Now there isn’t a question about whether the Baldwinsville wrestling team is the class of the CNY Counties League National division.
The Bees ventured to Cicero-North Syracuse Wednesday night and won each of the last six matches to break open a tight contest and beat the Northstars 51-18.
Eleven days had passed since B’ville’s last appearance, in the Dec. 28-29 Mountain Duals at Dolgeville, where it posted a 6-2 record and finished fifth in a 16-team field.
Refreshed, and ready for 2013, the Bees now went after C-NS, who like B’ville had already knocked off West Genesee and Liverpool, the other two CNYCL National sides, so this was a showdown for the league title. B’ville had wrestled in the C-NS gym, though, having finished fifth in the Dec. 1 Andersen Tournament.
They started at 220 pounds, where Brian Honsinger quickly built a lead on Jared West and, 47 seconds into the third period turned over West for a pin and a lead B’ville would not relinquish all night.
A 285-pound thriller saw Jake Florack and Andres Anoceto go to the third period 0-0, but then trade points until, at 3-3, Florack managed a last-second escape and takedown to win a 6-3 decision.
Two matches later, David Rush (106 pounds) built an early lead and held on to beat Joe Barber 4-2, and Jeremy Pond (113 pounds) fought hard in a 7-3 defeat to Joe Mayers.
The highly-anticipated 120-pound match between Kevin Paul and C-NS’s Drew Dyer nearly ended with a first-period pin for Paul, but he could not quite pull it off, still managing a 9-1 victory. Brandon Schmid (126 pounds) also got close to a pin against Brandon Burnham, instead piling up points for an 18-2 technical fall.
C-NS’s last win came at 138 pounds, where Jeremy Rivera held off Connor Ross 8-5 to make the score 21-18. After that, the Bees took over.
Chad McArdell started the winning surge at 145 pounds, pinning Robert Rein in 3:23. In a 152-pound thriller, Brian Rush nearly squandered a 6-2 lead to Nate Langstaff, but held on for a 7-6 decision as Jake Norton (160 pounds) had a similar battle against Sam Ruiz before prevailing 6-5.
Nothing else was as close, though. Devon Buyck, at 170 pounds, took 3:20 to pin Jake Claflin, while in the last contested match Gunnar Sutphen (182 pounds) pinned David Griglock in 2:27 before C-NS forfeited to Joe Nasoni at 195 pounds.
