Just as it has every season during the holiday break, the Baldwinsville wrestling team stayed active and gave itself a big test against a long list of opponents over the course of two days in the Mountain Duals at Dolgeville High School.
Here, the Bees would win five of eight matches and finish seventh in the 16-team field, a solid follow-up to the big 43-30 victory it recorded over Liverpool Dec. 21 to seize first place in the CNY Counties League.
Against the Warriors, things would go back and forth, B’ville getting on the board with back-to-back pins from Dan Fawwaz (182 pounds) over Carmen Sheldon in the second period and Thor Sutphen (195 pounds) over John Sturtz in just 73 seconds.
Gunnar Hunt (220 pounds) lost, 2-0, to Zach Eason, but Mike Spicer earned a third-period pin over 285-pound opponent Brady Depan before Liverpool won three straight bouts to take a 21-18 lead.
But Zach Hahn (120 pounds) put B’ville back in front for good with a 15-0 technical fall over Jacob Ianno, the first of five wins in six bouts that was followed by Jake Naples (126 pounds) pinning Aiden Connor late in the second period.
Jeremy Pond, at 138 pounds, handled Dylan Wallace 15-5, and David Rush clinched the team win at 145 pounds with a 71-second fall over Zach Curcie before John Eustice (152 pounds) routed Nick Panganelli 9-1.
A week later, at the Mountain Duals, B’ville opened with two more wins, routing Mount Markham 81-6 and holding off Beekmantown 44-30 with pins from Fawwaz, Naples and Jacob Cavallo. B’ville then defeated Averill Park 53-27 to move to 3-0.
Here, though, things got rough, B’ville taking a 42-34 defeat to SJSC when it lost the last three bouts due to two pins and a forfeit after taking a 34-24 lead. Then Central Valley Academy routed the Bees 52-18.
In a 36-34 defeat to reigning Section III Dual Meet champion Adirondack, B’ville took a one-point lead when Hahn, wrestling at 120 pounds, edged Keagen Case 6-4. but in the final bout at 126 pounds, Naples could not get on the board against Kevin Spann, who prevailed 2-0 to help the Wildcats take the overall match.
B’ville would recover from this in the final two matches, defeating Watervliet 54-24 and then defeating host Dolgeville 48-24. Central Valley would parlay its win over B’ville into an 8-0 overall mark and won the team title, defeating Copenhagen, 56-24, in the championship round.
