Onondaga — Alex Curr and Kevin Frega were both victorious for the Cazenovia wrestling team at last Saturday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty/Patriot tournament at Onondaga High School, where the Lakers finished third among a 10-team field.
All told, Cazenovia earned 167 points, just behind its fellow Lakers from Skaneateles, who had 186 points. Marcellus, despite losing a head-to-head regular-season meet to Skaneateles, prevailed here, earning 231.5 points.
Curr gained first place at 182 pounds, where he pinned Institute of Technology Central’s Naujalic Walker with eight seconds left in their semifinal, setting up a title bout against Skaneateles’ Pat Greenfield. It proved close, but Curr beat Greenfield 4-2.
As for Frega, he didn’t spend much time on the mat in his first two bouts at 195 pounds, pinning Drake Brosnan (APW/Pulaski) in 35 seconds and Jared Haviland (Port Byron) in 35 seconds. Then, in the final against Hannibal’s Logan Scott, Frega earned a third fall, finishing off Scott in 1:57.
Three other Lakers had runner-up finishes, starting with Jacob Wells at 106 pounds. Wells edged Ethan Straub (Hannibal) 6-3 in the semifinals, but dropped his title bout to Port Byron’s Joe Powers in a first-period fall.
Will Khalil got close to the 120-pound championship. Following his second-period pin over Hannibal’s Evan Salmonsen in the semifinals, Khalil faced Marcellus’ Riley Donovan in the final, with Donovan having already beat Will Shephard 6-2 in his semifinal. The final went down to the last moves, but Khalil lost, 3-2, to Donovan.
At 138 pounds, Paul McLaughlin earned a last-second pin over Cato-Meridian’s Darren Cook in his semifinal, advancing to the championship round, where he ran into APW/Pulaski’s Nate Cronk and could not keep up in a 12-5 defeat.
Shephard recovered from his semifinal loss to Donovan by beating Salmonsen 4-0 for third place at 120. Matt McLaughlin and Zach Maxwell ended up facing each other in the 126-pound consolation bracket final, with McLaughlin winning 4-3 to take third place. Christian Winkler was fourth at 160 pounds, with Patrick Nourse sixth at 132 pounds.
