It was just the fortune of the Cazenovia and Chittenango wrestling teams to get thrown into the toughest of the five Section III class meets.
Both the Lakers and Bears were part of the Class B sectional meet at Mexico on Saturday, with Cazenovia taking ninth place in a 12-team field with 100 points and Chittenago (69.5 points) 10th, each of them well behind Phoenix’s winning total of 203.5 points.
Twice, the Lakers had wrestlers reach the finals. John Nannery, at 182 pounds, pinned James Barbarito (Cortland) and edged Phoenix’s Tim Gandino 7-6 to reach the championship round, only to run into Mexico star Jacob Woolson (a fourth-place state finisher in 2014) and take a 13-0 defeat.
In the 220-pound semifinals, Dan Phillips beat Chittenango’s Justin Cox in a 6-0 shutout, taking him to the title bout, where he lost a 5-1 decision to Phoenix’s Will Hilliard. Cox rebounded by pinning Dylan Hotchkiss (Homer) in 2:42 for a third-place finish.
Will Khalil, who took a semifinal defeat to Theo Powers at 113 pounds, recovered to win the consolation bracket, beating his own teammate, Will Shephard (who had lost in the quarterfinals), 10-4 and then claiming the third-place match over Homer’s Isaac Cline 8-4.
Kevin Frega finished third at 195 pounds, beating teammate Brian Silfer 6-2 in the quartefinals before running into Central Valley star Landry Cook in a semifinal defeat, but then surviving Chittenango’s Tony Cutrie 11-9 and then pinning Jesse Rose (South Jefferson) in the consolation bracket final.
Hayden Polhamus reached the 285-pound semifinal, only to fall to Cortland’s Nick Edmund and then take a first-period defeat to Phoenix’s Derrick Button, but still finish fourth. Matt McLaughlin went 2-2 at 120 pounds, making his way to sixth place.
Elsewhere, Sam DeLeon lost in the quarterfinals at 106 pounds to Central Valley’s C.J. Walz, as did Alex Curr at 170 pounds to Marcellus’ Kevin Morrissey in a 9-7 decision. Jacob Wells (99 pounds) lost his opening-round bout.
Chittenango’s lone finalist did earn a victory. Matt Bixby, wrestling at 138, pinned A.J. Vargas (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) in 2:49, and then upended top seed Drew Towers (Cortland) 6-3 to reach the finals, where he claimed a tough 3-2 decision over Camden’s Dan Alberico, who had beaten Cazenovia’s Billy Heseldon in the quarterfinals.
Connor Fredericks lost a 2-1 consolation bracket final to Mexico’s Jay Kissselstein at 152 pounds, but still finished fourth.
Will Young got fifth place at 145 pounds, winning a wild 11-10 decision over Central Valley’s Will Schell for that spot. At 195, Cutrie recovered from his loss to Frega by topping Dakotah Miller (Cortland) 3-1 to also finish fifth.
Alex Teeter lost his opening-round bout at 126 pounds, as did Abe Miles at 285 pounds, Wyatt Blanding at 132 pounds, Cory Fredericks at 160 pounds.
Many of these wrestlers will go to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena on Saturday for the Section III Division II (small school) championships, looking for berths in the Feb. 27-28 state meet in Albany.
