With temperatures well past 60 degrees outside on Jan. 11, it was an unusual time to go inside a high school gymnasium for a full day of wrestling competition.
Yet that was what took place at Buckley Gym as Cazenovia hosted its annual invitational meet, featuring a field of 23 teams and a solid effort from the Lakers, led by Kevin Valentine.
Wrestling at 170 pounds, Valentine got to the semifinals where he edged Auburn’s Lucas Hogan 4-3. Then, in the championship bout, Valentine won another tight decision, 2-1, over Spencer Van Etten’s Nick Tubbs.
Overall, Cazenovia finished tied with SVE and Liverpool for eighth place with 87 points. Indian River, with 182.5 points, edged Greene-Oxford (178 points) for top honors.
John Frega got close to the title at 220 pounds, pinning IR’s Davin Dewaine to reach a final where he lost his own 2-1 decision, this one to Jordan-Elbridge’s Jared Lawrence.
Up at 99 pounds, Shaun Zampetti shut out Wyatt Rupracht (Central Square) 8-0, leading to a close final against IR’s Brady Lynch, who prevailed 9-3 over Zampetti.
Cazenovia moved on from this event to last Tuesday’s meet at Homer, where the Trojans would claim five of the first six bouts on the card on the way to defeating the Lakers 56-19.
Only Valentine broke that early Homer streak, shutting out Blair Wakula 13-0. Those defeats included Frega’s 3-1 loss to Sam Sorenson and Blaze Dannon (195 pounds) falling to Tavyn Milchak 7-4.
All told, the Lakers won just three bouts on the mat to go with a forfeit to Carter Polhamus at 285 pounds.
Zampetti, moved up to 106 pounds, earned a pin over Conor Powers with 47 seconds left, while Lucca Ferreira (132 pounds) topped Carter Monroe 8-4. Brad Gagnon, at 145 pounds, lost to David Morse by that same 8-4 margin.
Back home at Buckley Gym on Thursday night, Cazenovia recognized its five seniors – Zampetti, Frega, Valentine, Matt Knutsen and Alex Rodriguez – in a ceremony prior to its match against Canastota.
But the Raiders prevailed 46-24, claiming every bout that was contested, including some close ones that featured Jedrek Olkowski (138) falling to Logan Mead 3-1 and Gagnon taking a 4-2 defeat to Zach Stevens.
All of the Lakers’ points came from forfeits to Zampetti, Valentine, Jake Tobin (170 pounds) and Luke Rodriguez (113 pounds).
Cazenovia went from there to competing Saturday in the Phoenix Mid-Winter Classic, where it took eighth place out of 13 teams in the field.
Valentine got to the finals at 170 before a 6-0 defeat to Canisius’ Joe Dixon, with Frega reaching the title bout at 220 before Sherburne-Earlville’s Alex Thompson pinned him. Zampetti was fifth at 106 and Ferreira was sixth at 132.
Back on Thursday night, Chittenango faced Oneida, and though it inched closer to a head-to-head victory, it still fell to the Indians 42-30.
Four different forfeits hurt the Bears, but it did have John Spencer, at 285, pin Mayson Earl in 2:21 as Peyton Denney (106) got a pin over Hunter Dubois in 1:43.
In just 32 seconds, Mark Young (132) pinned Milo VanDyke as Andrew Bailey (145) earned a second-period pin over Brandon Zeller and Quentin Mohamed (126 pounds) claimed a forfeit.
This followed a 60-27 loss to Phoenix the night before where Young pinned Robert Reynolds, Bailey outscored Ethan Bruno 15-11, Spencer pinned Keaton Renfrew and Denney pinned Caleb Jolly. Jacob Ezzo took a forfeit at 195.
Also taking part in the Phoenix Mid-Winter Classic, the Bears had Denney pin J-D/CBA’s Jackson Thomas in 3:32 for third place at 106, with Bailey fourth at 145 as Mohamed took sixth place at 126.
