All season long, the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA wrestling team had held its own against all of its opposition, and when it counted the most, it went to the top.
J-D/CBA won last Saturday’s Section III Class AA tournament at West Genesee, earning 235.5 points to hold off the hosts from WG, who were second with 204 points. Fayetteville-Manlius finished fifth in the eight-team field with 128.5 points.
Having finished third in this same sectional meet a year ago, J-D/CBA made sure no one topped them as seven different wrestlers went to the top of the podium, going a perfect 7-0 in title bouts.
Matt Griffin dominated at 106 pounds, pinning Cicero-North Syracuse’s Dario Ciciarelli in just 66 seconds to take that title. At 120 pounds, Myles Griffin claimed a 6-2 victory over C-NS’s Nathan Osborne in their title bout.
Moving to 126 pounds, Tyler Kellison handled Liverpool’s Steve Pascarella with a 17-2 technical fall as, at 132 pounds, Aaron Gucciardi was so impressive defeating Rome Free Academy’s James Faso 6-2 in the final that he was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.
More titles followed as Garrett Bauer went to the top at 138 pounds with a 10-2 decision over WG’s Brady Ryan., one of three instances where a J-D/CBA wrestler beat a Wildcats wrestler in the championship round.
It also happened at 170 pounds, where Jake Wright held off WG’s Griffin Sasso 4-1, and at 195 pounds, where Adam Honis beat the Wildcats’ Chandler McAvan by that same 4-1 margin.
F-M got its lone win from Braden Florczyk at 113 pounds as he outlasted Liverpool’s Jeremy Ianno 9-5 in the finals. Ali Salem (145 pounds) dropped his final 7-2 to WG’s Devin Earl as Andrew Testani, at 285 pounds, los t to RFA’s Spencer Pisaneschi in a 29-second pin.
J-D/CBA also had David BeSeth beat C-NS’s Brian Besanson 3-1 for third place at 113. Alikhan Abdullayev blanked RFA’s Josh Hedrington for third place at 145 as William BeSeth (99) and Ethan Wells (120) both finished fourth.
Meanwhile, fifth-place finishes went to the trio of Shohjahon Alibekov (152 pounds), Brandon Milham (160 pounds) and Muaweyah El-Hindi (182 pounds), with Kelvin Huynh sixth at 132.
F-M had Ben Christopher edge C-NS’s Michael Livesay 10-6 for third place at 152. Alex Dauksza was fourth at 160, with Jon Scalzetti (126), Justin Bedell (132), Luke Ovadias (195) and Charlie Josephson (220) each getting fifth-place finishes. James Ferro was sixth at 160 and Zack Hendeson was sixth at 285.
East Syracuse Minoa took part in Saturday’s Class A sectional tournament at Fulton, where with 110 points the Spartans finished sixth out of nine teams, well behind Fulton’s winning total of 269.5 points.
Ameer Ladd was the lone ESM wrestler to get to the finals, at 220, where he edged Fulton’s Jon Parrish 2-1 in the semifinals to set up a title bout against Auburn’s Michael Hamilton. All that Ladd could manage was a single escape in a 6-1 defeat to Hamilton.
Logan Cowell lost in the semifinals, at 285, but edged Watertown’s Tom Norman 1-0 in the consolation bracket final to finish third. Donovan Marriott’s third-place finish at 113 pounds was sealed with a 39-second pin over Indian River’s Ethen Garrison.
Aslan Abdulla pinned Garrison’s teammate, Jake Whitmore, in 2:50 for third place at 160. Garren Kuney was fourth at 152 after a 5-2 defeat to Fulton’s Jeshua Lopez as Casey O’Donnell pinned Ben Speeding (Oswego) for fifth place at 126. Christian Moon was sixth at 99.
It was already a big week for F-M because, in last Wednesday’s match against its neighbors from East Syracuse Minoa, the Hornets emerged with a 40-24 victory over the Spartans.
Of the first five contested bouts, ESM won three of them, with Ladd topping Josephson 7-2 to go along with a pair of forfeits as Testani pinned Logan Cowell in 47 seconds for F-M.
But once Florczyk won a 2-1 thriller over Alex Leo, F-M took charge, claiming every bout from 126 to 160. That included close battles where Sam Abreham (126) held off O’Donnell 3-1 and Scalzetti (132) topped Logan Palmer 8-5, with Christopher claiming a 6-4 decision over Kuney.
Aslan Abdulla shut out Sawyer Deresynski 5-0, but F-M won twice more thanks to Dauksza, who beat Ali Abdulla 12-4, and Ovadias, who pinned Brandon Crone.
J-D/CBA had defeated Adironack 45-32 last Tuesday, losing the first two bouts but then winning the next six, four of them forfeits, but also having Wright beat Ben Gerling 9-2 and Honis pin Zach Kraszewski in the second period.
And though the Wildcats won four of the last seven bouts, J-D/CBA held on because Kellison pinned Chris Webster in 89 seconds, Bauer beat Brendan Martin 9-3 and Abdullayev got past Jacob Larrivey 8-4.
