On the whole, it has proven to be an impressive month for the Skaneateles wrestling team, both against local opponents and in weekly tournaments.
Before it hit the holiday break, the Lakers met Onondaga Wednesday night and, thanks to having a full roster, demolished the Tigers by a 72-7 margin.
In the first contested match of the night, Cooper Pitman, wrestling at 220 pounds, pinned Isaiah Mann at the three-minute mark. Four bouts later, Max Collier earned a fall at 120 pounds, taking 1:52 to finish off Anthony Negrete.
Lucas Sherman (160 pounds) and Francis Lombardi (170 pounds) both would wrestle late in the meet, and both got pins, too. Sherman earned his fall over Dannell Trammell in 3:11, while Lombardi needed five more seconds to pin Jarod Frey.
Mostly, though, the Lakers benefited from OCS having to forfeit eight of the 15 matches. Connor Gray (195 pounds), J.W. Simmons (99 pounds), Nevan Rourke (106 pounds), Joey Brillo (113 pounds), Maverick Janes (138 pounds), Andrew Newton (145 pounds), Mike Goetzmann (152 pounds) and Pat Greenfield (182 pounds) claimed the forfeits.
Skaneateles came into the OCS meet red-hot following a solid third-place finish in the Dec. 14 Portville Invitaitonal, near Olean. Out of 11 teams, the Lakers finished third, with 162 points, trailing only Randolph (190 points) and Sweet Home (172.5 points) at meet’s end.
In all, five Lakers got to finals, but only one of them prevailed. Rourke earned the Lakers’ lone title at 106 as he reached the finals and pulled out a 3-1 decision over Bolivar-Richburg’s Fred Gaines.
Elsewhere, Collier dropped the 113-pound final to Dakota Parkhurst (Randolph) 8-4, with Newton (145) taking a 12-4 defeat to Gowanda’s Lucas McKeever in the title match. Janes (138) fell to Tonwanda’s Tim Barnard and Josh Brillo, at 132, ran into another Tonawanda wrestler, Cody McGregor, and lost in a first-period fall.
Gray, wrestling at 182, ended with a win, though, pinning Randolph’s Wesley Sluga for third place in just 1:34, while Greenfield (170) gained fourth place. Goetzmann (152) and Lombardi (160) both had fifth-place efforts.
Following a brief rest, Skaneateles will see action twice during the holiday school break, starting Saturday with the Lewis County Duals at South Lewis and continuing Jan. 4 with a trip to the Port Byron Invitational.
