Once again, two local high school wrestling teams went head-to-head when Marcellus faced Jordan-Elbridge on Dec. 15 during the Brett Dixon Memorial Duals at Central Square.
As part of a perfect 5-0 run to the title, the Mustangs defeated the Eagles 52-24, getting away by winning each of the last five bouts after J-E pulled within one, 25-24, midway through the match.
Forfeits to Ethan Ciota (106 pounds) and Carl Santiarello (113 pounds) were followed by Ryan Moses pinning Nolan Jackson in the second period and Brady Schram (126 pounds) pinning Cameron Prior in the waning seconds of their bout. In the 132-pound finale, Tim Okhman edged Derek Quigley 4-3.
Earlier, Cahal Donovan, pulled up all the way to 152 pounds, pinned Cole Mullen in 27 seconds, with Rob Seeley (182 pounds) holding off Landry LaFleur 3-2 and Tom Kinsella (195 pounds) getting a third-period fall over Anthony Baron.
J-E countered with Cameron Newhook, at 170 pounds, pinning Luke Barney in 61 seconds. Then Jared Lawrence (220 pounds) pinned Wilvon McKee in the second period as Josh Roberts (285 pounds) got a second-period fall over Matt Frost and Bryan Tanner, at 99 pounds, pinned Gavin Ciota in 90 seconds.
Elsewhere at the Dixon meet, Marcellus handled East Syracuse Minoa 63-22, got past Oneida 66-21, defeated Rome Free Academy 51-31 and, against the hosts from Central Square, beat the Redhawks 49-22, with key pins late in the match from Moses and Schram.
J-E had routed Oneida 60-12 to start the day and handled Otselic Valley 60-6, but lost close matches to ESM 39-36 and Chittenango 39-38 despite two wins apiece from LaFleur, Baron, Quigley and Roberts.
All of this led to last Wednesday’s matches, where Marcellus faced Mexico and had to hang on in the final bout of the night to get a dramatic 40-39 victory over the Tigers.
Up by four, 40-36, with a single bout to go, the Mustangs sent out Okhman to face Bryan Stock at 138. A Mexico win by seven or more points would give them the team win in the match, too, but Okhman did not let that happen, earning enough points so that, though Stock won 10-8, he got just three points for the decision, enough for Marcellus to take it.
It began with four straight Mustangs pins as Donovan, at 145 pounds this time, finished off Patrick Johnson in 1:43 before Riley LaFrance (152) pinned Tom Gessner in 48 seconds. Trevor Widrick (160) took 3:49 to pin Ethan Rhoads as Seeley pinned Austin Miller in 73 seconds.
Kinsella got a 9-1 decision over Blake Wise as McKee pinned Joe Becker early in the third period. Still, it took Moses pinning Michael Smith in 56 seconds to give the Mustangs the cushion it needed against the Tigers’ late charge. Also, Gavin Ciota and Ethan Ciota lost, but like Okhman limited the Tigers to three points in both bouts.
Meanwhile, J-E won a 54-24 rematch with Otselic Valley. Most of the points were forfeits, but Tanner pinned Jacob Hackett with 22 seconds left in their bout as Christian Matthews (112) pinned Ben Craft in 2:51 and Lawrence pinned Ashvil Rood in the third period.
Then there was West Genesee, fresh off its victory at the Dec. 15 Phoenix Round Robin, getting humbled at home by Cicero-North Syracuse in a 39-30 defeat to the Northstars.
With two bouts left, the two sides were tied 30-30, but C-NS swept those remaining contests, including the Wildcats’ Jackson Taetsch (113) taking a 6-4 loss to Dan Sweeney.
It had opened at 120 with WG’s Nate Wade getting a 16-0 technical fall over Brian Besanson, but C-NS took the next three bouts, Ejarian Burgin (132) falling 6-3 to Nate Osborne and Eugene Belov (138) shut out by Eric Salenski 4-0.
Some recovery came from Brady Ryan’s last-second pin of Adam Brown at 145 and Colin McAvan (152) beating Alex Nobles 7-2, with Devin Earl (170) blanking Robert Salvett 12-0 and Chandler McAvan (285 pounds) getting an 81-second fall over Matt Walker before a forfeit to Sam Snyder at 99.
