After claiming the Section III Class AA team title a season ago, the Baldwinsville wrestling team would only manage a seventh-place finish in this year’s edition.
On the mats at West Genesee High School last Saturday, the Bees earned 90 points, putting them well back of the battle at the top as Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA, with 235.5 points and seven individual champions, held off the hosts from WG (204 points) to win it.
Gunnar Hunt was the lone B’ville wrestler to reach the championship round. In the semifinals, Hunt pinned Charlie Josephson (Fayetteville-Manlius) late in the second period.
The final pitted Hunt against Cicero-North Syracuse’s Troyan Jones. It was close for all six minutes, but Jones pulled it out, defeating Hunt in a 4-3 decision.
Jacob Cavallo lost the 120-pound semifinal to Myles Griffin (J-D/CBA), but then beat Griffin’s teammate, Ethan Wells, 3-0 in the consolation bracket final to take third place.
Zach Hahn dropped the 132-pound semifinal to J-D/CBA’s Aaron Gucciardi 6-3 (Gucciardi went on to Most Outstanding Wrestler honors), with Hahn rebounding to get third place by pinning WG’s Patrick Ivery in 4:15.
Contending at 195 pounds, Luke Eberl lost his semifinal to WG’s Chandler McAvan, but would, like Cavallo and Hahn, get third place when he beat C-NS’s Jack McDonald 5-2.
Billy Loadwick finished fourth at 285 pounds, falling 5-2 to Syracuse’s Calvin Young in the third-place bout. Aiden Cali (99 pounds), Max Naples (106 pounds), Nate Hahn (138 pounds) and Cameron Salce (182 pounds) all got sixth-place finishes.
This whole group of wrestlers advanced to compete in this Saturday’s sectional Division I (large school) tournament at SRC Arena, which gets underway at 10 a.m.
Getting in one more match before the sectional tournament, B’ville hosted Rome Free Academy last Wednesday night, and again took a defeat, falling to the Black Knights 42-24.
In back-to-back bouts, Jacob Cavallo, at 126 pounds, pinned Garrett Craft midway through the second period and Zach Hahn (132 pounds) needed just 91 seconds to pin James Faso.
All of the Bees’ other points came from forfeits to Luke Eberl (195 pounds) and Gunnar Hunt (220 pounds) as Cameron Salce, wrestling at 182 pounds, took a 6-2 defeat to RFA’s Jon Walston.
