Jacob Wells’ victory in the 106-pound division helped the Cazenovia wrestling team to an eighth-place finish in a 17-team field in the Lakers’ own invitational meet held last Saturday at Buckley Gym.
Wells started out in the quarterfinals with a 45-second pin over Auburn’s James Grimes. A tough semifinal with Indian River’s Lucas VanTassel followed, but Wells won 7-4, and got to the final, where he shut down Fayetteville-Manlius’ Braden Florczyk and claimed a 7-2 decision.
No other Lakers wrestler made it to the final round, with Will Khalil taking fourth place at 126 pounds after reaching the consolation bracket final before falling to B’ville’s Jake Naples. But three Cazenovia competitors had fifth-place efforts.
Matt McLaughlin was fifth at 132 pounds when Auburn’s Justin Marulb had to forfeit, and another forfeit at 138 pounds gave the Lakers’ Patrick Nourse fifth place over the Maroons’ Hunter Duger. Will Shephard had to wrestle for fifth place at 126 pounds, but got it by beating Watertown IHC’s Nello Altieri 4-1.
Baldwinsville, with 197.5 points, won the team title, edging out Adirondack (188 points) to get to first place as Jeremy Pond (138) and Dan Fawazz (182 pounds) claimed individual titles for the Bees while four others – Zach Hahn (120 pounds), Tyler Patrick (132), David Rush (145 pounds) and Mike Spicer (285 pounds) – had second-place finishes.
A big OHSL Liberty division match took place Thursday at Hannibal, with Cazenovia needing to win it to set up a regular-season league championship showdown with Skaneateles a week later at Buckley Gym.
Instead, the Lakers lost, 54-24, to the Warriors, only winning two head-to-head bouts. Kevin Valentine, at 145, fought past Ed Lamb 13-7, with Austin Sherman (170 pounds) getting past Logan Fenske 5-2.
Elsewhere, Wells, Shephard and Khalil took forfeits, but Hannibal claimed every other point through four forfeits, a series of pins, plus a handful of decisions, including a tight contest at 152 pounds where Nourse took a 5-4 defeat to Steven Boyer.
Chittenango took part that same day in the Red Devil Invitational at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, where with 95 points the Bears landed in sixth place amid a 23-team field as Bainbridge-Guilford-Afton-Harpursville (168 points) edged Mexico (167 points) by a single point for team honors.
Antonio Cutrie won the title at 220 pounds, pinning Gunnar Holmberg (Central Valley) in 61 seconds in the semifinals before shutting out Mexico’s Mike Ladd 6-0 in the finals. Connor Fredericks (170 pounds) pinned Mexico’s Jaden Allen to reach his final but dropped a close 3-1 match to BGAH’s Austin Carr a round later and settled for second place.
Isaiah Prado finished third at 182 pounds when he pinned Dolgeville’s Riley Beaulieu in 93 second s in his consolation bracket final. Cory Fredericks’ 46-second fall over Central Valley’s James Petucci put him in fifth place at 195 pounds as Peyton Denney got sixth place at 99 pounds.
Following that, the Bears were roughed up last Wednesday in a 72-12 defeat to Mexico, and what made it more frustrating was that Cutrie and Connor Fredericks earned Chittenango’s lone points through forfeits. Shepard got closest to a mat victory, but the Tigers’ Dylan Mannise beat him 6-2.
Like with Cazenovia, Chittenango is part of the OHSL Liberty/National division championships at Hannibal that take place Jan. 28 after the Bears host Cortland next Wednesday.
