With the issue in doubt all the way to the last bout, the Baldwinsville wrestling team almost caught Liverpool in its quest to retain the Section III Class AA championship in front of a home crowd Saturday at the Baker High School Gym.
But the Bees could only get to 238 points, just one point behind the Warriors’ total of 239 points at the end of a tense day of competition. Both sides left behind the other seven teams at the AA meet as the combined CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt entry finished third with 166.5 points.
Ironically, that was the same margin – one point – by which B’ville defeated Cicero-North Syracuse (197.5 points, to 196.5) in the sectional meet a year ago.
Amid a string of Bees defeats in the finals – four of them in head-to-head battles with Liverpool wrestlers – Connor Ross went all the way to the 152-pound championship.
Ross pinned Anthony Richardson (Liverpool) in 4:20 and then got another fall over Josh Bigford (Fayetteville-Manlius) in 2:25, leading to the title bout, where he got a third pin over West Genesee’s Yvan Kouakou at the end of the first period.
The decisive B’ville-Liverpool string started at 120 pounds. In a semifinal between teammates, Josh Peck pinned Tyler Patrick in 3:20, only to lose the final to Liverpool’s Audey Ashkar in another second-period fall. Patrick went on to finish fourth.
A second final between B’ville and Liverpool took place at 132 pounds. Jeremy Pond, after a 9-3 semifinal victory over Keshon Howard (Institute of Technology Central), met the Warriors’ Peter Nash in the finals, and Nash dominated the bout, winning by a 12-1 margin.
Yet another clash took place at 195 pounds. When Alex Bowen, the top seed, edged J-D/CBA’s Nick Palmer in a tough 2-1 semifinal, it may have affected him for the final, where Liverpool’s Nathaniel Knox beat Bowen 3-2 for the top spot on the podium.
And in a fourth B’ville-Liverpool battle in the 220-pound final, the Bees’ Mike Spicer, who pinned Cicero-North Syracuse’s Cristian Anoceto in just 70 seconds in his semifinal, could not keep up with the Warriors’ Alan Cary, who won an 11-4 decision.
Jake Naples beat Ben Nosovitch (Fayetteville-Manlius) with a pin in less than 90 seconds to get to the 106-pound final, only to run into Cicero-North Syracuse’s Ray Sorensen and take an 8-3 defeat.
At 145 pounds, Brian Rush won a tough 3-1 semifinal over Jack Hogan, but had to run into favorite Tristan Broddus (Fayetteville-Manlius) in the finals, where Broddus prevailed in a 21-6 technical fall to make Rush settle for second place.
After he lost in the 138-pound semifinal to J-D/CBA’s Cole Murphy 3-0, David Rush won twice in the consolation bracket, eventually edging Rome Free Academy’s Spencer Newman 4-3 for third place overall. Jake Wicks did the same at 182 pounds, eventually pinning ITC’s Nahjir Dean in 2:52 to claim that third spot.
Thor Sutphen beat CBA/J-D’s Luke Rowe 8-3 for third place at 160 pounds. Kevin Lewis, at 113 pounds, took fourth place, while John Petrelli was fourth at 170 pounds and Zach Hahn managed fifth place at 99 pounds.
All of these wrestlers will head to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena this Saturday for the Section III Division I (large school) championships, with the winners in each weight class advancing to the Feb. 27-28 state meet in Albany.
