To culminate its busiest week of the season, the Cazenovia wrestling team welcomed a handful of challengers to Buckley Gym on Saturday for the annual Cazenovia Invitational.
In all, 16 teams entered, and the Lakers did quite well, earning 113.5 points to rise all the way to fourth place. Indian River, with 183 points, earned the top spot, while Oxford was second with 131.5 points and Homer (126 points) took third place.
Two Lakers prevailed – Kevin Frega at 195 pounds, and Will Khalil at 120 pounds. Alex Curr had a second-place finish at 182 pounds as Khalil shared Most Outstanding Wrestler honors with Syracuse Institute of Technology Central’s Naseem Tielder.
Khalil pinned Mark Delong (Oswego) in less than 90 seconds and, in the semifinals, topped Watertown IHC’s Nello Artieri 6-2. Then, in the championship round, Khalil dominated South Jefferson’s Jon Lillie, winning in a 17-0 technical fall.
As for Frega, he had a bye straight into the semifinals, where he pinned Oxford’s Dakota Freidel in 52 seconds. It set up a title bout with Indian River’s Chris Davis, and that didn’t last too long, either, as Frega needed just 58 seconds to pin Davis.
Curr survived a tough semifinal with Muhktar Quibasy (Fayetteville-Manlius), claiming a 1-0 decision with a single escape, but lost in his final to Oxford’s Garrett Systra 7-0.
Will Shephard was third at 120 behind Khalil, edging Altieri 2-1 in the consolation bracket final, while Matt McLaughlin beat Justin Marullo (Auburn) 3-2 for third place at 126 pounds. Zack Maxwell was third at 132 pounds and Dominick King was sixth at 152 pounds.
Cazenovia started the week with a non-league match at Cicero-North Syracuse last Tuesday night, with the Lakers claiming just four mat victories and falling to the Northstars by a 60-19 margin.
Frega moved up to 285 pounds and started the match by using a single escape to beat Christian Anoceto 1-0, but Cazenovia had to forfeit the next three bouts and didn’t win again until 126 pounds, when Khalil pinned Zach Sweeney in less than 90 seconds.
McLaughlin, at 132 pounds, followed by nearly getting a technical fall against Jacob Hall in the course of a 14-2 victory, while Patrick Nourse (138 pounds) lost, 4-2, to Nick Gazzillo. The only other Laker win came at 182, where Curr pinned William Musick late in the first period.
Another tough opponent, Marcellus, arrived at Buckley Gym on Thursday, where Senior Night festivities were held for Frega, Curr, Maxwell, Paul McLaughlin and Mike Marshall, which made it a memorable occasion, even though Cazenovia lost, 58-16, to the Mustangs.
Curr opened the match with a 10-3 victory over Cory Garvey. Two bouts later, Frega dominated Kern Linder, taking a 9-1 decision before Marcellus won four in a row, three of them due to forfeits.
But the Lakers would have a couple of more bright moments. Khalil maintained his hot streak with a 5-1 victory over Sam Rice, and at 160 pounds, Christian Winkler pinned Ryan Pierce in 3:16. Maxwell had a 16-5 defeat to Ben Hood at 132 pounds.
Chittenango was idle until Saturday’s Red Devil Invitational at nearby Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, where it earned just 33 points to finish 18th in a 23-team field that was headed by Camden, who with 167.5 points soared to first place.
Still, Antonio Cutrie, who shared Most Outstanding Wrestlers with Canastota’s Alex Rouse a week earlier in the Fallen Heroes Tournament, finished second at 220 pounds.
Cutrie pinned Brady Depan (Liverpool) in 49 seconds in the quarterfinals and took a tough 5-3 decision over BGAH’s Dylan Mondore in the semifinals, only to run into South Lewis star Tom Randall in the finals and take a 37-second fall.
Connor Frederick made it to third place at 170 pounds, losing in the quarterfinals 6-3 to Liverpool’s Jalen Barron, but winning all three of his bouts in the consolation bracket, culminating with a 5-3 decision over Schalmont’s Jake Dembrowsky. No other Bears wrestler had a top-six finish.
