Far from just an isolated accomplishment, what the Skaneateles wrestling team pulled off, going through an entire season of 21 head-to-head matches without a defeat and earning its first league championship in 35 years, ran deep within its family.

No less than four members of that long-ago 1981 team that last claimed a league title – Jon Leubner, Joe Brillo, Chris Rourke and Jim Simmons – had sons that were key parts of this year’s championship effort.

Together, they saw Skaneateles culminate a journey that began back in 2004, when the program was revived following a 20-year hiatus. Each season, the Lakers improved a bit, and it all led to 2015-16, and a finish atop the Onondaga High School League Liberty division standings.

All of this was celebrated last Wednesday night, when Skaneateles closed out the regular season with a 69-12 victory over Institute of Technology Central. Only four of the bouts were contested by the Eagles, and the visitors won three of them, though one came because Matt Goetzmann (138 pounds) defaulted due to injury.

But Mike Goetzmann, at 145 pounds, was able to beat Naseem Fielder 1-0, and even in the Lakers’ losses, Joey McIntyre (182 pounds) and Dan O’Connell (132 pounds) were competitive, McIntyre falling 11-7 to Naujalic Walker and O’Connell taking a 5-4 defeat to Mekhi Shepherd.

Otherwise, ITC forfeited all of the bouts to James Leubner (152 pounds), Lucas Sherman (160 pounds), Josh O’Hara (170 pounds), Ian Frackelton (195 pounds), Pat Greenfield 220 pounds), T.J. Greenfield (285 pounds), Hannah Drake (99 pounds), J.W. Simmons (106 pounds), Christian Daley (113 pounds), Nevan Rourke (120 pounds) and Joey Brillo (126 pounds).

Now the Lakers ventured to Onondaga High School for Saturday’s OHSL Liberty/Patriot championships, where it finished second in the Liberty division standings with 186 points, trailing Marcellus, who won with 231.5 points and, to some degree, avenged its narrow 39-36 defeat to Skaneateles when they went head-to-head in early December.

Five different Lakers – Simmons (99), Daley (113), Brillo (132), Mike Goetzmann (145) and Pat Greenfield (182) – made it to the championship round, but none of them prevailed, settling for second-place finishes.

All of those title bouts were close, too. Simmons fell to Onondaga’s Dylan Price 4-1, Daley took a 3-1 defeat to Marcellus’ Alex Czerniak and Brillo lost, 4-2, to Czerniak’s teammate, Ben Hood.

Goetzmann had a rematch with Fielder in the title bout at 145, but this time lost by a 2-1 margin. Greenfield saw his final with Cazenovia’s Alex Curr go to overtime, but he took a 4-2 defeat.

Another quintet of Skaneateles wrestlers had third-place finishes, including Leubner (152), Sherman (160), Frackelton (170), McIntyre (195) and T.J. Greenfield (220), with Rourke fifth at 120 and O’Hara finishing sixth as he moved to 160.

Leubner pinned ITC’s Sanchez Adams in his consolation bracket final, with Sherman pinning Cazenovia’s Christian Winkler and Frackelton pinning Jordan-Elbridge’s Anthony Ortiz. McIntyre shut out Port Byron’s Jared Haviland 13-0 and T.J. Greenfield pinning APW/Pulaski’s Jon Curcie.

Now they would all make the long trip to Boonville, and Adirondack High School, for this Saturday’s Section III Class C championship meet, hoping to advance to the overall sectional Division II (Small School) meet Feb. 13 at SRC Arena.