A record number of Skaneateles wrestlers were able to qualify for Saturday’s Section III Division II championships at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
In all, 15 sectional titles were handed out in the Division II (small school) and Division I (large school) tournaments. Winners automatically advanced to the Feb. 27-28 New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Albany’s Times Union Center.
Of the Lakers’ wrestlers, Max Collier had the best showing, getting to fifth place at 113 pounds to finish his season at 34-7. Collier opened with a 10-0 shutout over Hannibal’s Evan Salmonsen before running into Cazenovia’s Will Khalil in the quarterfinals and taking a tough 4-2 defeat.
Unfazed by this, Collier went into the consolation bracket and beat Neiko Scarano (Little Falls) 10-2 to assure a podium finish before a defeault to Cortland’s Trent Jones.
That set up a rematch with Khalil, but this time Collier won the Laker duel, pinning Khalil less than 90 seconds into the bout, and grabbed fifth place as a result.
At 132 pounds, Josh Brillo beat Tyler Ayers (Morrisville-Eaton) 6-2 in the first round and claimed a 1-0 decision over Lowville’s Connor Steria in a tight 1-0 battle before Onondaga’s Tyler Field beat Brilllo 4-0 in the semifinals on his way to the title and Most Outstanding Wrestler honors.
Brillo met with hard luck in the consolation bracket, twice taking 1-0 defeats – one of them to Marcellus’ Ben Hood, the other to Mexico’s Mitchell Shambo – but still finished sixth.
At 152 pounds, Drew Newton, 28-5 going into the sectional tournament, beat Cato-Meridian’s Kyle Spratt 3-0 in the first round before a 4-0 quarterfinal defeat to South Jefferson’s Caleb Beach, the top seed who eventually finished second to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Jason Colon. Newton also lost to Collin Treen (Herkimer/Sauquoit Valley) 2-1 in the consolation bracket.
Joey Brillo, at 120 pounds, lost a tough 8-5 opening-round decision to the no. 3 seed, General Brown’s Connor Schissler, who went on to a third-place finish as Brillo went 30-6 this winter.
Mike Goetzmann ended up facing 145-pound top seed Austin Whitney (Mexico) in the opening round, taking a second-period pin as Whitney went on to beat Camden’s Garrett Mitchell 6-4 for the sectional championship, his second in a row.
Pat Greenfield (182 pounds) fell in his own close decision in the first round to General Brown’s Gavin Kovalik by a 3-0 margin to complete a 28-9 campaign.
Like his brother, T.J. Greenfield, at 220 pounds, was a no. 8 seed, and he also could not get a point in a closely-fought opening-round bout, taking a 2-0 defeat to South Lewis’ Thomas Randall as he finished at 28-9 this winter.
