What had proven a long and sometimes rough season for the Baldwinsville wrestling team could still prove rewarding if it could snare some honors during last Saturday’s Section III Division I championships at SRC Arena.
Yet even that proved elusive for the Bees’ quintet that was led by Jacob Cavallo, who as the no. 4 seed at 120 pounds would make quite a recovery after a 3-0 quarterfinal loss to Fulton’s Caleb Carreon.
Relegated to the consolation bracket, Cavallo routed Auburn’s Jeremy Grimes 12-0, and then claimed a4-2 decision over Cicero-North Syracuse’s Nathan Osborne to reach the consolation bracket final.
Now Cavallo would face Careon again, and the rematch was even closer than the first encounter, but it also carried the same result, a narrow defeat for Cavallo by a 2-1 margin.
Still, Cavallo’s fourth-place finish was B’ville’s lone trip to the podium, this after earning 13 sectional titles in the previous nine years, including two by Jeremy Pond (138 pounds) and Mike Spicer (285 pounds) in 2017.
Zach Hahn came in as the top seed at 132 pounds, having gone 30-6 during the season to reach that spot, but in the quarterfinals he was stunned by Watertown’s Spencer Lavin 3-1, followed by a 4-2 defeat to Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s Aaron Gucciardi.
Gunnar Hunt had the no. 6 seed at 220 pounds, but ran into Syracuse’s Mykle Thomas, who beat him in the second period on the way to a sectional title earned when Thomas pinned Fulton’s Jon Parrish.
From a no. 5 seed at 195 pounds, B’ville’s Luke Eberl nearly upended Fulton’s Matej Zavacky, earning lots of points, yet taking a 10-8 defeat to a no. 4 seed who ended up beating top seed Adam Honis (Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA) and Jamie Battaglia (Central Square) on the way to the sectional title.
Eberl finished with a 4-2 defeat to Carthage’s Devin Van Lengen. And Billy Loadwick started out as the no. 6 seed at 285 pounds, only to take a 6-0 quarterfinal defeat to Andrew Testani (Fayetteville-Manlius) before a 1-0 loss to Liverpool’s Lochlan Fegley.
