Judging strictly by results, the Skaneateles wrestling team did not get all that it wanted from Saturday’s Section III Division II championship meet at SRC Arena, unable to send anyone to the championship round, where berths in the Feb. 24-25 state meet at Albany were on the line.
All of that proved secondary, though, to what the Lakers accomplished together in 2016-17, which went well beyond an OHSL Liberty division regular-season title and a post-season OHSL Liberty/Patriot crown earned on Jan. 28.
Skaneateles was honored with the annual John Arcaro Sportsmanship Award handed out by the Syracuse Wrestling Officials Association. It’s given to the team whose wrestlers display all the good values of sports while competing, values that last long after the matches are over.
With that to celebrate, the Lakers could also take stock of what happened on the mats to its eight sectional competitors. Of them, five finished on the awards podium, but none of them above fourth place, though the team total of 65 points left Skaneateles 10th among 35 teams in the final standings. Central Valley Academy won with 176 points.
Capping off his return from an injury that sidelined him early this season, T.J. Greenfield finished fourth at 220 pounds. Greenfield pinned Jared Makuch (South Lewis) in 1:47 and took six fewer seconds to pin Mike Liebl (Canastota) in the quarterfinals before suffering a semifinal defeat to General Brown’s Luke Rogers in 58 seconds.
Now in the consolation bracket, Greenfield earned one more victory, an 8-1 decision over Cody Zubrzycki (Copenhagen-Beaver River) 8-1, before falling to Kern Linder (Marcellus) 7-1 in the third-place bout. Greenfield finished his abbreviated season with a 16-3 record.
Joey McIntyre had three pins and improved to 35-4 at 195 pounds. McIntyre pinned Max Bondgren (Jordan-Elbridge) in 80 seconds in the first round and pinned Dalton Cleary (Little Falls) in the second period of his quarterfinal, but lost in the semifinals to Sandy Creek’s Joe Benedict, who pinned him on the way to the title.
Moved to the consolation bracket, McIntyre got a third pin on the day, needing 82 seconds to finish off Cory Garvey (Marcellus), which put him in the consolation bracket final, where he ultimately took a second-period fall to General Brown’s Gavin Kovalik but still got fourth place.
J.W. Simmons was the no. 2 seed at 106 pounds, having lost just once in 35 bouts this winter, and pinned Wyatt Mullin (Copenhagen-Beaver River) in his quarterfinal following a first-round bye.
But Simmons lost, 12-3, to Matt Garland (South Jefferson-Sandy Creek) in the semifinals and fell to Mexico’s Dean Shambo before recovering to beat Cazenovia’s Jacob Wells 5-1 for fifth place. Simmons could still earn an at-large berth to the state meet, just like he did in 2016.
At 132 pounds, Joey Brillo improved to 36-5, but only finished sixth because, after his wins over Aaron Kelcher (Cortland) 14-0 and Ryan Dolbear (Phoenix) 5-1, Brillo dropped a tough 7-6 semifinal decision to the top seed, Camden’s Riley Gerber, and lost the next two bouts, too.
Pat Greenfield lost in the 170-pound quarterfinals to the eventual champion, Chittenango’s Connor Fredericks, after a first-round pin over Dolgeville’s Tony Chromaczak in 77 seconds.
Then Greenfield split two consolation bracket bouts, including a pin of Lowville’s Brent Millard and a narrow 3-2 defeat to Camden’s Mike Bristol, but he salvaged fifth place by edging South Jefferson-Sandy Creek’s Austin Kellogg in a 3-2 decision.
A no. 7 seed at 182 pounds, Ian Frackelton lost his first-round match to Little Falls’ Nathan Liscio 4-1. Christian Daley, at 126 pounds, lost in the first round to Phoenix’s Toby McKeen, while Matt Goetzmann (138 pounds) met the same fate in a 10-2 opening-round defeat to Cortland’s Kiegan Brown.
