ALBANY — Matt Griffin had gone here before. Jonah Cavallo was new to it.
Whatever the circumstances, Griffin and Cavallo represented the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt wrestling team as they went to Albany’s Times Union Center for last weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships – and Griffin, at 99 pounds, would secure a third-place finish.
Though wrestling under the CBA/J-D banner, Griffin is actually a sophomore at Westhill, while Cavallo is a senior at Solvay. Neither school as a free-standing wrestling program, but Griffin and Cavallo have still flourished.
This was Griffin’s second trip to the state meet. In 2015, he finished second at the sectional meet for the second year in a row, but an injury to one of the wrestlers just before the state meet allowed Griffin to make the trip to Albany, where he went 1-2 and was unable to reach the podium.
Now, in 2015-16, Griffin was, at last, a sectional champion. He said the difference this season in finally getting that sectional title was working better from a neutral position and on his feet. Those improvements led to a 33-2 record and the no. 5 seed in the state meet, where he fully expected a podium finish.
In the first round, Griffin faced Clarence eighth-grader Aiden Rabideau. Competing in the first match of the morning, Griffin was ready, taking down Rabideau and then, 15 seconds before the first period ended, getting Rabideau’s shoulders on the mat for a pin.
The quarterfinal pitted Griffin against the no. 4 seed, Albany Academy’s Trent Svingala. For a period, Griffin hung in there, and only trailed 2-0, but 42 seconds into the second period Svingala turned Griffin over and earned the fall.
Though Griffin’s state title hopes were over, he recovered Friday night by pinning Middletown’s Oscar Lainez in 4:30. Moving on to Saturday’s action, Griffin faced Mahopac’s Garrett Sementz, who had also lost in the quarterfinals.
continued — In just 50 seconds, Griffin pinned Semetz, guaranteeing a podium finish, but he was far from done. When Brandon Nunez (John Bowne) had to forfeit to Griffin, he earned a rematch with Svingala in the consolation bracket final. Here, Griffin got payback, engineering a late takedown to edge Svingala 3-2 and rise to third place.
As for Cavallo, he was 23-8 going into the Feb. 12 sectional Division I meet at SRC Arena, but after edging Stefan Colbert (Indian River) 3-1 in the quarterfinals, he caught fire, dominating CBA/J-D teammate, top-seeded Justin Harris, 17-3 in the semifinals.
Then, for the championship bout against Baldwinsville’s Jeremy Pond, Cavallo wore the blue-and-orange Solvay colors, rather than his black CBA/J-D singlet, and proceeded to earn a 4-3 victory over Pond for the sectional title.
For his opening-round bout in Albany, Cavallo drew Warwick Valley’s Charlie Johnson. With a possible quarterfinal against no. 2 seed Matthew Grippi (Fox Lane) looming, Cavallo could never find hit footing, Johnson racing out to a 6-0 lead in the first period and continuing to build on that margin.
Other than a single escape in the third period, Cavallo was kept off the board, Johnson prevailing in a 16-1 technical fall.
Sent to the consolation bracket, Cavallo hoped for a pair of wins here to get a shot at a podium finish, but could not make it past Demetrius Henry (Grand Street Campus), from New York City, who beat Cavallo 10-3.
The title at 138 pounds was won by Yianni Diakomihalis, from Hilton, who claimed his fourth state championship by beating Grippi 3-1. Ironically, Yianni’s younger brother, Greg Diakomihalis, prevailed at 99 pounds, beating Dylan Ryder (Half Hollow Hills West) 7-4, the only two to finish ahead of Griffin.
