Helped by its second-place finish in the Jan. 20 Section III Dual Meethe Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA wrestling team would go to SRC Arena to compete in last weekend’s inaugural State Dual Meet Championships as an at-large entry.
In two rounds where the 12 participating teams competed in a round-robin format, J-D/CBA proved competitive, but lost to Spencerport 40-31 and Rocky Point 51-21.
Fulton, who beat J-D/CBA in the sectional Dual Meet Final,beat Hilton and Shenendehowa to reach the semifinals before a 48-18 defeat to Wantagh, who topped Minisink Valley 38-27 to earn the Division I state championship.
Before all this, J-D/CBA entered last Monday’s Phoenix Mid-Winter Tournament, moved back from earlier in the month due to winter weather.
Tyler Kellison won at 126 pounds, pinning Canastota’s Darren Domenicone in 68 seconds in the finals right before Kevin Hunyh claimed the 132-pound title when he edged Watertown’s Spencer Lavin 3-0.
David BeSeth (106 pounds) and Adam Honis (195 pounds) both lost close finals, with BeSeth taking a 3-1 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse’s David Cicarelli and Honis falling 4-3 to Canastota’s Doug Simmons.
Four other J-D/CBA wrestlers had third-place finishes. Ethan Wells got his at 120 pounds by edging C-NS’s Jacob Montminy 6-3, with Muaweyah El-Hindi (170 pounds) pinning C-NS’s Antonio Napolitano in 70 seconds.
To earn third place at 285 pounds, William Laun took 74 seconds to pin C-NS’s Brady Ramos, with Laith Abdel-Aziz (220 pounds) pinning Tom Norman (Watertown) in the third period. James Richer was fourth at 182 pounds, with Shohjahon Alibekov sixth at 152 pounds.
A night later, J-D/CBA wrestled head-to-head against Mexico and, still without Matt Griffin in the lineup, put away the Tigers 52-19.
Honis, handling Harley Wakeman 19-5, got it going as Laun pinned Blake Wise in 57 seconds and BeSeth pulled away from George Smith 15-2 as Connor Muller (113 pounds) took a forfeit.
Myles Griffin returned at 120 pounds, where he fought past Dean Shambo 5-1. Kellison’s 15-3 win over Austin Reed preceded pins by Hunyh and Garrett Bauer (145 pounds), the latter in a 68-second conquest of Bryan Stock.
Three more wins followed as Alikhan Abdullayev (152 pounds) pinned Dominick Randall in 66 seconds before Brandon Milham (160 pounds) blanked Don Littebrant 14-0 and Jake Wright (170 pounds) won a 7-1 decision over Josh O’Reilly.
Fayetteville-Manlius would have its own match with Mexico Wednesday night, but not have the same kind of success, taking a 44-24 defeat to the Tigers.
Of the first seven bouts, the Hornets won just once, at 285, where Andrew Testani pinned Blake Wise in 26 seconds. F-M’s best stretch did not start until 145, when Ali Salem pinned Stock midway through the second period.
From there, Ben Christopher (152) earned a tough 9-6 decision over Don Littlebrant and Alex Dauksza (160) earned a 43-second pin over Dominick Randall. F-M got one more win at 195 when Luke Ovadias blanked Harley Wakeman 6-0.
Two nights later, the Hornets hosted Baldwinsville, and with a late comeback pulled out a 33-28 victory over the Bees.
F-M trailed 25-15 midway through the match, but began to rally when Jon Scalzetti (132) claimed a forfeit and Justin Bedell, at 138, earned a 7-2 decision over Nate Hahn.
Salem followed with a second-period pin over Jon Formoza, followed by Christopher’s close 7-5 decision over John Eustice. Then, at 160, Dauksza clinched the team victory when he beat Dennis Kral 6-4.
East Syracuse Minoa would meet Fulton two days before the Red Raiders appeared in the state Dual Meet, and claim just three bouts in a 61-12 defeat to the Red Raiders.
Ameer Ladd won at 220 in a tough 3-1 decision over Jon Parrish. Two bouts later, at 99, Christian Moon defeated Fred Pagan 7-4 as Alex Leo earned the Spartans’ lone pin at 113, finishing off Levi Chase midway through the third period.
Fulton prevailed in each of the remaining nine bouts, the closest of them coming at 160, when ESM’s Ali Abdulla took an 8-5 defeat to Jeshua Lopez. That came right after Garren Kuney’s 9-2 defeat to Adam DeMauro at 152.
