For the Skaneateles wrestling team, the work during the holiday school break involved going to a dual meet and an invitational on consecutive Saturdays.
It all began Saturday, with the Lakers making quite an impression during the Lewis County Duals at South Lewis, going 4-1 to finish second in the team standings.
Of those wins, none were better than the Lakers’ 43-37 upset of Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, a match that was tied, 37-37, until Connor Gray pinned his 182-pound opponent, Drew Rook in just 30 seconds to claim the decisive final bout.
Only Central Valley Academy defeated the Lakers, 52-31, in the opener, though even that meet included pins from Gray and Cooper Pitman (220 pounds), plus wins from Joey Brillo (113 pounds), Max Collier (120 pounds), Josh Brillo (132 pounds) and Andrew Newton (145 pounds). Josh Brillo pinned Andrew Coffin in 3:22 and Newton took 3:48 to finish off Gavin Goldsmith.
From there, though, Skaneateles went 4-0, routing Beaver River 60-13, handling host South Lewis 70-18 and topping Lowville 55-23, which all led to the finale against VVS, where second place in the meet was on the line.
By then, Collier, Newton, Pitman, Joey Brillo and Josh Brillo were all 4-0 on the day, and would add to their win total here to make it five-for-five as Newton snared Most Oustanding Wrestler honors.
Maverick Janes, after losing to CVA, won his remaining four matches to go 4-1, and Gray capped off his own 5-0 day against VVS with his dramatic, meet-winning pin over Rook.
