A 24-hour weather postponement did not stop the Cazenovia wrestling team from hosting its annual invitational meet last Sunday at Buckley Gym.
In all, 16 teams made it to Cazenovia, and the host Lakers, with Matt McLaughlin earning the title at 126 pounds, finished eighth with 106 points. Indian River won the team title with 169.5 points, holding off Camden (157 points) for that top spot.
Each of McLaughlin’s wins was a first-period pin. He finished off Jon Scalzetti (Fayetteville-Manlius) with three seconds left in the opening period and got a 54-second fall over Hunter Guyette (Carthage) in the semifinals before a title bout where McLaughlin pinned Ogdensburg’s Zach Roberts in 1:52.
At 152 pounds, Sam Deleon, after a semifinal defeat, won both consolation bracket bouts, edging Rob Krone (South Jefferson-Sandy Creek) 1-0 before pinning Adam Crossley (Holland Patent) late in the second period to finish third.
Patrick Nourse lost in the 145-pound semifinals, but rebounded to finish third when he claimed a forfeit over Carthage’s Tom Albright in the consolation bracket final.
Jacob Wells finished fourth at 113 pounds, going 2-2 overall. Casey Cunningham pinned F-M’s Alex Dauksa in 86 seconds for fifth place at 160 pounds. Joe McLaughlin gained sixth place at 132 pounds with a 2-3 mark.
So with that work out of the way, Cazenovia moved on to host its neighbors from Chittenango Wednesday night, and while there was some doubt until the late going, the Lakers still beat the Bears 50-30.
Wells opened at 113 by beating Peyton Denney 12-3. Then, after Joey Mariani (120 pounds) edged Matt Knutsen 3-2, Cazenovia won the next six bouts, three of them forfeits to Chris Stevens (132 pounds), Ryan Frost (138 pounds) and Jacob Buckley (152 pounds).
Matt McLaughlin won again, pinning Gage Gifford in 2:25. Nourse pinned Devin Myers with seven seconds left in their bout as Deleon, moved up to 160, pinned James Moore in 90 seconds.
Chittenango began to fight back with a forfeit to Corey Fredericks (182 pounds) as Isaiah Prado, at 195 pounds, pinned Mike Bumpus in 13 seconds. Ethan Ferguson (220 pounds) shut out Max Fisher 4-0 as John Spencer (285 pounds) got a second-period fall over Carter Polhamus.
All of this cut the Bears’ deficit to 39-30, but the Lakers clinched the match when Shaun Zampetti, at 99 pounds, routed Blayde DeBlieux 10-1 in advance of Stan Angus (106 pounds) pinning Mark Young in 89 seconds.
Before this, at another weather-delayed tournament, Chittenango finished 10th out of 20 sides in the Red Devil Invitational at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, with Camden (177 points) rising to the top of the team standings.
Fredericks won another tournament for the Bears, prevailing at 182 to improve to 19-2 on the season. He pinned Richard Baylor (Little Falls) in the second period of their semifinal bout and then took just 55 seconds to pin Gouverneur’s Kyle Jenkins in the finals.
Denney had Chittenango’s lone other top-four finish, earning fourth place at 113. Shepard won fifth place at 170 by pinning Morrisville-Eaton’s Luke Perry.
