Now the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA wrestling team would put itself to the test against the rest of the top large schools in the area during the Section III Division I Dual Meet.
Early-round matches would take place Tuesday at Central Square, with the finals Thursday at Cicero-North Syracuse as the winner advances to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Dual meet Feb. 1 at SRC Arena.
Ironically, J-D/CBA went up against Central Square last Wednesday night head-to-head, and it was an exciting match, the Rams doing just enough to get past the Redhawks 43-38.
The key was that J-D/CBA swept all five bouts in the highest weight classes, each of them a pin. Muaweyah El-Hindi had the quickest fall at 220 pounds, taking just 43 seconds to finish off Alex Congdon.
Jayden Hemingway (170 pounds) had a 93-second pin over Joel Stuart as Enver Bulatov (182 pounds) took seven more seconds to pin James Peck.
Tyriq Block, at 195 pounds, had a pin over Josiah Presser in 1:45 as Nikoli Sims, at 285 pounds, had to wait until the second period to pin Nathan Erdmann.
Of the other 10 bouts, Central Square won seven of them, but Matt Dougherty (99 pounds) beat Wyatt Rupracht 12-7 and Jackson Thomas (106 pounds) handled Damon Hogan 19-5 as Ethan Wells, at 132 pounds, earned a second-period pin over Joe Ligoci.
J-D/CBA went from there to Saturday’s Phoenix Mid-Winter Classic where, led by Wells, it earned 174 points for third place behind Spencerport and Tunkhannock, from Pennsylvania.
Wrestling at 126 pounds, Wells got to the final against Tunkhannock’s Matt Rosentel and pulled out a 7-5 decision.
At 152 pounds, Shoh Alibekov reached the finals before a 4-1 defeat to Spencerport’s Jake Zimmerman. Dougherty and Block also had second-place finishes.
William BeSeth (113 pounds) and Garrett Williams (126 pounds) joined Chris Hemingway (285) as third-place finishers, with Thomas, Sims (220) and El-Hindi (195) each taking fourth place. Anyas Goeman was fifth at 132 and Cameron Beecher was sixth at 220.
Before all this, on Jan. 11 Fayetteville-Manlius took part in the Cazenovia Invitational, where it tied for 13th place in a 23-team field, but still had Alex Dauksza win at 160 pounds.
Dauksza claimed a 5-0 shutout over Greene-Oxford’s Paige Hunter in the semifinals and moved on to a championship bout against West Genesee’s Colin McAvan, with Dauksza dominating to win 12-3.
Two other Hornets had fourth-place finishes – Sawyer Dereszynski at 170 pounds, Liam Malgieri at 285 pounds.
F-M then lost 66-18 to Cicero-North Syracuse last Wednesday, with Dauksza pinnign Dylan Firenze in 45 seconds before Dereszynski pulled out o a 5-4 decision over Isiah Wahdan.
Dan Kenney, wrestling at 182, beat Chris Mehlek 9-4, while Malgieri got a 96-second pin over Brady Ramos before the Northstars swept the last seven bouts.
That same night, East Syracuse Minoa went up against Fulton, the state’s no. 4-ranked Division I team, and took a 68-13 defeat to the Red Raiders.
For a brief moment, ESM was in front, winning the first two bouts on the card as Michael O’Brien, in the opener at 152, beat Ashton Gates 7-2 and Aslan Abdulla (160) handled Michael Strong 11-3.
But after Andrew Crone’s 68-second pin over Shane Goutermout at 195, Fulton won each of the remaining 10 bouts on the card with seven pins, two forfeits and Dylan Johnston (145 pounds) falling to Noah Horning 14-7.
