In two separate venues last weekend, area high school wrestling teams battled not just for Section III titles in their respective classes, but also to make it to SRC Arena for this Saturday’s Section III championship meets.
West Genesee finished fifth out of nine teams in last Saturday’s sectional Class AA meet at Baldwinsville, picking up 112 points, barely half the total of host B’ville, who won with 212.5 points by placing eight of its wrestlers In final bouts and winning eight of them.
Victor Elias gave the Wildcats its best chance for victory at 160 pounds. Elias beat B’ville’s Dom Sposato 10-5 in the quarterfinals and dominated Central Square’s Colin Rupracht 12-1 in the semifinals, but in the title bout CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt’s Jake Wright pinned Elias in 72 seconds.
Devin Earl reached the 145-pound semifinal, but after a loss to CBA/J-D’s Jonah Cavallo 11-1, Earl went to the consolation bracket and won it, defeating Liverpool’s Zach Curcie 14-5 for third-place honors.
Chandler McAvan finished third at 195 pounds, recovering from a semifinal pin by Central Square’s Isaac Havens by winning twice in the consolation bracket, capped by a pin over B’ville’s Gunnar Hunt in the third-place bout.
Nate Wade lost a close 12-11 semifinal to Central Square’s Kole Mulehauser at 99 pounds and eventually finished fourth after a 13-4 defeat to Dario Ciciarelli (Cicero-North Syracuse) in the consolation bracket final. Ejarian Burgin finished fourth at 120 pounds, having fallen to Charlie Tran (Liverpool) in the third-place match.
Brady Ryan won a 23-19 match over teammate Ian Blachford in the 132-pound quarterfinals. Ryan lost in the semifinals, but still got fourth place as Blachford could not win another bout. Griffin Sasso finished fourth at 170 pounds. Michael Mesa was sixth at 285 pounds as Vincent Calabria (106 pounds) lost in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, in Canastota, Marcellus picked up 118.5 points to finish seventh out of 11 teams in the sectional Class C tournament, with Jordan-Elbridge adding 31.5 points. Host Canastota, with 198 points, beat Adirondack (169 points) and General Brown (166.5 points) for the team title.
Four different Mustangs reached the finals, starting with Noah Carbone at 106 pounds. Carbone beat Blake Lavalley (General Brown) in a second-period fall in the semifinals, only to get pinned himself by Skaneateles star J. W. Simmons in the first period of the final.
Alex Czerniak, at 120 pounds, emerged from the top seed, beating Darrin Domenicone (Canastota) 15-5 in the semifinals before Adirondack’s Keagan Case pinned him in the second period of the final. Riley Donovan made the 126-pound title bout after a 3-0 shutout of Christian Daley (Skaneateles) in the semifinals, but lost, 10-4, to Adirondack’s Kevin Spann in the finals.
Up at 220 punds, Kern Linder had pins over Steve Smyth (Holland Patent) and Mike Leibl (Canstota) in the early rounds, but in the finals General Bronwn’s Luke Rogers proved elusive and tough, with Linder taking a 12-6 defeat.
Marcellus also had a third-place finisher, Cory Garvey, who lost the semifinal, only to keep working and, in the consolation bracket, edging Canastota’s Brandon Otis 4-3 for their place.
Two other Mustangs finished fourth, including Riley LaFrance at 132 pounds and Nick Distefano at 145 pounds after Distefano lost a tough 8-7 semifinal to Canastota’s Marshall Brugemann, the eventuall champion, with a fifth-place finish from Josh Widrick at 138 pounds as he pinned Cameron Drake (APW/Pulaski) for that spot.
J-E did not have any wrestler reach the finals, but Jared Alpha was a semifinalist at 106 before Simmons beat him, and Lavalley pinned Alpha in the consolation bracket final, leading Alpha to a forurth-place finish.
Max Bondgren, with a 7-5 decision over General Brown’s Giovanni Oresci, was fifth at 195. Jessi Tripp gained sixth place at 99 pounds. Marion Quigley fell in the quarterfinals at 132, Derek Quigley lost in the opening round at 113, and Landry LaFleur did the same at 160.
