Area high school wrestling teams now entered the fray in their respective leagues, with West Genesee in a featured role as it took on Baldwinsville in the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division showdown.
On the mat, the Wildcats were victorious, but later it was discovered that it used an ineligible wrestler at 195 pounds, so what was supposed to be a 42-33 victory turned instead into a 1-0 defeat.
And it all had started so well, with Colin McAvan winning his 152-pound opener over Nate Hahn 14-3 as Cole Saxon (160 pounds) pinned Connor Kral with 34 seconds left in their bout and Devin Earl (170 pounds) claimed a forfeit.
B’ville took control in the middle stages, the lone exception coming from Cole Wade, at 285 pounds, who won a 4-1 battle over Billy Loadwick.
Late in the match, WG began a string of wins at 120 pounds when Gavin O’Neil pinned Jared Prince early in the second period. Nate Wade (126 pounds) followed with a fall over Liam Fitzgerald in 1:50.
Ejarian Burgin got the Wildcats’ quickest pin of the night at 132 pounds, taking just 48 seconds to finish off Brendan Hoff as Brady Ryan (145 pounds) got a 15-0 technical fall over Tyler Southworth.
Following all that, the Wildcats got a victory no one could take from them Saturday when it won the Phoenix Round Robin Tournament.
Earning 169.5 points, WG edged out Section VI’s Grand Island (166 points) for the top spot in a 19-team field. Ironically, B’ville was in this event, too, but settled for fourth place with 117 points.
Nate Wade led the way , pinning Fayetteville-Manlius’ Braden Florczyk in the second period to take the title at 120 pounds. Cole Wade nearly won at 220, but dropped a 15-13 classic to Grand Island’s Blake Bielec in the title bout as Ryan lost a tight final at 145 to Port Byron’s Tyler Parker 12-9.
O’Neil pinned Parker’s Panthers teammate, Gabe Newton, to finish third at 126 pounds as Chandler McAvan was third at 220 pounds. Burgin, Sam Snyder (99 pounds) and Devin Earl (160 pounds) each had fourth-place efforts, with Colin McAvan fifth at 152 pounds.
Marcellus would visit Chittenango Thursday night, this after a fourth-place finish in a 15-team field in the Dave Buck Memorial Tournament held Dec. 8 at Elmira.
With 60 points, the Mustangs only trailed third-place Chenango Forks (65 points) by a small margin as host Elmira (145 points) won and Tioga (117 points) was second.
Two Marcellus wrestlers reached the finals in Elmira. Carl Santariello did so at 113 pounds, only to run into Elmira’s Blake Brooks and take a 15-2 defeat as Tom Kinsella got close to the title at 195 pounds before a 5-2 loss to Vestal’s Todd Degroat.
Once it got to Chittenango, Marcellus had little problem in a 54-21 victory over the Bears, claiming seven of the first eight bouts, tough five of them were forfeits.
Not until Kinsella wrestled at 220 did the Mustangs get a mat win, and that was hard-earned as Kinsella edged John Spencer 3-1 before Wilvon McKee, at 285, got an 8-1 win over Ethan Ferguson.
Later in the meet, Santiarello pinned Oliver Denney in 1:43 and Tim Okhman, at 132, pinned Mark Young early in the second period, Trevor Widrick (160) had a 7-5 defeat to Devin Myers as Ryan Moses (120) dropped a 10-9 thriller to Peyton Denney and Quinten Weaver lost at 138 pounds to Joe Mariani 3-0.
Jordan-Elbridge continued to find success in last Wednesday’s meet against Onondaga, employing close to a full roster and rolling past the Tigers 62-12.
Starting at 170 pounds the Eagles had three consecutive mat wins. Cameron Newhook (170) finished off John McKenna in 79 seconds as Landry LaFleur (182 pounds) held off Jack Bailey 5-2 and Anthony Baron (195) pinned Zach Grolling in the third period.
Two more mat wins followed late in the meet, as at 120 pounds Nolan Jackson got a 16-1 technical fall over Noah Hartman and, in the 152-pound finale, Marion Quigley needed 73 seconds to pin David French.
J-E and Marcellus were both part of Saturday’s Brett Dixon Memorial Duals at Central Square, where the Mustangs went a perfect 5-0.
This included a head-to-head match where Marcellus beat J-E 52-24, this after it beat East Syracuse Minoa 63-22 and before it took out Oneida (66-21), Rome Free Academy and, finally, the host Central Square Redhawks 49-22.
