An 11-4 record through mid-January for the Marcellus wrestling team has led to an invitation to last Saturday’s Section III Dual Meet at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
Under a new tournament format, the Mustangs are the no. 6 seed in the 10-team small school division, with a separate eight-team large-school division. Marcellus takes on no. 3 seed Canastota in the first round.
Long before all this, Marcellus got some more tournament experience last Saturday when it nearly won the Dan Wickham Classic at Unatego, earning 192.5 points to finish second in a 17-team field behind Longwood, who won with 218 points.
Alex Czerniak earned the title at 120 pounds, routing Noah Lowe (Unatego) 14-4 and beating Drew Wideman (Berne-Knox-Westerlo) with an injury default to reach the finals, where he held on for a 5-3 decision over Hoosick Falls’ Aiden Scott.
Meanwhile, at 126 pounds, Riley Donovan went from an 80-second pin over Sidney’s Dan Calkins to a final where he beat Longwood’s Ryan Pitre 5-1. Kern Linder’s victory at 220 pounds came after a second-period fall over Devon Fitzpatrick (Hoosick Falls) in the semifinals and a title bout where a single escape meant getting past another Longwood wrestler, Midjery Paul, by a 1-0 margin.
Noah Carbone beat Hoosick Falls’ Zoe Gress 9-3 to reach the finals at 106 pounds, but lost to Gress’s teammate, Gabe Fisher, in a second-period final the title bout to settle for second place.
Nick Distefano was third at 145 pounds, routing Rondout Valley’s Hayden Baker 12- in the consolation bracket final. Jack Santariello (132 pounds) beat Morgan Sholtis (Saranac) 3-1 for fifth place, while Josh Widrick (138 pounds) stopped Lucas Gardner (Marathon) 7-2 for his own fifth-place finish and Robbie Seeley (152 pounds) earned fifth place by shutting out Clarke’s Sean Russell 4-0.
West Genesee picked up 51 points to finish tied for 13th out of 17 sides in the Jan. 14 Cazenovia Invitational. No Wildcats wrestler reached the finals, but Victor Elias (160 pounds) edged Adirondack’s Ben Gerling 1-0 in the consolation bracket final to get third place.
Devin Earl (145) matched Elias with his own 1-0 win over Fayetteville-Manlius standout Ali Salem to also get third place. Ahmad Wady (220 pounds) beat Oswego’s Brian Lebron 6-1 for fifth place as Griffin Sasso was injured in his 170-pound finale against Onondaga’s Dan Trammell and settled for sixth place.
