Having gone through all kinds of struggles against a tough early slate of opponents, the Baldwinsville wrestling team began to assert itself as the calendar inched closer to the holiday break.
The Bees dropped its Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division opener last Thursday night, going to West Genesee last Wednesday night and falling 56-22 to the Wildcats.
And all of this happened after B’ville bolted to a 16-0 lead. Tyler Schardt opened at 113 pounds by routing Gavin O’Neill 17-7, followed by Jacob Cavallo (120 pounds) pinning Vincent Calabria in the third period and Zach Hahn (126 pounds) pinning Ejarian Burgin in the second period.
However, WG would prevail in 11 of the remaining 12 bouts, the lone exception at 285 pounds when Billy Loadwick pinned Shawn Sakran at the end of the first period. The closest decision was at 152 pounds, where John Eustice lost, 2-0, to Devin Earl as Luke Ebral (182 pounds) lost, 11-7, to Cole Wade.
From all that, B’ville went to Saturday’s Phoenix Round Robin Tournament, where with 138 points the Bees finished fourth in a 16-team field, ahead of WG (126.5 points) in fifth place as Grand Island (Section VI) won with 235.5 points.
Ebral made his way to the finals at 195 pounds, where he and Grand Island’s Blake Bielec took part in a high-scoring classic, Ebral producing several great moves yet still taking a 17-14 defeat.
Hahn reached the title bout at 126, but lost, 14-6, to Chenango Valley’s Nathan Lehr, while Schardt was victorious in the consolation bracket, defeating Braden Florczyk (Fayeteville-Manlius) 3-2 for third place.
Cavallo was fourth at 120 pounds, while Gunnar Hunt made it to fourth place at 195 pounds, denied a place by Johnson City’s David Kennedy in a 4-3 decision. Dennis Kral was sixth at 160 pounds.
B’ville would take on main rival Liverpool Wednesday night as then compete in the Mountain Duals at Dolgeville on Dec. 29-30.
