Coming off a win over Fulton as part of its 4-1 effort at the General Brown Duals, Baldwinsville’s wrestling team took part in an unusual home opener against Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night.
In fact, the Bees lost each of the first four matches, only to turn around and win the next 11 in order to cruise to a 52-17 victory over the Hornets to move to 3-0 in the CNY Counties League.
Both of the sides feature a wrestler named Jake Norton. B’ville’s Norton lost the 152-pound opener to Tom Quinlan 7-2, with Brian Rush (160 pounds) and Nick Balduzzi (182 pounds) also dropping decisions in between Mark King’s third-period pin of Gunner Sutphen at 170 pounds.
It all turned around, though, starting with 195 pounds, where Joe Nasoni pinned Chris Bortel in 3:36. Pins by Brian Honsinger (220 pounds) and Jake Florack (285 pounds) followed as Honsinger finished off Jake Okun in 60 seconds and Florack took seven seconds longer to pin Mike Ovadias.
Each of the next three matches were forfeited to Kevin Lewis (99 pounds), David Rush (106 pounds) and Jeremy Pond (113 pounds) before Dominick Arcadi got on the mat at 120 and pinned Jack Kinsella in 1:47.
Kevin Paul had to work at 132 pounds to beat Luke Rufo 10-5, setting up the 138-pound match where Vito Coloia, with a single escape, beat the F-M Jake Norton 1-0. Chad McArdell, at 145 pounds, closed it out with an 18-7 victory over Tristan Brodders.
Now the Bees went to Phoenix for that traditional power’s annual round-robin tournament. Out of nine teams entered, B’ville, with 169 points, beat all of them except the host Firebirds, whose total of 245 points meant yet another runner-up finish at a high-profile event.
McArdell, at 145, and Nasoni, at 195, both won their respective weight classes. In fact, McArdell had to win five times, getting three pins and a technical fall before a classic final where he and Phoenix’s Nate Dietz went to overtime before a takedown gave McArdell a 3-1 victory.
Nasoni would go 4-0, leading to a final against his own teammate, Brian Honsinger, but it was Nasoni dominating the match and claiming a 9-0 decision. Prior to that final, Honsinger had won all three of his matches in first-period falls.
Paul made it to the 120-pound final, but fell to Wayne’ Brian Lantry in a 5-2 decision, with Florack advancing to the championship match at 220 before Institute of Technology Central’s Maurice Russell edged past him 2-1.
Elsewhere, David Rush, at 106, earned third place when he pinned Ryan McDonald (Midlakes) in 1:52, with Sutphen getting to that same spot in 170 when he won a match over F-M’s Jon Hajduk 4-2. Norton was fourth at 152, with Coloia and Balduzzi both getting fifth-place finishes. Steve Petrelli (152) and Luke Earle (220) each took sixth place.
B’ville is home on Wednesday night to face Liverpool (who was sixth in the Phoenix Round Robin) before its own tournament on Saturday where the likes of South Jefferson, Cortland, Canandaigua and West Genesee are in the field.
