Having broken a 35-year league championship drought a season ago, the Skaneateles wrestling team is not shy about moving further ahead in 2016-17, and for good reason.
Head coach Dick Campbell returns 10 wrestlers from last year’s 21-0 side and welcomes six newcomers, all of which would see action when the Lakers opened at last Saturday’s APW/Pulaski Duals.
Overall, the Lakers went 4-1 at this meet, its lone blemish a 48-27 defeat to Liverpool, a Class AA opponent. Otherwise, Skaneateles defeated Fayetteville-Manlius 51-30, handled host Pulaski 54-24, topped Syracuse’s Institute of Technology Central 47-30 and handled Jordan-Elbridge 54-33.
The match against F-M included many of those Skaneateles veterans, including J.W. Simmons, coming off last year’s second-place Section III Division II finish at 106 pounds. He opened with a first-period fall over Braden Florczak. In that same match, Joey Brillo, debuting at 138 pounds, won an impressive 3-2 decision over the Hornets’ Ali Salem, who was third in the sectional Division I tournament last February.
Against APW/Pulaski, Christian Daley’s pin over Dylan Guthrie at 126 pounds got the Lakers in front for good, with consecutive pins from Ian Frackelton (182 pounds), Joey McIntyre (195 pounds) and Pat Greenfield (220 pounds) helping the Lakers maintain that edge.
Having not dropped any head-to-head match since the 2014-15 season, Skaneateles finally did so against Liverpool, but even here Hannah Drake provided a highlight at 99 pounds with the points she produced in an 18-12 loss to Hayley Delia.
Also, Daley pinned Evan Burns in the final seconds at 126, with Brillo defeating Jerry Nash 8-2. Frackelton pinned Josh Hemingway midway through the third period as McIntyre topped Will Ronan 8-2 and Greenfield beat John Sturtz 7-3.
The wins over Syracuse ITC and J-E helped make up for that Liverpool defeat. By then, Simmons, Brillo, Frackleton, McIntyre and Greenfield all had recorded 5-0 marks during the afternoon, with Matt Goetzmann going 4-0.
Drake and James Leubner won two bouts apiece, but the most encouraging part for the Lakers involved newcomers as Boaz Arold, Preston Blake, Chris Choay, Joe Winkler and Hayes Danforth each gained their first varsity wins.
Skaneateles has just one varsity match this week, hosting Central Square on Wednesday night, with a visit from archrival Marcellus looming on Dec. 14.
