When they went to last Saturday’s Section III Class AA championship meet at Baldwinsville, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse wrestling teams had various motivations.
The Warriors were eager to prevent host B’ville from a third consecutive sectional title and were confident it could pull it off, having prevailed 34-31 over the Bees at a dual meet in that same Baker High School Gym on Jan. 18 to finish on top of the CNY Counties League National division standings.
For the Northstars, accustomed to hosting the AA meet, it wanted to prove that it could flourish in a different venue, having finished third as the host team a season ago.
C-NS, as it turned out, got a whole lot closer to its goals.
In fact, when the scores were added up, the Northstars had 196.5 points, beating the Warriors’ total of 184 points, but falling just short of the big prize as B’ville, with 197.5 points, edged C-NS by a single point to get that third straight sectional championship.
Jerrett Norton, at 160 pounds, and Jared West, at 285 pounds, won their respective weight classes for the Northstars, with Norton having to go through his own teammate, Tom Peterson, to prevail.
Norton pinned B’ville’s Thor Sutphen in 45 seconds and took just 37 seconds to pin Kyle Elander (Fayetteville-Manlius) in the semifinals, leading to a title bout where he Peterson 8-3. To reach the final, Peterson had pinned Shayne Middleton (West Genesee) in 53 seconds and Brian Stapleton (Rome Free Academy) in 1:39.
West had a bye straight into the semifinals, where he pinned Qwamevettique Pettiford (Institute of Technology Central) in 59 seconds as Liverpool’s David Carnie beat Zach Valerino (West Genesee) 12-4. The final was closer, but West took control and defeated Carnie 6-1.
Like C-NS, Liverpool also had a pair of champions. Darren Breen had to beat C-NS’s Sam Ruiz 8-2 to reach the 152-pound final against B’ville’s Chad McArdell, and it turned into a classic, neither one getting away, but Breen doing just enough to earn an 8-7 decision over McArdell.
Audey Ashkar beat the field at 113 pounds, pinning Joe Falcone (F-M) in 55 seconds and Ashanti Gethers (ITC) in 57 seconds as C-NS’s Joe Mayers routed B’ville’s Josh Peck in the other semifinal. But Mayers got hurt in the finals, allowing Ashkar to win by injury default.
Aside from Mayers and Peterson, three other C-NS wrestlers lost championship bouts. Ray Sorenson (99 pounds) took a pin against CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt’s Matt Griffin, while Joe Copani (138 pounds) ran into the Bees’ Kevin Paul and fell 16-3. Andres Anoceto got to the 220-pound final, only to run into B’ville standout Joe Nasoni and suffer a first-period fall.
Liverpool’s Peter Nash earned a spot in the 120-pound final, but could not keep up with RFA’s Dandre Norman in an active 13-8 decision, but the Warriors accumulated points by gaining four third-place finishes.
Jerry Nash, in the consolation bracket final at 99, shut out B’ville’s Kevin Lewis 5-0, with Sean Nadeau doing the same at 106 pounds to beat F-M’s Will Khallil 3-0. Ron Wilson got third place at 220 when he pinned CBA/J-D’s David Sayre in 4:31, while Mark Williamson (195 pounds) beat another Bees wrestler, Alex Bowen, 3-1 for his third-place effort.
Ruiz would give C-NS a third-place finish at 152, edging B’ville’s Steve Petrelli 3-1, while Robert Rein matched that finish at 145 pounds when he pinned CBA/J-D’s Lucas Rowe in 1:35 during their consolation bracket final.
Liverpool’s Anthony Ianno (126) and Mike Mills (132) each had fourth-place finishes, while Brian Carr (145) and Jalen Barron (160) gained fifth place. C-NS’s Anthony Carella secured fifth place at 152 when he beat West Genesee’s Liam Kotas 12-8.
All of these wrestlers are likely to compete this Saturday at SRC Arena in the Section III Division I (large school) championships, which start at 10 a.m. The winners are guaranteed spots in the Feb.28-March 1 state meet at Albany’s Times Union Center.
