Onondaga — Favored to win, Liverpool wrestlers Audey Ashkar and Christian Bradshaw did just that at last Saturday’s Section III Division I (Large School) championships at SRC Arena and earned automatic berths in the Feb. 26-27 state meet at Albany’s Times Union Center.
Ashkar sought a second straight sectional title (he won at 120 pounds a year ago) as the top seed at 132 pounds, but knew he could get a challenge from teammate Jerry Nash, who had the no. 3 seed.
But no one would get would get in Ashkar’s way. In the quarterfinals, Ashkar pinned Carlo Bolz (Indian River) in the third period, and then would take just 1:20 to pin Ali Salem (Fayetteville-Manlius) in the semifinals.
The title bout pitted Ashkar against Fulton’s Adam DeMauro, whose path to the final got easier when Nash lost, 9-7, to Baldwinsville’s Tyler Patrick in overtime. But that was over in just 72 seconds as Ashkar pinned DeMauro and back-to-back sectional honors.
Bradshaw, meanwhile, had the top seed at 106 pounds, with Cicero-North Syracuse hoping to challenge as Nathan Osborne held the no. 2 seed. In the quarterfinals, Bradshaw defeated Osborne’s teammate, Jacob Montimy, 6-0, and then claimed a 12-3 semifinal over Whitesboro’s Matt Blum.
In the championship round, Bradshaw wrestled Fulton’s Kaleb Carreon, who had beaten Osborne 4-2 in the other semifinal. This bout proved close, too, but Bradshaw won by a 5-2 margin, improving to 36-5 this winter and securing his ticket to Albany. Osborne would beat B’ville’s Jacob Cavallo and pin Blum in 42 seconds to take third place.
At 120 pounds, Sean Nadeau had the no. 2 seed, just ahead of C-NS’s Travis Harrington, the no. 3 seed. Both would reach the semifinals and meet head-to-head, with Nadeau pulling out a tough 2-1 decision, only to run into New Hartford’s Ian McKenna in the finals and take a 4-2 defeat. Harrington lost, 1-0, to B’ville’s Jake Naples in the consolation bracket final and settled for fourth place.
continued — Jaylen Barron, as the no. 4 seed at 170 pounds, also finished fourth, having pinned Aiden Rubeck (Auburn) in 54 seconds before a 10-2 semifinal defeat to Indian River’s Sonny McPherson, the eventual champion. Barron fell in the third-place bout to B’ville’s Thor Sutphen.
Nick Thomas worked from the no. 6 seed at 182 pounds, but yet another B’ville wrestler, Dan Fawwaz, beat him 3-2 in the quarterfinals on his way to a second-place finish.
Corey Okun competed at 99 pounds, taking a 46-second defeat to CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt’s Matt Griffin, who went on to win. Steve Pascarella was at 113 pounds but got handled in that same quarterfinal round by New Hartford’s Kelan McKenna, who needed less than 90 seconds to pin all three of his foes en route to the sectional title.
Dylan Wallace tried to make inroads at 138 pounds, but again a B’ville wrestler, in this case Jeremy Pond, stopped him in a 10-5 decision, Brady Depan, an entrant at 285 pounds, fell to Fulton’s Jared Crucitti, and Crucitti would go on to win, too.
Will Ronan, at 152 pounds, Anthony Piscatelli was an alternate at 160 pounds, Both won their first matches, Ronan over Brian Lebron (Oswego) 6-4 and Piscatelli over Adam Honis (CBA/J-D) 10-8, and each lost in quarterfinals to top seeds and eventual winners, Ronan to Fulton’s Tim Holden, Piscatelli to Watertown’s Desean Williams.
Among the others in the C-NS contingent, Joe Mayers had the no. 6 seed at 126 pounds. Mayers won a close 5-4 quarterfinal over Auburn’s Austin Duger, but lost in the semifinals to B’ville’s Kevin Lewis 3-1. With a 15-4 rout over Whitesboro’s Dominic DellaPosta, Mayers would reach the consolation bracket final, but he lost a rematch with Duger 2-0 and settled for fourth place.
Chris St. Denny had the no. 6 seed at 220 pounds, where Liverpool’s Zach Eason lost in the first round to Carthage’s Caleb Null (another first-place finisher). After a quarterfinal defeat to Fulton’s Noah Gates, St. Denny beat Julian Bernard (Auburn) 6-4 and, by that same margin, topped West Genesee’s Zach Valerino for fifth place.
Christian Anoceto had the no. 5 seed at 285, only to drop a close 1-0 quarterfinal to CBA/J-D’s Ramy Guindy. Dario Ciciarelli, at 99, fell to Indian River’s Logan Patterson in the quarterfinal, while Josh Bigford, at 160, lost a 13-1 opening-round bout to CBA/J-D’s Jake Wright.
