Though the West Genesee and Marcellus wrestling teams had multiple podium finishes during Saturday’s Section III championship meets at SRC Arena, none of them got to the finals.
Up in Division I (large schools), West Genesee’s Odae Badwan got a third-place finish at 132 pounds, pinning Mike Mills (Liverpool) in 3:44 in the quarterfinals and falling in the semifinals to Matt Lauro (CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt) 13-4.
But Badwan would beat Anthony Inman (Whitesboro) 8-4 and, in the consolation bracket final, held off Oswego’s Austin Coleman 7-6 for that third spot.
Dalton Elias matched Badwan’s efforts at 182 pounds, following a pin over Brandon Malone (Auburn) in 1:44 with a defeat to Baldwinsville’s Gunnar Sutphen in the semifinals. Elias then blanked Caleb Null (Carthage) 6-0 and pinned Whitesboro’s Landon Slawson in 4:07 to rise to third place.
Tyler Heggelke’s quest for a 126-pound sectional title ended with a tough 3-2 defeat to New Hartford’s Dempsey King in the semifinals, and he had to end up beating Anthony Ianno (Liverpool) 5-3 to salvage fifth place. Pete Zhobolov was sixth at 170 pounds as Zach Valerino (285 pounds) lost in the opening round.
For Marcellus, Ben Hood made the deepest run in the Division II (small school) bracket, at 113 pounds. After a first-round bye, Hood shut out Austin Vanderhoof (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) 4-0 and reached the semifinals, but lost to Adirondack’s Derek Spann in a first-period pin as Spann went on to the sectional title.
That put Hood in a consolation bracket bout against his own teammate, Sam Rice, and Hood prevailed, 5-2, before losing the third-place match to Phoenix’s Ross McFarland. For his part, Hood got to fifth place by getting his own shutout over Vanderhoof, this one 5-0.
Zach Ruggles entered the sectional meet as the no. 2 seed at 120 pounds, but lost in the quarterfinals to Phoenix’s Seth Gilbert, 6-2, after a first-round bye.
Ruggles did pin Brandon Gaylord (Adirondack) in 2:29, but lost both of his next two bouts, including a 6-4 rematch with Gilbert and a 13-8 decision to Dolgeville’s Noah Handy, to settle for sixth place. Kevin Morrissey (152 pounds) fell in the opening round to Hannibal’s Greg Hadcock in a 3-1 decision.
