After the Liverpool wrestling team prevailed 47-29 over Cicero-North Syracuse on Jan. 8, the Warriors looked to maintain its place atop the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro Division standings.
This didn’t prove too difficult as, in last Wednesday’s match at West Genesee, Liverpool claimed all but three of the bouts on the card to beat the Wildcats 67-10.
Liverpool had pins in each of the four highest weight classes earned by Josh Gatewood (182 pounds), Hamier Williams-Borges (195 pounds), Jake Ronan (220 pounds) and J.J. Guindy (285 pounds).
Pins also went to Rocco Degiormo (113 pounds), Jeremy Ianno (120 pounds) and Dom Ianno (145 pounds), with forfeits to Hayley Delia (106 pounds), Isaiah Cordova (152 pounds) and Jeremy Valerio (170 pounds).
Only twice did a Warriors wrestler have to go all six minutes to win, but Lucas Smith, at 99 pounds, still shut out Jack Wade 5-0 as Jerimiah Paulson (132 pounds) got past Jackson Taetsch 9-1.
Jonah Gellar, at 138 pounds, lost 12-7 to WG’s Nate Wade, but that came after he won the 138-pound title during the Jan. 11 Cazenovia Invitational, pinning Rome Free Academy’s Wally Wright midway through the second period of the title bout .
Chris Ianno finished third at 152 pounds in Cazenovia, with Williams-Borges third at 195 after he pinned Michael Okooti (Carthage) in the consolation bracket final.
Exactly one week later, during the Phoenix Mid-Winter Classic, Liverpool finished fifth in a 13-team field.
Gellar got to the finals at 132 before David Evans, from Tunkhannock (Pennsylvania), pinned him, and Williams-Borges reached the title bout at 195, where he was pinned by Spencerport’s Silas Egenlauf.
Lucas Smith pinned Phoenix’s Isaac Chesbro in 42 seconds to get third place at 99. Cordova got fourth place at 138. Matt Spoto (113) and Naz Kelly (182) each finished fifth as Valerio and John Worthen (195) both finished sixth.
On the same night that Liverpool handled West Genesee, Cicero-North Syracuse had its own impressive effort against Fayetteville-Manlius, sweeping the last seven bouts in a 66-18 win over the Hornets.
It opened with Adam Brown (145) pinning Luke Richter in 83 seconds and John Sherbourne (152) taking just 62 seconds to pin Brennan Rettig.
F-M did take three of the next four bouts, including a close one at 170 where Isiah Wahdan fell 5-4 to Sawyer Dereszynski, but once it shifted to the lighter weight classes, the Northstars did not lose again.
Dan Sweeney, at 113, got a 33-second pin over Abdulrahman Abouelamayem as Eric Salenski (126 pounds) pinned Paul Cange in 44 seconds.
Gaetano Julian, at 132 pounds, took 82 seconds to pin Allen Hamilton after Harrison Portorsnok (120) pinned Kyle Sykes early in the third period. Forfeits went to Kevin Mossow (99), Anthony Ciciarelli (106 pounds) and Vincent Ciciarelli (138 pounds) after Kamdin Bembry took a forfeit at 195 pounds.
C-NS now would host the Section III Dual Meet, where in Division I the no. 4 seed Northstars would face Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA in the first round and Liverpool, with the no. 3 seed, got no. 6 seed Central Square. Two rounds take place before Thursday’s finals at 6 p.m.
