What was a run-of-the-mill wrestling meet between Liverpool and West Genesee gained extra significance because of the venue.
For Saturday’s contest, the Warriors and Wildcats traveled to Cornell Univeristy’s Friedman Wrestling Center, the country’s only college-level facility devoted solely to wrestling and home of a program currently no. 7 in the national rankings.
Better yet for Liverpool, it came out on top, 45-30, taking charge early in the meet with five wins in six matches and never letting WG catch up.
It was 6-6, the Warriors getting points due to a forfeit to Ron Wilson (220 pounds), when David Carney wrestled at 285 pounds and rolled past Zach Valerino 10-1.
Sean Nadeau (99 pounds) followed with his team’s first pin, finishing off Travis Robbins with 42 seconds left. Two matches later, Audey Ashkar (113 pounds) earned a 40-second pin over Jake Jones.
At 120 pounds, Anthony Ianno won a tough 2-1 decision over Tyler Heggelke. That proved important, since WG took the next two matches to close the gap.
Then Liverpool clinched the victory with four wins in a row, starting at 145 pounds, where Darren Breen pinned Zach Winterton midway through the second period.
Brockton Barton (152 pounds) piled up points in a 17-9 decision over Liam Kotas, while Dakota Inman (160 pounds) dominated Cody Ward in a 14-2 win. Finally, Bryan Merril (170 pounds) earned a pin over Matt Calascibetta in 3:15 as Connor O’Conner (182 pounds) dropped a 6-3 decision to Dalton Elias.
Before this, the Warriors ran over Oswego, 60-8, a meet that featured four pins, all of them earned during the second period.
Mike Mills, at 132 pounds, began that work by pinning Jordan Perchway in 3:02. In eight fewer seconds, Barton finished off Mike Shepard as Inman also was eight seconds quicker than his predecessor, getting a pin over Collin Dryden in 2:46.
O’Conner had the quickest pin, getting his fall over Zack Caruso in 2:21. Breen took a 6-4 decision over Jordan Attwood as Merrill, Nadeau, Brendan Corp (138 pounds), Louis Ragonese (195 pounds), and Alex Jorgensen (106 pounds) all claimed forfeits.
As this went on, Cicero-North Syracuse visited Fayetteville-Manlius, and dominated at the end points, only to get swept in the middle during a 42-36 loss to the Hornets.
F-M prevailed in every match from 126 to 195 pounds, nine in all. Some of them were close, as Sam Ruiz (160 pounds) fell to Mark King 8-6 and Joe Copani, at 132 pounds, got close against Pat Quinlan, but took a 6-3 loss.
Four times, C-NS claimed forfeits, to Joe Barber (99 pounds), Joe Mayers (106 pounds), Ray Sorenson (113 pounds) and Andres Anoceto (285 pounds). Jared West (220 pounds) wrestled and pinned Jake Okun in 2:41, with Drew Dyer (120 pounds) pinning Jack Kinsella at the end of the second period.
The Northstars will host this Saturday’s Section III Class AA championship meet, where both C-NS and Liverpool will vie for spots in the overall sectional meet Feb. 9 at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
