Onondaga — Already, the Baldwinsville wrestling team felt a real sense of accomplishment in 2015-16, with the CNY Counties League and Section III Class AA championships safely in its possession.
Now, though, the Bees wanted an overall sectional title among Large Schools, which it battled for Saturday at SRC Arena as it was also looking to see if one or more of its 13 individuals could win and get to Albany’s Times Union Center for the Feb. 26-27 state meet.
B’ville could not quite reach that team goal as Fulton, with 247 points, outpaced the Bees’ total of 190 points in the runner-up spot, but at least it knew that Alex Bowen, at 195 pounds, was guaranteed a state meet berth after his victory from the top seed.
Bowen rolled through the early rounds, taking 41 seconds to pin Randall Ouimet (West Genesee) and 1:12 to pin Chris Todd (East Syracuse Minoa), leading to the semifinals, where in 3:39 Bowen got his third straight pin, over Fulton’s Aaron Yablonski.
Up against Central Square’s Isaac Havens in the final, Bowen raced out to a 5-0 lead, but Havens battled back, picking up single points in each of the last two periods. Still, Bowen hung on and won a 5-3 decision to claim the sectional title and improve to 30-4 this season.
Perched as the no. 2 seed at 126 pounds, Kevin Lewis beat Wally Wright (Rome Free Academy) 9-0 and edged Joe Mayers (Cicero-North Syracuse) 3-1 to get to the final against Indian River’s Tucker Amato, where Amato proved far too tough, pinning Lewis late in the second period.
At 182 pounds, Dan Fawazz was the no. 3 seed and John Petrelli the no. 4 seed. But both of them were victimized by Central Square’s Max Emond, who beat Petrelli in the semifinal and then, in the title bout, edged Fawwaz 5-1 at the end of a tough day where Fawwaz survived a close semifinal with Liverpool’s Nick Thomas 3-2 and then beat Fulton’s Dylan Gorman 7-2 in the semifinals.
continued — Jeremy Pond started out as the no. 2 seed at 138 pounds, and after getting past Liverpool’s Dylan Wallace 10-5 he blanked Jacob Garrow (Central Square) 10-0 in the semifinals, leading to the title bout, where Pond was tied with CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt’s Jacob Cavallo late in the third period after rallying from a 3-0 deficit, only to allow Cavallo to escape and then hang on for a 4-3 decision.
David Rush drew the no. 2 seed at 145 pounds, only to lose a close 4-3 semifinal to Fulton’s Collin Flynn. But Rush recovered and, with a pin of West Genesee’s Mike Linton and a 12-4 decision over RFA’s Spencer Newman, gained third place.
Thor Sutphen began the 170-pound competition as the no. 3 seed and after pinning Medo Pugonja (East Syracuse Minoa) he lost his semifinal to Fulton’s Travis Race. Like with Rush, though, Sutphen recovered to finish third, getting pins over Aiden Rubeck (Auburn) in 2:40 and Liverpool’s Jaylen Barron in the first period of the consolation bracket final.
Jake Naples, a no. 4 seed, set off at 120 pounds and beat Shane Smith (CBA/J-D) 6-4 before a semifinal loss to New Hartford’s Ian McKenna, the eventual champion. In a tough consolation bracket, Naples needed overtime to beat Nick Noel (Fulton) 2-0 and edged C-NS’s Travis Harrington 1-0 for third place.
Mike Spicer had the no. 4 seed at 220 pounds. After beating Zach Valerino (West Genesee) 7-3, Spicer lost, 8-2, to top seed Caleb Null (Carthage), the eventual champion. From there, Spicer went on to beat C-NS’s Chris St. Denny 11-1 and got third place when he topped Oswego’s Zac Caruso 3-1.
With the no. 6 seed at 132 pounds, Tyler Patrick needed an overtime thriller to get past Liverpool’s Jerry Nash 9-7, but that took a toll as Patrick lost, 8-2. to Fulton’s Adam DeMauro in the semifinals, though Patrick did recover to win in the consolation bracket and finished fourth.
continued — Jacob Cavallo was the no. 4 seed at 106 pounds, but got his title hopes derailed in a 6-5 overtime defeat to Whitesboro’s Matt Blum in the quarterfinals, but he went 2-1 in the consolation bracket and, by pinning Donovan Marriott (East Syracuse Minoa) in 2:59, gained fifth place.
Zach Hahn, at 113 pounds, started as the no. 6 seed, and had a frustrating quarterfinal, falling to Ne w Hartford’s Dan Tauroney in a 10-9 thriller, though Hahn, with two wins in the consolation bracket, guaranteed himself sixth place. Spencer Woods, wrestling at 152 pounds, lost his quarterfinal to Central Square’s Phoenix Webb with a technical fall, and Webb went on to win, too.
