The Baldwinsville wrestling team nearly grabbed the top spot at its own dual meet, held Saturday at the Baker High School Gym, but had to settle for a second-place finish.
David Rush was named as B’ville’s Most Outstanding Wrestler for the meet as B’ville started out by defeating CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt 43-27. A 60-18 romp over the B squad from Phoenix followed, and the Bees also routed Owego Free Academy 69-18, but in the close final Webster Thomas edged B’ville by two points, 35-33, as David Rush, at 145 pounds, was named his team’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.
B’ville tuned up for the dual meet last Tuesday night, at Auburn, and followed up its victory in the Jan. 8-9 Fallen Heroes Tournament in Canastota with a rare shutout as it blanked the Maroons 66-0.
Five of the bouts were forfeited, to Spencer Woods (152 pounds), Alex Candee (160 pounds), Dan Wicks (195 pounds), Zach Hahn (113 pounds) and Jake Staples (120 pounds), and one was not contested, but of the nine that did take place, the Bees won all of them.
Tyler Toomey got it going at 145 pounds with an 18-3 technical fall over Lucas Hogan. Thor Sutphen wrestled at 170 pounds and beat Alden Rubeck 8-4, with John Petrelli (182 pounds) easing past Michael Hamilton 9-1.
Alex Bowen earned the first pin at 220 pounds, needing just 61 seconds to finish off Trevor Hogan as Mike Spicer (285 pounds) pinned Julian Bernard early in the second period. Jacob Cavallo, at 106 pounds, claimed a 6-5 thriller over Luca Pirozzolo.
Auburn worked hard to get on the board, as each of the last three bouts proved close. Kevin Lewis, at 126 pounds, beat Austin Duger 6-3, with Tyler Patrick (132) shutting out Justin Marullo 6-0. Jeremy Pond (138 pounds) got a 7-4 decision over Hunter Duger to complete the shutout.
In its last league match on Jan. 5, B’ville had dominated at West Genesee, defeating the Wildcats 62-15 by winning 10 of the 11 contested bouts, the only defeat coming in a narrow decision at 160, where Candee lost, 8-7, to Liam Kotas.
But Patrick beat Brady Ryan by that same 8-7 margin as Dan Fawwaz (182 pounds) turned back Shayne Middleton 8-4. Two other Bees recorded shutouts, with Hahn blanking Tanner Buza 8-0 and Spicer handling Zach Valerino 12-0.
Seven other bouts ended in pins, with Cavallo, Naples, Woods, Sutphen, Lewis, Bowen (who wrestled at 195) and John Eustice getting those falls. Bowen needed just 51 seconds to finish off Randall Ouimet, with Naples pinning Charlie Tran in 1:08 and Woods doing the same to Mike Linton in 1:20.
Another big week lay ahead for B’ville, who would host a showdown with Liverpool Wednesday night and then go to Saturday’s Section III Dual Meet at Cicero-North Syracuse, which gathers the top 16 teams in the section for a single-elimination tournament.
In the first round, the Bees, who drew the no. 16 seed, must face top seed General Brown, whom it lost to, 42-31, in the Lions’ dual meet on Dec. 12. The winner gets no. 8 seed Central Valley Academy or no. 8 seed Holland Patent in the quarterfinals.
