Victories by the brother tandem of Matt and Myles Griffin helped the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA wrestling team rise all the way to third place in the massive Kenneth Haines Memorial Tournament held Dec. 29-30 at Fulton.
With 176.5 points, J-D/CBA was just behind the runner-up, Niagara-Wheatfield (Section VI), who had 179 points. Fulton, the host team, won the team event with 257.5 points.
Matt Griffin ruled at 106 pounds, taking just 21 seconds to pin Victor’s Bryce Kuter in the quarterfinals and then pinning Cortland’s Kaiden Haynes in 84 seconds in the semifinals. The title bout saw Griffin shut out Central Square’s Kole Mulhauser 10-0 as he sur
Meanwhile, at 113 pounds, Myles Griffin began his title push by pinning Canastota’s Casey Bixby in 1:42 in the quarterfinals before a semifinal where he took one fewer second to pin Auburn’s Luca Pirozzolo. The final, against South Jefferson-Sandy Creek’s Matt Garland, was a bit tougher, but Griffin won it 5-1.
With a 17-2 romp over Canastota’s Matt McLaughlin, Tyler Kellison reached the 126-pound title bout, only to lose a 5-2 decision to Niagara-Wheatfield’s Justin McDougald.
Garrett Bauer, stopped in the 138-pound semifinals, recovered to beat Fulton’s Cuinn Burlingham 7-2 for third place. Jake Wright finished sixth at 170 pounds.
East Syracuse Minoa also took part in the Haines Tournament and finished 26th with 48 points. Ameer Ladd reached the 220-pound final before a 10-4 defeat to Newark Valley’s Alex Woodmansee and ultimately took sixth place.
When league matches resumed in 2018, J-D/CBA was set to make up its snowed-out Dec. 13 showdown with Fulton last Thursday night, but weather again forced a postponement.
A day earlier, J-D/CBA went to Cortland and rolled to a 64-12 victory over the Purple Tigers.
Forfeits to Kellison, Matt Griffin and William Laun (285 pounds) in the early going were augmented by William BeSeth, at 99 pounds, pinning Zach Brafman in 3:25 and Ethan Wells (120 pounds) pinning Gildon Case with 30 seconds left in their bout.
At 132 pounds, Aaron Gucciardi took 40 seconds to pin Noah Wurst, preceding a J-D/CBA run where Bauer, moved up to 145 pounds, got a 15-0 technical fall over Jarrod Bush and Alikhan Abdullayev (152 pounds) pinned Anthony Brown in 76 seconds. Forfeits to Tyriq Block (160 pounds) and Muaweyah El-Hindi (182 pounds) followed.
