A clean sweep of the middle weight classes helped produce a big victory for the West Genesee wrestling team Wednesday night on its home mats as it defeated the Cicero-North Syracuse Northstars 39-36.
In all, the Wildcats claimed all six bouts from 132 to 170 pounds, none more difficult than the bout at 132 where WG’s Ian Blanchford used a single escape to earn a 1-0 decision over Shane McDonald.
By contrast, Devin Earl, at 145 pounds, pinned Jacob Hall midway through the second period, with Griffin Sasso getting his pin over 170-pound opponent Robert Salvett at the midway point of the third period.
Three other bouts fell in between those categories, lopsided decisions where Brady Ryan (138 pounds) handled Vito Melfi 14-4, Cole Wade (152 pounds) did the same in an 11-2 win over Anthony Desimone and Victor Elias (160 pounds) nearly got a technical fall in his 13-0 shutout of Nick Gazzillo.
In all, WG won nine of the 15 bouts to overcome six C-NS wins that were all pins or forfeits. Vincent Calabria, at 106 pounds, took 3:30 to pin Dan Sweeney, while Nate Wade pulled out a 4-3 decision over 99-pound opponent Dario Ciciarelli and Chandler McAvan (195 pounds) shut out Jack McDonald 3-0.
Meanwhile, Marcellus went in the other direction, unable to yield a full roster in its meet against Mexico, a crucial factor in the Mustangs’ 51-24 defeat to the Tigers.
Four different times, Marcellus had to forfeit bouts, amounting to 24 points, something it could not make up despite a forfeit to Kern Linder at 220 pounds. It also didn’t help that Cory Garvey, in the 195-pound opener, dropped a tense 5-4 match to Brandon Gracey that set the night’s tone.
Marcellus did not win a bout on the mat until 120 pounds, when Alex Czerniak pinned Jacob Chrisman in just 48 seconds. Riley Donovan (126 pounds) followed by shutting out Austin Reed 4-0 as Riley LaFrance (132) topped Kyle Dimon 8-4.
Two more tight bouts followed as Sam Rice, wrestling at 138, lost, 4-3, to Curtis Dimon, and Josh Widrick (145) met the same fate in an 8-7 defeat to Daniel Dorr. Nick Distefano earned the Mustangs’ other points at 152, pinning Matt O’Neill late in the first period.
Fresh off an emotional week that included the sudden passing of senior Alex Parkolap and a dramatic win over Port Byron, Jordan-Elbridge was drained going into last Wednesday’s bout at Skaneateles, where it took a 57-30 defeat to the same Lakers who lost to Marcellus one week earlier.
Since they started at 182 pounds, the Eagles were able to gain a 30-18 lead, mostly through forfeits to Max Bondgren (220), Josh Roberts (285 pounds) and Jessi Tripp (99), though Derek Quigley did pin Chris Choay in 46 seconds and Zach Harvey followed at 120 by taking just 38 seconds to pin Preston Blake.
From there, though, it was all Lakers, who won seven straight bouts to close out the night. Only Landry LaFleur, wrestling at 152, lasted the full six minutes during a 7-4 defeat to Josh O’Hara.
