Though the Baldwinsville wrestling team lost its head-to-head clash with ancient rival Fulton in the Nov. 28 season opener, the two sides were not done with each other.
Exactly one week later, both the Bees and Red Raiders were in the 19-team field for Saturday’s Andersen Memorial Tournament at Cicero-North Syracuse, and again Fulton prevailed, earning 224.5 points as B’ville finished sixth with 113 points and Lockport, from Section VI, took the runner-up spot with 190 points.
Twice, the Bees were able to snag individual titles. Jeremy Pond did so, at 132 pounds, pinning John Companion (Amsterdam) and beating Liverpool’s Jerry Nash 8-3 to reach the finals, where Pond held off Dolgeville’s Ryan Zawtocki in a 7-4 decision.
Meanwhile, at 195 pounds, Alex Bowen finished on top. A pin over Parker Hogan (Auburn) in 1:48 set up a semifinal where Bowen edged Lockport’s Robert Jones 6-4, and in the championship match he again won a two-point decision, this time topping New Hartford’s Kyle Kuty 3-1.
David Rush reached the 145-pound title match by p inning Richie Conte (Hadley-Luzerne/Lake George) in the second period, only to run into Fulton’s Collin Flynn in the last round, where Rush lost by a 5-2 margin.
No B’ville wrestler won in a consolation bracket, though Thor Sutphen came close, recovering from a quarterfinal defeat at 171 pounds to get to the third-place match before falling to Canastota’s Doug Simmons 3-1 and settling for fourth place.
Sam Candee grabbed fifth place at 152 pounds when Dolgeville’s Ezra Lynch took an injury default. Kevin Lewis rescued seventh place at 126 pounds when he got past New Hartford’s Emerson Pratt 3-1.
On that same day, other B”ville wrestlers ventured to the Cato-Meridian Duals and earned a fourth-place finish, beating the hosts from Cato 51-18, along with Ithaca (49-32), Mynderse Academy (54-15) and Red Creek (57-12), but falling to Penfield 55-15.
B’ville has another tournament appearance this Saturday, at the General Brown Duals in Dexter, where the likes of Carthage, Beaver River, Watertown IHC, Hannibal and Camden join the Bees.
