Having garnered a third-place finish in the 2018 state championships, Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA wrestler Tyler Kellison wants nothing more than to go to the top of the podium when he returns to Albany’s Times Union Center next weekend.
First, though, Kellison had to work his way to the 126-pound title at last Saturday’s Section III Division I tournament at SRC Arena as he was the only J-D/CBA wrestler to finish on top.
Kellison started out with a pair of technical falls, prevailing 18-3 over Ethan Garrison (Indian River) in the quarterfinals and then 23-8 over Kaleb Carreon (Fulton) in the semifinals.
Moving on to Saturday evening’s championship bout, Kellison found Cicero-North Syracuse’s Nate Osborne a stubborn opponent, only building a 4-2 lead through two periods before an escape and takedown in the final period produced a 7-3 decision.
Also getting to the finals for the Rams, Adam Honis, at 195 pounds, pinned Hunter Williams-Borges (Liverpool) and then claimed an 11-10 semifinal classic over Indian River’s Kyler Martin, only to run into Syracuse’s undefeated top seed, Mykle Thomas, in the finals and get pinned in the third period.
From the top seed at 106 pounds, David BeSeth had a tough time of it, edging C-NS’s Harrison Portorsnok 3-2 in the quarterfinals and surviving a close semifinal, too, needing an overtime takedown to edge New Hartford’s Casey Caruso 6-0.
In the final, BeSeth lost, 6-1, to Rome Free Academy’s Ashton Thompson, but he was joined on the podium by his brother, William Beseth, who got sixth place despite a 2-0 defeat to Portorsnok.
Alikhan Abdullayev had a fourth-place finish at 145 pounds for J-D/CBA after going 2-1 in the consolation bracket as Jackson Thomas finished sixth at 99 pounds and Shoh Alibekov was sixth at 182 pounds.
East Syracuse Minoa had Ameer Ladd an undefeated top seed at 220 pounds, but in his semifinal he lost, 12-5, to Carthage’s Luke Smith, who went on to the sectional title.
But Ladd did recover to finish third, surviving a 4-3 duel with West Genesee’s Cole Wade and then, in the consolation bracket final, shutting out Whitesboro’s Jake Small 5-0.
Meanwhile, the Spartans’ Donovan Marriott recovered from a semifinal defeat to eventual champion Alex Booth (Indian River) to finish third at 113 pounds, pinning Osciano Swartz (New Hartford) in eight seconds and then topping Liverpool’s Jeremy Ianno 16-8 in the consolation bracket final.
Ali Abdulla gained fourth place at 170 pounds with two consolation bracket wins after a quarterfinal defeat, while Aslan Abdulla reached the quarterfinals at 152 pounds and Andrew Crone did the same at 195 pounds.
Alex Leo lost in the first round at 132 pounds, as did J-D/CBA’s Braden Barcza, with Carlos Martinez taking a first-round defeat at 145 for the Rams .
By far, the biggest honor for Fayetteville-Manlius at this sectional meet was the Sportsmanship Award it earned from the Syracuse Wrestling Officials Association, which it hands out to one team each year for the way they comport themselves on and off the mat.
As to mat efforts, the Hornets’ Braden Florczyk, who passed 100 career wins a couple of weeks ago, finished fourth at 120 pounds, falling in the semifinals to Central Square’s Cole Mulhauser, who went on to take the title.
Also for F-M, Ben Christopher was fifth at 152, with Justin Bedell falling in the 145-pound quarterfinal to top seed Cuinn Burlingham from Fulton. Alex Dauksza dropped his opening-round bout at 160, where J-D/CBA’s Cameron Schultz did the same.
