was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. Honis also made the finals, at 195, dropping a tough 3-1 match to Canastota’s Wyatt Albanese.
Meanwhile, Matt Lauro earned third place at 138 pounds by pinning Tyler Richards (Dolgeville) at 2:29, and Tucker Benedict got that same result at 160 when he won the consolation bracket final over Seamans, 3-0. ESM’s best effort came at 106 pounds, where Fannetti got a pin over Mohawk’s David Bardo at 4:05.
