ALBANY — As the sixth Skaneateles wrestler to get to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships, J.W. Simmons found himself in small and select company, but he was far from content with just an appearance in the biggest meet of the winter.
Since the Lakers program was revived a decade ago, two wrestlers have gone to the state meet. Before Simmons, Kevin Pembridge was a wild-card selection in 2011. Bill McCauley won the program’s lone state title in 1969 at 215 pounds after making it the year before, with Ken Rankin (1964), Steve Groce (1976) and Joe Brillo (1981) the others.
When Simmons hit the mat Friday morning at Albany’s Times Union Center, he did so as a wild-card selection in Division II (Small Schools) at 99 pounds, having finished second in the Section III Division II final Feb. 13 to Central Valley Academy’s Jon Charles.
But while Charles held the top seed, Simmons drew the no. 2 seed, Tioga freshman John Worthing, in the opening round. Knowing what lay ahead, Simmons trained hard, having Lakers teammate Christian Daley as a practice partner and gradually cutting his weight down from 110 pounds over the course of two weeks.
Yet it didn’t matter because Worthing, despite being two years younger than Simmons, displayed his skill on Friday morning by taking just 37 seconds to earn a fall, quickly relegating Simmons to the consolation bracket.
Perhaps because it was so quick, Simmons had plenty of energy left for his remaining bouts, and he went to work later that afternoon in the consolation bracket by pinning Gouverneur’s Joseph Cummings midway through the second period.
A few hours later, against Cold Springs Harbor’s Christian Hansen, Simmons again picked up a pin, doing so in 3:49 to assure that he would continue for one more day.
continued — On Saturday morning, Simmons was still alive for his stated goal of a podium finish, needing to beat Norwich’s Eli Rodriguez to get it. But Rodriguez, like Worthing before him, proved too tough, accumulating points to earn a 15-0 technical fall in 4:06.
Rodriguez went on to win the consolation bracket and finish third, while Worthing took second place – behind Charles, who beat Worthing 5-1 in the state final. Thus, in the span of two weeks, Simmons was defeated by each of the top three finishers in the state in his weight class.
Section III ended up earning six state titles in Division II, including Holland Patent’s Alex Herringshaw getting his third straight state championship wrestling at 170 pounds and Herringshaw’s teammate, Hunter Richard, going back-to-back at 145 pounds.
Also, Sherburne-Earlville’s Jack Buell (195 pounds), General Brown’s Ricardo Dawkins (220 pounds) and Adirondack’s Andrew Tanner (285 pounds) finished on top of the podium to join Charles as first-time state champions.
