An annual highlight of the Skaneateles wrestling season is its dual meet tournament, which this year brought in Auburn, East Syracuse Minoa, Cato-Meridian and Oneida for competition in a round-robin format.
And the Lakers would beat all of them, routing Cato 75-6 and getting past Oneida 47-30 in the morning session before an afternoon session where it pulled away from Auburn 63-24 and completed the sweep by stopping ESM 52-30.
Moving to 16-4 on the season, the Lakers had five different wrestlers go 4-0 on the day – J.W. Simmons (106 pounds), Christian Daley (126 pounds), Joey Brillo (132 pounds), Ian Frackelton (189 pounds) and T.J. Greenfield (220 pounds).
Four other Lakers had three-win outings, including Josh O’Hara (160 pounds), Dylan O’Hara (285 pounds), Pat Greenfield (170 pounds) and Joey McIntyre (195 pounds). Meanwhile, Hannah Drake (99 pounds), Bo Arold (126 pounds) and Matt Goetzmann (145 pounds) got two victories apiece and single wins were credited to Josep Ausio (his first varsity victory earned at 152 pounds), Hayes Danforth (138 pounds) and Preston Blake (120 pounds).
Three days before the dual meet, Skaneateles faced APW/Pulaski and rolled to a 70-12 victory, improving its overall record to 12-4 and setting up a chance to clinch the outright OHSL Liberty division regular-season title against Cazenovia a week later at Buckley Gym.
APW/Pulaski was supposed to offer a big challenge, but had five wrestlers sit out due to injury or illness. That led to a string of forfeits as Danforth (138), Goetzmann (145), Drake (99), Simmons (106), Blake (113 ) and Daley (126) won without taking the mat.
The night’s big story was the return of T.J. Greenfield from a shoulder injury that had sidelined him in the fall during football season. Greenfield would prove successful in his season debut, pinning APW/Pulaski’s Jon Curcie with 45 seconds left in their bout.
Pat Greenfield had the night’s quickest pin at 170, needing just 64 seconds to finish off Zack Cronk as Frackelton pinned Mike Vincent in 1:42 and McIntyre needed six more seconds to pin Earl Wallis.
Josh O’Hara got the Lakers’ first win of the night at 160 pounds with a 17-6 romp over Jared LaSalle. Many forfeits followed, but Brillo finished the night at 126 and pinned Dylan Guthrie in 86 seconds.
Aside from the big meet with Cazenovia, Skaneateles also is a favorite in the OHSL Liberty/Patriot tournament that takes place Saturday at Hannibal High School.
