A massive opportunity presented itself to the Cazenovia wrestling team when it traveled to Homer last Wednesday night.
Going into the meet, the Lakers and Trojans both had 4-1 records in the OHSL Liberty division. If Cazenovia won, it would tie Phoenix for first place, but have a claim to the outright title because it beat the Firebirds 48-33 in December.
But it would not happen as Homer, clinching matters with two bouts to go, defeated Cazenovia 45-39.
They started at 160 pounds, where the Lakers’ Sam Deleon pinned Lane Quaile near the end of the first period. Two bouts later, at 182 pounds, John Frega pinned Chase Kiner in 92 seconds.
Homer took the lead for good with three consecutive pins from 195 to 285 pounds, Cazenovia not responding until Stan Angus, at 99 pounds, got his own 94-second fall over Gavin Bennett.
They continued to exchange pins, the Trojans earning a pair of balls while, in between, Jacob Wells (113 pounds) matched Angus with his own 94-second pin, this one over Ryan Opanhoske.
But other than a forfeit to Matt McLaughlin (126), Homer won three of the next four bouts to put the match away before Patrick Nourse, at 145 pounds, edged Colin Cronk 4-2 as Kevin Valentine (152 pounds) pinned Gabe Cline in the second period.
Cazenovia went from there to Saturday’s Section III Class C championships at Hannibal, where with 70 points it finished eighth in an 11-team field as Holland Patent (203.5 points) edged Canastota (202 points) for top honors.
Wells, as the no. 2 seed at 106 pounds, pinned HP’s Joe Diana in 18 seconds to reach the finals, but then lost a 3-0 decision to Adirondack’s Brett Gaylord.
Matt McLaughlin met the same fate as the same no. 2 seed at 126 pounds, pinning Hunter Carr (Adirondack) in the semifinals, only to get beat in the title bout by Carr’s teammate, Kevin Spann, in a 7-2 decision.
Deleon made it to fourth place at 152, with Angus fourth at 99. Shaun Zampetti beat Dan Cerillo (Hannibal) 7-2 for fifth place at 99, while Nourse was sixth at 145 and Frega got sixth place at 182.
Chittenango was part of the sectional Class B tournament at Central Valley Academy, where victories by Connor Fredericks at 182 and Isaiah Prado at 195 pounds were part of an eighth-place team finish.
Fredericks improved to 30-2 on the season, getting a 92-second technical fall over Austin Miller (Mexico) and then shutting out Paul Morse (Homer) 6-0 in the semifinals before a title bout where he blanked Miller’s teammate, Josh O’Reilly, 7-0.
Having only wrestled 11 times this winter, Prado was the no. 2 seed at 195, but then pinned Harley Wakeman (Mexico) and routed Hunter O’Gorman (Homer ) 15-1, leading to a final where he pinned CVA’s Riley Brewer with 23 seconds left in their bout.
Robert Shepard took fourth place at 182 behind Frederick. John Spencer was fifth at 285, defeating Kyle Seymore (Camden) 6-4 for that spot, while Peyton Denney (113) pinned Alex Hyman (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) in 2:36 for his own fifth-place finish. At 145, Devin Myers was fifth thanks to a second-period pin over South Jefferson-Sandy Creek’s Rob Krone.
The top Cazenovia and Chittenango wrestlers go to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena to take part in the overall sectional Division II (small school tournament). Only the winners are guaranteed spots in the Feb. 23-24 state tournament in Albany.
