Four head-to-head title bouts between Liverpool and Baldwinsville were the points on which last Saturday’s Section III Class AA championship meet turned.
And though the Bees had the advantage of competing in its home gym, it didn’t matter one bit to the Warriors, who won all four of those finals and, by doing so, prevailed by a single point.
When the day’s results were added up, Liverpool had 239 points, and B’ville had 238 points. They left the rest of the nine-team field behind, as Cicero-North Syracuse, with 133 points, could only manage fourth place behind CBA/Jamesville-DeWItt’s 166.5 points.
Ironically, that was the same margin – one point – by which B’ville defeated C-NS (197.5 points, to 196.5) in the sectional AA meet a year ago. Liverpool was third then, but went to the top now.
The decisive B’ville-Liverpool string started at 120 pounds. Audey Ashkar used a pair of first-period pins to reach the final against the Bees’ Josh Peck, and then needed just three minutes, 10 seconds to pin Peck for the title.
A second final between the Warriors and Bees took place at 132 pounds. Peter Nash, having pinned J-D/CBA’s Jonah Cavallo in 1:40 in the semifinals, met B’ville’s Jeremy Pond and dominated that bout, winning a 12-1 decision.
Yet another clash took place at 195 pounds. When Nate Knox survived a tense 4-3 semifinal against Auburn’s Julian Bernard, it put him up against the Bees’ Alex Bowen, and that match proved close, too, with Knox doing just enough to defeat Bowen 3-2. Knox’s teammate, Zach Eason, was sixth.
And in a fourth B’ville-Liverpool battle in the 220-pound final, Alan Cary, who pinned Victor Palmer-Ortiz (Institute of Technology Central) in the semifinals, took control against B’ville’s Mike Spicer and won in an 11-4 decision. The Northstars’ Cristian Anoceto, who lost to Spicer in the semifinals, finished fourth.
Liverpool won eight different weight classes. David Carnie prevailed at 285 pounds, earning two pins before handling C-NS’s Chris St. Denny 14-4 in the championship round. St. Denny’s teammate, Jared Hemingway, was fourth at 285.
Jalen Barron, winning at 170 pounds, pinned Jon Kravec (CBA/J-D) and B’ville’s John Petrelli to reach the finals, where he held off West Genesee’s Shayne Middleton 11-7.
Zach Khatib had a tough road to the 152-pound title, edging CBA/J-D’s Luke Rowe 1-0 in the semifinals and, in the title bout, claiming a 4-2 decision over Middleton’s WG teammate, Liam Kotas.
And Mike Mills won at 138 pounds, pinning ITC’s Ben Tineli in the semifinals and holding off CBA/J-D’s Cole Murphy 9-6 in the finals.
C-NS did its best in the lighter weight classes, including 113 pounds, where Joe Barber went head-to-head with Liverpool’s Sean Nadeau in the finals and won a 6-4 decision.
Ray Sorensen, wrestling at 106 pounds for the Northstars, pinned Liverpool’s Christian Bradsahw (who finished sixth) in 2:47 in the semifinals, and then inadvertently helped the Warriors out by in the finals by defeating B’ville’s Jake Naples 8-3.
And at 99 pounds, Travis Harrington grabbed a third C-NS title, first having to beat his own teammate, David Ciciarelli, 14-6 in the semifinals before a title bout where he got away from CBA/J-D’s Matt Griffin 9-4. Ciciarelli would settle for fourth place.
Liverpool’s Anthony Ianno had a 5-3 defeat to Rome Free Academy’s D’Andre Norman in the 126-pound final. Anthony Richardson edged Bryce Doane (Fayetteville-Manlius) 8-6 for fifth place at 152 pounds. Jack Ragonese got sixth place at 182 pounds for the Warriors.
The Northstars had Josh Bigford in fourth place at 152, ahead of Richardson, and Anthony Carella in sixth place at 170 behind Barron. Jacob Hall was sixth at 126.
Most of these wrestlers will head to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena for the Section III Division I (large school) championships, starting Saturday at 10 a.m. Winners earn automatic berths in the Feb. 27-28 state championship meet in Albany.
