Still undefeated, the Skaneateles wrestling team rolled again last Wednesday night, bringing a full roster to Cato-Meridian and reaping the benefits of that lineup with a 59-21 victory over the Blue Devils.
Within that match, though, a bit of history was made.
When Joey Brillo, wrestling at 126 pounds, recorded a 15-0 technical fall over Cato’s Austin McGregor, he earned his 100th career victory and improved to 15-2 on the season. Overall, Brillo has lost just 26 bouts in his high school career.
Aside from Brillo, only J.W. Simmons (99 pounds) wrestled early for Skaneateles, taking just 56 seconds to pin Hunter White. Pat Greenfield (195 pounds), T.J. Greenfield (220 pounds), Christian Daley (113 pounds) and Nevan Rourke (120 pounds) all claimed forfeits.
At 132 pounds, Dan O’Connell fought hard to earn a 7-4 decision over Josh Lovejoy, with Matt Goetzmann proving just as tough at 138 pounds, even though he lost a wild 14-10 battle to Darren Cook.
James Leubner quickly got the Lakers going at 145 pounds, taking 1:43 to pin Nick Caves. In between forfeits to Mike Goetzmann (145 pounds) and Joey McIntyre (182 pounds), Ian Frackelton wrestled at 170 pounds and earned a 5-3 decision over Harold Sherman.
From there, Skaneateles went to Saturday’s Port Byron Mid-Winter Tournament, where it accumulated 161 points to finish third in a 140-team field, just behind runner-up Cicero-North Syracuse (163.5 points) as Marcellus, with 205 points, took the top spot by having three victories and four runner-up finishes.
A trio of Lakers won, too, including Brillo, who followed up his milestone win by topping Devon Welch (Ithaca) 7-1 in the semifinals at 126 and then taking the title in a 5-0 shutout over Marcellus’ Sam Rice.
Up at 99, Simmons used a pin over Auburn’ sLuca Pirozzolo at the end of the second period to reach the finals, where he took just 56 seconds to pin Ostelic Valley’s Dakota Hackett and finish first. At 145, Mike Goetzmann dominated C.J. Zerniak (Mynderse Academy) in a 16-1 technical fall semifinal before a close final with the Mustangs’ Nick Distefano that Goetzmann held on to win 7-4.
Pat Greenfield’s second-period fall over Moravia’s Josh Campenella propelled him to the final at 195, where Cazenovia’s Kevin Frega (a first-team All-State football selection) beat him 12-0. Daley, at 113, finished third, topping Port Byron’s Greg Hawuczyk 5-2 in the consolation bracket final.
To gain fifth place at 160 pounds, Lucas Sherman had to pin Marcellus’ Casey Ezzo in 58 seconds, while Frackleton pinned Jordan Young (Port Byron) in 59 seconds for his own fifth-place effort at 170. Rourke and T.J. Greenfield both had sixth-place efforts.
Skaneateles is back home this Wednesday night to face Syracuse’s Institute of Technology Central, looking to lock up its first OHSL Liberty division regular-season championship since 1981.
