For the first time, the wrestling Section III Dual Meet was a two-day affair, with early rounds contested last Tuesday night and the finals on Thursday.
Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA was the only local side in the Division I (large school) eight-team field, and it prevailed in the opening round against Cicero-North Syracuse, the Rams topping the Northstars 48-36.
Though C-NS won four of the first five bouts, Jackson Thomas got his side on the board at 106 pounds by pinning KevinMossow late in the first period.
Back-to-back pins by Garrett Williams (126 pounds) over Eric Salenski and Ethan Wells (132 pounds) over Gaetano Julian closed the gap, but it took a string of five straight wins late for the Rams to go in front for good.
It began at 152 pounds, Shoh Alibekov pinning Dylan Firenze in 1:52, after which Jayden Hemingway (160 pounds) got a pin over Devin Southworth in 2:25.
Enver Bulatov’s 63-second pin over Chris Mehlek at 170 pounds was followed up by a forfeit to Laith Abdel-Aziz at 182 pounds and Tyriq Block, at 195 pounds, getting a fall over Kamdin Bembry in 92 seconds.
Now J-D/CBA lined up in the semifinals against top seed Fulton. Two weeks earlier, the Red Raiders beat the Rams 61-18, and here it was the same, Fulton easily prevailing 63-12 to advance to the finals.
Five different times, J-D/CBA had to forfeit bouts, but the 10 contested weight classes Fulton won seven of them.
At 113 pounds, William BeSeth did edge Dylan Waldron 6-5, with Block getting a 9-2 win over Cameron Lugo as Chris Hemingway, at 285 pounds, pinned Jon Bell in 66 seconds.
Two other close bouts went in the Red Raiders’ favor, including 12, where Wells fell 9-6 to Andru Walts and 152, where Alibekov took a 7-6 defeat to Noah Horning.
As for Fayetteville-Manlius, it hosted its annual Hornet Duals on Jan. 18, where the highlight for the Hornets was a 51-18 victory over Rome Free Academy.
Paul Cange (126), Brennan Rettig (152), Alex Dauksza (160) and Sawyer Dereszynski (170) each recorded pins against the Black Knights.
Kyle Sykes, at 120 pounds, won a tense 11-9 battle over Zach Franco, while forfeits were claimed by Allen Hamilton (132), Luke Richter (145 pounds), Jake Fiorito (220 pounds) and Nick Testani (285 pounds).
Elsewhere at this meet, F-M lost 66-24 to Columbia, fell 51-29 to Lowville, had a 70-14 defeat to Carthage and took a 66-12 loss to Beaver River, even though Dauksza and Dereszynski went a perfect 4-0 against those sides.
Then F-M met up head-to-head with Syracuse City last Wednesday night and got its first league win of the winter, prevailing by a score of 39-34.
Testani’s 1-0 win over Jimmy Holmes was important, the Hornets’ lone decision. Dauksza, Dereszynski and Sykes (at 126) all earned pins, with forfeits going to Grover Chowning (120), Luke Richter (145) and Brennan Rettig (152).
