Off a third-place showing at the Dec. 8 Herkimer Invitational, the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt wrestling team remained in top form.
During last Wednesday’s match against Homer, CBA/J-D got some key points in early matches, and then held on to beat the Trojans 36-34.
It started with a 152-pound classic where J.T. Romagnoli, with an overtime takedown, beat Nick Petrie 8-6. That started an early exchange that included Tucker Benedict, at 170 pounds, beating Dakota O’Gorman in a 10-3 decision.
CBA/J-D then won three in a row in the highest weight classes after Mark Friske’s overtime loss to Mark Dove at 182 pounds. Kaalar Wynn (195 pounds) took 3:30 to pin Brent Bishop, after which Ben Honis (220 pounds) claimed a forfeit and Zach Shapiro (285 pounds) earned a 13-6 decision over David Kiernan.
Homer responded with its own three-match win streak to reclaim the lead before Cole Murphy, at 120 pounds, pinned Travis Brown in 3:26 and Arsen Bagiryan (126) got a 35-second fall over Zach Seymour.
Again, the Trojans fought back, winning twice to go in front 34-33. So it all hung on the 145-pound finale between Matt Lauro and Homer’s Gage Root, and Lauro would prove cool amid the pressure, defeating Lauro 9-4 to give his side the meet win.
CBA/J-D’s next meet was against Fayetteville-Manlius on Tuesday. A week earlier, the Hornets won each of the first four matches at Baldiwnsville. But that was it, as the Bees claimed everything else and defeated the Hornets, 52-17, negating all that good work in the early going.
As was F-M’s good fortune, the meet began at 152 pounds, where Tom Quinlan claimed a tough 7-2 decision over Jake Norton. Tim Byrnes, at 160 pounds, took the next match and won 12-4 over Brian Rush.
Then Mark King earned the Hornets’ only pin at 170 pounds, finishing off Gunner Sutphen 44 seconds into the third period. As a follow-up, Jon Hajduk prevailed at 182 pounds, easily topping Nick Balduzzi 17-7.
B’ville countered by winning the next three matches through pins and claiming three forfeits. Only in the latter stages did the Hornets fight back a bit, as Luke Rufo (132 pounds) worked hard in a 10-5 loss to Kevin Paul and its own Jake Norton, who wrestles at 138, lost 1-0 to Vito Caloia.
A day later, East Syracuse-Minoa took on Cortland, and it also claimed just four of the matches in a 63-17 defeat to the Purple Tigers.
The difference was that Cortland won the first four contests (two by forfeits) before the Spartans got on the board at 106, where Jon Fannetti blanked Michael Bay 12-0.
Five more Purple Tigers wins followed, only Jeff Loder (120) getting close for ESM in a 2-1 defeat to Ian George, before Kyle Parella, at 145, began a late surge by outlasting Ryan Weber 14-10.
Steve Loder, working at 152, nearly got a technical fall, but settled for a 14-1 win over Mike Southwick before Alex Seamans did get a pin over 160-pound opponent Reilly Brown in 1:10.
Both F-M and ESM would find their way to weekend meets. The Hornets, at the Phoenix Round Robin, took eighth place in a nine-team field with 98 points.
Pat Quinlan returned to action at 132 pounds and won that division, going 4-0 and knocking off Phoenix’s Zach Coe 17-3 in the title match. Tom Quinlan made it to the 152-pound final before another Firebirds wrestler, Rowdy Prior, beat him 9-3.
Hajduk, King and Tristan Brodders (138) all had fourth-place finishes, with Norton fifth at 132 after a 75-second pin over Whitesboro’s Anthony Inman.
ESM, in the two-day Camden Classic, earned 46 points for 13th place in a 17-team field. Loder reached the finals at 152, only to run into Mexico’s Trevor Allard take a 7-0 defeat.
Matt Grosso, at 195, was fourth, dropping a close consolation bracket final to Chittenango’s Justin Cox 4-2. Parella, at 145, beat Camden’s Brett Finch 5-1 for fifth place.
