Now the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA wrestling team sought to defend its title when the Section III Class AA championships took place last Saturday at West Genesee High School.
And the Rams got close to it, but with 177.5 points fell just short as the hosts from West Genesee won it with 185 points. Fayetteville-Manlius finished ninth with 61 points.
Just four J-D/CBA wrestlers reached the finals, and the two it won were quite close. At 126 pounds, Tyler Kellison was pushed to the wire in the title bout by Cicero-North Syracuse’s Nate Osborne, but held on 7-5. Ethan Wells finished fifth.
It was just the same at 106 pounds for David BeSeth, who found himself in a tense final against another C-NS wrestler, Dan Sweeney, and was able to pull out a 4-3 decision. William BeSeth took fourth place.
Brandon Milham was one takedown from winning at 170 pounds, but lost his final 5-4 to Auburn’s Lucas Hogan. Adam Honis got injured in the 195-pound final, so Syracuse’s Mykle Thomas claimed a forfeit.
Shoh Alibekov edged Liverpool’s Ron Cyr 3-2 for third place at 182 pounds, with Carlos Martinez third at 145 pounds by pinning Auburn’s Alex Anseth.
Laith Abdel-Aziz got fourth place at 220 pounds, with Cameron Schultz fifth at 152 pounds and Jackson Thomas fifth at 99 pounds. Will Laun finished sixth at 285 pounds, with Braden Barcza sixth at 132 pounds and Luis Martinez sixth at 120 pounds.
Just one F-M wrestler made it to the finals – Justin Bedell, who did so at 145, only to get injured early in his title bout with West Genesee’s Chandler McAvan and defaulting.
Braden Florczyk beat Rome Free Academy’s Garrett Craft 9-3 to finish third at 120. Ben Christopher got to third place at 152 pounds with a 5-4 decision over J-D/CBA’s Alikhan Abdullayev.
Alex Dauksza made his way to fourth place at 152. Charlie Josephson (220) finished sixth, as did Sawyer Dereszynski at 170.
Before this, J-D/CBA met F-M head-to-head last Friday night, and the Rams won, 55-25, though the individual highlight was Florczyk earning his 100th career win for the Hornets by pinning Luis Martinez in the opener.
Bedell edged Carlos Martinez 8-6, with Alibekov topping Dereszynski 5-0 as F-M’s Zack Henderson pinned Laun in the third period. Wells, Thomas and both BeSeth brothers got pins for J-D/CBA as Dauksza earned a pin for the Hornets and Josephson beat Abdel-Aziz by a 13-3 margin.
East Syracuse Minoa was involved in the sectional Class A championships at Whitesboro, where the Spartans finished sixth in a nine-team field with 109 points as Fulton (256 points) went to the top.
Ameer Ladd won the title at 220, topping Luke Smith (Carthage) 12-6 in the semifinals, and then dominating Fulton’s Dylan DeMauro 18-7 in the title bout to get to the top of the podium
Donovan Marriott earned third place at 113 by pinning Fulton’s Sam Waldron in 36 seconds. At 152, Aslan Abdulla pinned Jesse Young (Oswego) in the consolation bracket final, while Matt Lewis (182) pinned Jude Converse (Watertown) in 1:52 for third place.
Ali Abdulla got fourth place at 170, as did Andrew Crone at 195. Alex Leo’s pin of Louis Zurek (Whitesboro) put him in fifth place at 132 as Iziha Hayden (195) pinned Fulton’s Shane Goutermout in 43 seconds for fifth place. Dakota Allen was sixth at 126.
This came at the end of a busy late-season stretch that started Jan. 25 with a 2-2 record at the Akley Duals in Oswego.
The Spartans edged Auburn 36-35 in the opener, lost 48-36 to Whitesboro, had a narrow 40-39 defeat to Baldwinsville and finally beat host Oswego 39-30 in that event.
In a non-league match last Tuesday, ESM went to West Genesee and lost, 47-27, to the Wildcats, with Ladd outlasting Chandler McAvan 6-2 in the opener.
Marriott pinned Jon McDonald in 76 seconds, with Michael O’Brien (138) pinning Eugene Belov in the second period. Aslan Abdulla needed an overtime takedown to edge Colin McAvan 11-9 as Lewis beat Joe Conmy 7-3 and Crone pinned Peter Dwinell in 3:19.
A 66-6 romp of Cortland followed on Friday, and though most of the bouts were forfeited, Allen, Ali Abdulla and Aslan Abdulla earned pins for ESM.
