For the second time in four days, Fayetteville-Manlius wrestler squared off against Baldwinsville’s Kevin Paul – and for the second time, Quinlan won.
That single match proved the most exciting moment of the Hornets’ appearance in Saturday’s Phoenix Round Robin Tournament, where F-M, as a whole, managed just 77 points to finish seventh in an 11-team field. Mattituck, from Long Island, won with 155 points, with B’ville (139 points) in the runner-up spot.
During the round-robin portion at 138 pounds, Quinlan pinned Alec Edwards (Cortland) in 1:22, stopped Austin Dristle (Phoenix) in exactly 90 seconds, finished off Ben Mayers (Central Square) in 36 seconds and pulled out an 11-7 decision over Mattituck’s Bobby Becker.
It was that win that sent Quinlan to the finals against Paul, whom he beat 8-4 in F-M’s 56-18 loss to B’ville on Dec. 18. This match proved closer, with Quinlan getting fewer points but still hanging on to beat Paul 5-4.
With that victory, Quinlan earned a share of Most Outstanding Wrestler honors with another B’ville wrestler, Chad McArdell, who swept to the 152-pound title by pinning all five of his opponents. F-M’s Tristan Broddus went 3-1 at that weight class, kept from the finals in a 3-2 defeat to Liverpool’s Darren Breen.
Meanwhile, Tim Byrnes emerged as the champion at 171 pounds. Byrnes pinned Joe Peroni (Mattituck) in 1:59, got a 37-second fall over Gavin Kirby (Port Byron), finished off Dakotah Miller (Cortland) in 2:36 and needed seven more seconds to pin B’ville’s Devon Buyck.
That got Byrnes into the finals at 170 against North Rose-Wolcott’s Dakota White. And that proved just as close as Quinlan’s match with Paul, only with a few more points as Byrnes held on for a 6-5 decision to snare first-place honmors.
Elsewhere, Chris Bortel went 2-1 at 220 pounds, just missing the finals, while Jack Kinsella went 2-2 at 132 pounds. Luke Rufo went 1-2 in the other 138-pound division, losing 10-1 to Paul. Christian Dobrzynski did not win a match at 182 pounds, nor did Mike Boshart at 285 pounds.
F-M wrestles again this Friday and Saturday at SUNY-Oswego in the Kenneth Haines Memorial Tournament, where CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt was also part of the field.
