ALBANY — In a season that saw the Baldwinsville wrestling team earn the Section III Class AA championship, only Alex Bowen was able to claim an individual sectional title and get to the biggest meet of the winter – where he would find a spot on the awards podium.
Bowen, as the 195-pound sectional champion, made his way to Albany’s Times Union Center last weekend for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships, finally getting there in his senior season after dropping the sectional final by a single point one year earlier.
Two weeks separated the sectional and state meets, so to prepare, Bowen was fortunate to have two strong teammates, Dan Fawwaz (second in the section at 182 pounds) and Mike Spicer (third in the section at 220 pounds) as training partners willing to help out.
Then, on Friday afternoon, Bowen stepped on to the mat at Albany and, in the opening round, faced Malone’s Robert Dupra, knowing that a likely quarterfinal with top seed Christian Araneo (Ward Melville) awaited if Bowen got that far, the B’ville senior was eager for that challenge, taking just 62 seconds to pin Dupra.
So it was, indeed, Bowen against Araneo in the quarterfinals a few hours later. To his credit, Bowen managed to stay on the mat for six minutes, but all he could earn was a single escape as Araneo efficiently built up his point total and prevailed by an 11-1 margin.
Now in the consolation bracket, Bowen still had a good chance at a podium finish, and enhanced those chances Friday night by pinning Levittown Division’s Ricky Almonte late in the third period, assuring that he would make it to Saturday’s action.
The next morning, Bowen was matched up with Walkill’s Garrett Betcher. One more win would guarantee a podium finish – and Bowen earned it by claiming a 6-2 decision over Betcher, the bout close until a late takedown helped Bowen, up 3-2, gain a bit more cushion.
continued — In the consolation bracket semifinal, Bowen ran into Brockport’s Jake Sweet and lost by an 8-1 margin. And while Sweet went on to finish third, Bowen lost again, 4-2, to Arlington’s Tanner Nielsen to close out his state meet with a sixth-place finish.
Araneo, as it turned out, won the state championship, edging Mahopac’s Michael DiNardo 3-1 in the finals.
Just one Section III Division I wrestler made it to the championship round – New Hartford’s Kelan McKenna, who finished second at 113 pounds. CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt’s Matt Griffin (99 pounds) and Liverpool’s Audey Ashkar (132 pounds) each had third-place efforts.
By contrast, in Division II (small schools), Section III produced six state champions – Holland Patent teammates Alex Herringshaw (a three-time winner at 170 pounds) and Hunter Richard (a two-time champion at 145 pounds), plus Central Valley Academy’s Jon Charles (99 pounds), Sherburne-Earlville’s Jack Buell (195 pounds), General Brown’s Ricardo Dawkins (220 pounds) and Adirondack’s Andrew Tanner (285 pounds).
