Darian Crossman’s victory at 182 pounds keyed the East Syracuse Minoa wrestling team’s return to prominence during last Saturday’s Section III Class A championship meet at Carthage High School.
Finishing with 155 points, the Spartans beat out most of the nine-team field. Only Fulton, who won with 285 points, and Indian River, with 189 points, finished ahead of ESM.
Crossman met Fulton’s Jaymes Garrison in the 182-pound semifinals, and pinned him in 78 seconds. This brought Crossman to the title bout against Oswego’s Aaron LaTulip, but this one didn’t last the full six minute, either as Crossman needed three minutes, 16 seconds to pin LaTulip.
In all, four ESM wrestlers reached the finals, including Jeff Loder at 152 pounds. Having pinned Indian River’s Garrett Putnam in the semifinals in 3:11, Loder faced Fulton’s Camrin Galvin in a tense final where every point was precious – but Galvin pulled it out, beating Loder 4-3.
Up at 113 pounds, Donovan Marriott used a 63-second fall over Fulton’s Tyler Emeterio to get into the finals, only to run into Whitesboro’s Jeff Robinson, who mostly kept Marriott from making too many attacks as he lost an 8-2 decision.
Moving to 285 pounds, the Spartans’ Ameer Ladd got a big 1-0 victory over Indian River star Dylan Ashwood in the semifinals, using a single escape to get up a shot at the title, but Fulton’s Jared Crucitti proved too tough as he beat Ladd by the same 8-2 margin as in the final Marriott lost.
At 145 pounds, Garren Kuney dropped a 5-0 semifinal to Fulton’s Nick Noel, but then won the consolation bracket, pinning Jasiah Rios (Oswego) in 2:08 for third place. Joe Monteleone fell to Fulton’s Jon Parrish 4-2 in the semifinals at 195 pounds, with Monteleone ultimately beating Mike Hamilton (Auburn) 9-4 in his consolation bracket final and also finish third.
Alex Leo lost in the 106-pound semifinal to Fulton’s Tom Hughes, but rebounded to blank Auburn’s James Grimes 10-0 to finish fifth. Daud Abdullayev reached the 160-pound semifinal and got pinned by Fulton’s Dylan Demauro, with Abdullayev ultimately taking fourth place, the same finish as Chris Todd at 220 pounds.
Each of these ESM wrestlers will go to SRC Arena this Saturday for the sectional Division I (Large School) championships, which start at 10 a.m.
