Under a new format, Cicero-North Syracuse would again play host to wrestling’s Section III Dual Meet last Saturday afternoon, with the host Northstars taking part as well as a lower seed as Liverpool looked for a long tournament run.
The 18 teams in the field were split into Division I (large school) and Division II (small school) brackets. Liverpool had the no. 4 seed and would meet no. 5 seed Indian River in the first round, prevailing 38-35 as C-NS, the no. 6 seed, dealt with CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt and lost, 46-27.
Liverpool trailed IR 11-0 before Jacob Ianno’s 52-second pin over Zach Davis at 113 pounds, which Steve Pascarella (120 pounds) followed by pinning Kenneth Melton in the second period as Aiden Connor (126 pounds) beat Logan Infantine 8-4.
Dylan Wallace, at 145 pounds, began the decisive move for Liverpool by edging Ethan Ruttan 6-5 as Zach Curcie (152 pounds) got past Alex Mathieu 2-1. Josh Hemingway (160 pounds) pinned Garrett Putnam in the third period as Will Ronan (170 pounds) took just 24 seconds to pin Chase Lynch and Zach Eason (220 pounds) got a forfeit.
Meanwhile, C-NS won just five bouts against CBA/J-D, two of them forfeits. On the mat, Devan Flood (120) did get a 53-second pin over James Coon, with Jacob Hall (138 pounds) blanking Brian Martin 6-0 and Jeremiah Butler (195 pounds) pinning Chris Pappas in the second period.
In the Division I semifinals, Liverpool ran into top seed Fulton and lost, 63-12, to the Red Raiders. Pascarella got one of the Warriors’ two mat wins when he pinned Tyler Emeterio early in the third period as Ronan pinned Cameron Adams in 1:45.
Several other close bout went in Fulton’s favor as Wallace fell to Adam DeMauro 9-4, with Curcie following up by taking a 4-2 defeat to Nick Noel. At 152 pounds, Nick Paganelli lost, 7-4, to Jeshua Lopez as Eason had a 3-1 loss to Sam Jones.
After beating C-NS, CBA/J-D handled Central Square, leading to a Division I final where Fulton beat CBA/J-D 40-21. However, it was Division II champion Central Valley Academy that won the Dual Meet, routing Adirondack (53-27), Mexico (61-19) and Canastota (59-14) before handling Fulton 50-15 in the overall finals.
Both Liverpool and C-NS had gone through tournaments the week before, with the Northstars gaining 140 points for fourth place in the Cazenovia Invitational and the Warriors taking ninth place in a tough 23-team field in the Red Devil Invitational at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
At Cazenovia, Nathan Osborne won at 113, edging Onondaga’s Dylan Price 8-6 in the championship round. Christian Anoceto battled to the championship at 220, claiming a 2-0 decision over Institute of Technology Central’s Jerome Davis.
Dario Ciciarelli was second at 99, getting to the final before an 8-5 defeat to Auburn’s Luca Pirozzolo. Jack McDonald had a fourth-place finish at 182, with Zach Sweeney (120) and Nick Gazzillo (152) each gaining fifth-place efforts as Butler, Dan Sweeney and Reis Spicer (285) putting up sixth-place efforts.
At VVS, Brady Depan was the lone Liverpool wrestler getting to his team’s final, at 285, before Rome Free Academy’s Spencer Pisaneschi prevailed in a fall. Jerry Nash was fourth at 132 pounds, with Pascarella, Ronan and Eason each getting fifth-place finishes.
Liverpool returned home last Wednesday and honored its seniors before its last regular-season home match against Institute of Technology Central. Then it went out and beat the Eagles 55-22 despite losing each of the first three bouts, including Eason’s 4-2 defeat to Jerome Davis.
In between a pair of forfeits, the Warriors started the rebound at 106 when Corey Okun pinned Jose Montalvo. Pascarella, moving up to 120, and Jerry Nash (132 pounds) each got pins over, respectively, Nazir Smith and Mike Nushar, with Wallace getting a 7-4 decision over Keyshawn Howard. Three more wins would follow, as Curcie pinned T.J. Kamanda, while Hemingway got his fall over Adramir Kenneh and Ronan gained a 9-1 victory over Abendigo Johnson.
C-NS, meanwhile, hosted Baldwinsville and had to bear witness to the Bees clinching the CNY Counties League regular-season title, defeating the Northstars 58-26.
Suspense ended early since, starting at 113, the Bees claimed each of the first seven bouts, six of them by pin, before Gazzillo finally got C-NS on the board with a first-period fall over Dom Sposato.
Alex Lisi, at 170, followed with a 61-second pin over Dennis Kral. Anoceto was impressive in a 10-2 decision over Gunnar Hunt and, after a forfeit to Sweeney, Ciciarelli closed the night with a 14-1 romp over Cole Accordino.
Faring better 24 hours later, C-NS hosted Whitesboro and beat that group of Warriors 54-30. Early pins came from Osborne over Eric Burt in the first period, plus Jacob Hall (138) over Anthony Conti in 37 seconds and Anthony Desimone (145) over Brad Blum in 27 seconds.
The Northstars’ string of five straight wins in bouts started with Gazzillo pinning Ben Thibault in the second periods and Lisi taking just 29 seconds to pin Noah Brown. After a forfeit to McDonald, Butler and Anoceto each had first-period falls over, respectively, Jaron Noga and Tyler Woodall. Ciciarelli added a 52-second fall over Jason Potrzeba.
