Top wrestlers from Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool each were vying for top honors during last Saturday’s Section III Division I championships at SRC Arena, but neither school would produce a champion.
Only the winners in the 15 weight classes would get a spot in the Feb. 23-24 state championship meet in Albany, and the Warriors managed to get one wrestler into the championship round – Anthony Piscatelli, the no. 3 seed at 160 pounds.
Piscatelli, in the quarterfinals, defeated East Syracuse Minoa’s Aslan Abdulla 9-4, moving to the semifinals, where against no. 2 seed Victor Elias (West Genesee) Piscatelli was tough and strong, pulling out a 7-4 decision.
Still, Piscatelli had to go up against the top seed, Fulton’s Nick Noel, in the finals. Noel nearly pinned Piscatelli at one point, but the Liverpool star held on for all six minutes as he took a 12-5 defeat and finished his season with a28-8 record.
Overall, the Warriors finished ninth in the 17-team Division I (large school) field with 76 points, earning seven podium finishes. C-NS was 10th with 68 points as five of its wrestlers had podium finishes, including a couple of third-place efforts.
For the Northstars, Dario Ciciarelli, at 106 pounds, just missed reaching the finals thanks to an 8-5 defeat to Kole Mulhauser (Central Square) in the semifinals. But Ciciarelli swept the consolation bracket, beating Lucas Vantassel (Indian River) 6-1 for third place.
At 152 pounds, Anthony Desimone got pins over Devin Flower (Central Square) and Ben Christopher (F-M) but lost his semifinal 6-2 to Auburn’s Hunter Duger.
In the consolation bracket, Desimone edged Gabe Lynch (Indian River) 5-3 and pulled out an 8-5 rematch with Christopher to grab third place. Lynch had beaten Desimone’s teammate, Michael Livesay, who had fallen in the quarterfinals.
The 120-pound division twice brought C-NS and Liverpool together. In the quarterfinals, the Northstars’ Nathan Osborne beat the Warirors’ Jacob Ianno 8-0, and they met again in the fifth-place bout, where it was a lot closer, but Osborne still won 7-3.
Toryan Jones, beaten in the 220-pound semifinal by Syracuse’s Mykle Thomas 8-5, saw Thom as go on to win the sectional title, while Jones, by edging Jordan Pone (Central Square) 2-1, salvaged a fifth-place finish.
Also, Harrison Portorsnok got a 12-0 win over West Genesee’s Jackson Taetsch and a 2-0 shutout of Auburn’s Parker Hogan on his way to a sixth-place finish.
Brian Bensanson lost in the 113-pound opening round, with Brian Besanson doing the same at 138 pounds and Isiah Wahdan suffering a first-round loss at 145 pounds. Robert Salvett fell in the 170-pound quarterfinals, the same round where Julian Zavaglia was eliminated at 182 pounds and Jack McDonald was ousted at 195 pounds.
Liverpool’s Jeremy Ianno fell in the quarterfinals to Braden Florczyk (Fayetteville-Manlius) at 113, but then won twice in the consolation bracket, including a 4-3 battle over Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s David Beseth, but settled for fourth place after another defeat to Florczyk.
Steve Pascarella, at 126 pounds, beat F-M’s John Scalzetti 5-2 and then topped Whitesboro’s Eric Burt 11-2, only to lose in the semifinals to the top seed, J-D-CBA’s Tyler Kellison, and then finish fourth when Burt won the rematch 6-0 in the consolation bracket final.
The Warriors also had Kenny Haugabook finish sixth at 138 and Lochlan Fegley take sixth place at 285 pounds, while Corey Okun fall in the quarterfinals at 106 and Ben Michalowski lost in the first round at170 and Ron Cyr did the same at 182.
