Plenty of top wrestlers from Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool found themselves with opportunities to claim Section III Division I titles last Saturday at SRC Arena, yet none of them could reach the top of the podium.
Of them, the closest call came from two Northstars, Nate Osborne and Troyan Jones, who both reached the championship round, yet ran into formidable foes that stopped their title quests.
Osborne was the no. 3 seed at 126 pounds, pinning Wally Wright (Rome Free Academy) in the quarterfinals and then getting a 7-3 decision over Fulton’s Andru Walts in the semifinals.
In the title bout, Osborne had to try and topple Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA top seed Tyler Kellison, a third-place finisher at the 2018 state meet. Despite hanging in there most of the way, Osborne lost to Kellison by that same 7-3 margin, which moved his season record to 39-7.
Up at 220 pounds, Jones was the no. 6 seed despite a 27-4 record going into the sectional meet, but he beat Cole Wade (West Genesee) 7-3 in the quarterfinals, avenging a defeat to Wade in the sectional Class AA final a week earlier.
Then, in a tense, close semifinal, Jones needed overtime to beat Fulton’s Dylan DeMauro 6-5, leading Jones to the championship round, where Carthage’s Luke Smith ended Jones’ title dreams with a second-period fall.
Dan Sweeney had a strong showing at 106 pounds, bouncing back from his semifinal defeat to win the consolation bracket by defeating New Hartford’s Casey Caruso 8-3 in the third-place bout, while teammate Harrison Portorsnok blanked J-D/CBA’s William BeSeth 2-0 to gain fifth place.
Jacob Montminy won two consolation-bracket bouts following a quarterfinal defeat at 132 pounds to land in fourth place. Brian Besanson closed his sectional meet well with a 10-8 victory over New Hartford’s Osciano Swartz to match Portorsnok’s fifth-place finish.
Anthony Desimone had an injury cut short his efforts at 152 pounds as he had to forfeit his semifinal to RFA’s Marc Darcangelo, but he still finished sixth. Robert Salvett lost in the 170-pound quarterfinals 6-0 to Auburn’s Chris Hogan.
Liverpool had Steve Pascarella as the top seed at 138 pounds, but in the semifinals he ran into Fulton’s Samuel May, who beat him in a wild 12-9 battle.
Pascarella recovered to rout Oswego’s Seth Perrin in a 22-6 technical fall and then, in the consolation bracket final, pin West Genesee’s Brady Ryan to finish third, while C-NS’s Adam Brown pinned Perrin for fifth place.
Anthony Piscatelli got third place at 160 pounds for the Warriors, having dropped a tough 8-5 semifinal to WG’s Devin Earl, but then battling past Cain Roberts (Watertown) 4-2 and Tom Albright (Carthage) 3-1 in the ensuing bouts.
Jeremy Ianno had the no. 2 seed at 113, and reached the semifinals, only to get stopped by Indian River’s Lucas VanTassel 11-4, Ianno ultimately taking a fourth-place finish, one spot ahead of Besanson.
Eighth-grader Jonah Gellar lost in the quarterfinals at 126 after a first-round win over Whitesboro’s Blair Kahler. Jeremiah Poulsen fell int the quarterfinals at 132 to Auburn’s Lucas Pirozzolo, who became his school’s first sectional champion in more than 40 years.
Chris Ianno lost in the quarterfinals at 152 to top seed and eventual champion Dan Tauroney (New Hartford), with Ron Cyr falling in the quarterfinals at 182 pounds, just as Hamier Williams-Borges did at 195 pounds and J.J. Guindy did at 285 pounds.
From a team standpoint, C-NS finished sixth in Division I with 102.5 points, with Liverpool 10th. Fulton easily pulled away to claim the team title with 227.5 points, nearly double that of runner-up Carthage.
