Once again, Cicero-North Syracuse served as the host venue for one of the biggest high school wrestling events of the winter.
That would be the Section III Dual Meet, Saturday’s gathering of 16 of the best sides in Central New York. And the Northstars, who lost to Sandy Creek in the opening round a year ago, were back in the field again, this time drawn to face top seed South Jefferson.
The Spartans would prove too much, beating C-NS 51-23 as it claimed three of the first four matches and would never trail.
Joe Copani, at 132 pounds, found some early success, claiming an 8-3 decision over Jon Crast, while Anthony Carella (152 pounds) earned a second-period pin over Jayson Kellogg.
From there, South Jefferson won the next four matches, C-NS only getting points through forfeits to Matt Mastro (220 pounds) and Andres Anoceto (285 pounds) until Drew Dyer, late in the meet, got a 13-7 victory over 113-pound opponent Kyle Snyder.
Backing up that top seed, South Jefferson would go on to win the Dual Meet championship, routing Cazenovia 58-22 in the quarterfinals, holding off Baldwinsville 43-31 in the semifinals and, in the title match, taking out no. 3 seed General Brown 45-19.
Meanwhile, C-NS had a consolation match against Adirondack and lost, 48-36, the Wildcats clinching it with three straight late victories before Dyer pinned Devin Banks in 1:34 to close things out.
Earlier, Copani had pinned Jared Johnson in 3:07, with Robert Rein (145 pounds) getting a 19-4 technical fall over Dulton Griffith. Adirondack followed with four wins in the next five matches, Jake Claflin (170 pounds) interrupting to earn a last-second fall over James Lamm.
Mastro and Anoceto did wrestle this time, as Mastro edged Tyler DeLaura 3-1 and Anoceto got a third-period pin over Kierstan Armstrong before the decisive closing matches, where the Wildcats got two pins and a 6-0 shutout by Ryan O’Rourke over Joe Mayers.
Before all this, C-NS hosted Oswego last Wednesday night, and benefited from a series of forfeits to record a 69-16 victory over the Buccaneers.
Seven times, the Northstars did not have to take the mat as Mayers, Dyer, Carella, Joe Barber (99 pounds), Jeremy Rivera (138), Aseel Alnassiry (145) and Sam Ruiz (170) got six points apiece.
In the matches on the mat, Claflin earned the fastest pin, finishing off Zack Caruso in 38 seconds, just before David Griglock (195) pinned Nick Barnum at the end of the second period.
Copani, in the only contested match in the lighter weight classes, pinned Jordan Perchway with 39 seconds left. Anoceto saw his match with Eric Doviak got to the wire, but Anoceto prevailed 7-6.
A night later, Liverpool was back in action, following up a Jan. 9 rout over Onondaga by going to Auburn and roaring past the Maroons 60-17.
After losing the opener, the Warriors won the next seven matches, starting at 145, where Darren Breen pinned Pat McMahon with 14 seconds left.
In between Brockton Barton (152) blanking Nick Campagnola 6-0 and Connor O’Conner (195) edging Corey Swan 3-2, Dakota Inman (160), Bryan Merril (171) and Louis Ragonese (182) all earned pins, Inman earning the fastest fall as he took just 1:17 to finish off Julian Bernard.
Ron Wilson, at 220, completed the run with a 70-second pin over John Leone. Sean Nadeau (99) claimed a forfeit, and Peter Nash (120), Anthony Ianno (126) and Mike Mills (132) all earned pins, too, Ianno stopping Stephen Richards in 2:17.
Liverpool would prevail again on Saturday, going a perfect 4-0 to conquer the field at the Falcon Duals at Fabius-Pompey.
The Warriors routed Poland 83-6, turned back Copenhagen 47-21 in the closest match, earned a 63-21 victory over the hosts from Fabius-Pompey and closed it out with a 66-12 conquest of APW/Pulaski.
