More than anything else, the presence of a relatively full roster helped the Marcellus wrestling team the most during last Wednesday night’s 60-27 victory over the Chittenango Bears.
Of the 15 weight classes, the Mustangs had 12 wrestlers. So while it had to forfeit three bouts, Chittenango had to forfeit five of them, including the last four, adding up to 30 points, half the Marcellus total.
Noah Carbone (106 pounds), Sean O’Conner (113 pounds), Alex Czerniak (120 pounds), Matt Norris (126 pounds) and Trevor Widrick (145 pounds) took those forfeits, but the Mustangs also had five pins.
Riley Donovan opened at 132 pounds with a fall over Alex Teeter in two minutes, 50 seconds. Josh Widrick (138 pounds) took 16 more seconds to get his second-period fall over Devin Myers.
Two bouts later, at 152 pounds, Nick Distefano finished off Barrett Hoyt in just 66 seconds. Then Cory Garvey (195 pounds) engineered a third-period fall over Cory Fredericks as Kern Linder (285 pounds) got his pin over Alex VanPatten in 3:01.
During Saturday’s Port Byron Mid-Winter Tournament Marcellus, earning 155 points, nearly won it, claiming third place right behind Skaneateles (160.5 points) and Cicero-North Syracuse (159 points).
The Mustangs won three different weight classes as Czerniak, at 120, topped Port Byron’s Joe Powers in a tense 3-1 final and Distefano prevailed at 145, edging Marathon’s Bruce Storey by that same 3-1 margin. Linder, with a single escape, edged C-NS’s Christian Anoceto 1-0 for the title at 220.
Garvey beat North Rose-Wolcott’s Dom Salerno 5-3 for third place at 195, with Donovan third at 126 due to a win over Cazenovia’s Will Shephard and Carbone third at 106. Josh Widrick grabbed fourth place at 138 after an overtime defeat to Sknaeateles’ Matt Goetzmann in the consolation bracket final as Jack Santarielllo got fourth place at 132.
Jordan-Elbridge returned to the mat Thursday night against Homer, and found it difficult to keep up with the Trojans in a 55-18 defeat.
Early in the meet, the Eagles’ Ryan Rivenburgh claimed a forfeit at 195, but then J-E lost two close bouts, Max Bondgren (220) falling to Anthony Parker 5-2 and Jessi Tripp (99) had a 5-4 defeat to Sean Powers.
Jared Alpha would prevail at 106, edging Zach Duff 7-5, while Marion Quigley (132) beat Noah Thomas by that exact same score. Homer would get away from there, though, with five wins, the only close one from Peter Davis as he beat J-E’s Landry LaFleur 9-5. Jared Mills claimed a forfeit at 182.
Like Marcellus, J-E competed at the Port Byron Mid-Winter Tournament, where Alpha lost a 7-2 decision to Carbone in the consolation bracket final at 106 and took fourth place. But Zack Harvey pinned North Rose-Wolcott’s Brandon Manley in 43 seconds for third place at 113 as Derek Quigley finished sixth.