While many different designations could have applied to the Liverpool wrestling team in the 2019-20 season, one moniker – champions – will stay forever.
Already the regular-season winners in the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division, the Warriors added the Section III Class AA championship in an impressive all-around performance Saturday at Auburn High School.
Nine different Liverpool wrestlers reached the finals, two of them prevailed, and ultimately the Warriors got 252 points, well clear of second-place Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA (181 points), while Cicero-North Syracuse landed in third place with 171.5 points.
Hamier Williams-Borges won at 195 pounds for Liverpool, capping his tournament run with a pin over J-D/CBA’s Muwayeh El-Hindi in 4:50.
Up at 120 pounds, it was Jeremy Ianno emerging victorious, pinning Dylan Pitonza (West Genesee) in 77 seconds in the semifinal before he won 8-5 over Auburn’s Bradley Boyhan in the title bout.
J.J. Guindy nearly won at 285 pounds, but dropped a 3-2 title bout to Fayetteville-Manlius’ Liam Malgieri. Chris Ianno was in the finals at 152 and got just as close, losing to J-D/CB’s Shoh Alibekov in an 8-7 thriller.
Jonah Geller got to the final at 138 pounds, only to take an 11-4 loss to Auburn’s Luca Pirozzolo as J.J. Paulson was second at 132 pounds after taking a loss in the title bout to West Genesee’s Nate Wade. Also close to a title at 126 pounds, Jacob Ianno lost his final 9-5 to J-D/CBA’s Ethan Wells.
Hayley Delia’s pin of C-NS’s Kevin Mossow put Delia in third place at 106 pounds. Earning third place at 160 pounds, Jeremy Valerio had to beat Syracuse’s Trey Latham 6-3 in the consolation bracket final as Rocco DeGirimo won third at 113 pounds 6-2 over Auburn’s Christian Hogan.
Naz Kelly earned fifth place at 182 pounds when he pinned West Genesee’s Preston Elia in 75 seconds, while at 170 pounds Gianpaul Cooper pinned Syracuse’s Jabari Diggs for fifth place.
C-NS did get a victory in a showdown against Liverpool at 145 pounds. Adam Brown had survived a 5-4 semfiinal with the Warriors’ Isaiah Cordova, then turned around and edged Dom Ianno 7-6 as Cordova settled for fourth place.
Another title-bout battle went in the Northstars’ favor at 99 pounds courtesy of Anthony Ciciarelli, who would claim a 4-2 battle over Liverpool’ s Lucas Smith with an overtime takedown.
Adam Rush made it to the finals at 220 by pinning Liverpool’s Jake Ronan in the waning seconds. While Ronan finished sixth, Rush got pinned in 29 seconds by Auburn’s Keyshin Cooper in the title bout.
Dan Sweeney, in order to reach the final at 113, had to beat teammate Harrison Portorsnok 10-1, but Sweeney lost the final to Rome Free Academy’s Ashton Thompson 10-1 as Portorsnok beat B’ville’s Mason Clarke for fifth place.
Kamdin Bembry, who lost to Williams-Borges in the semifinals at 195, recovered to pin J-D/CBA’s Tohirjon Usmonov for third place. Dylan Firenze pinned Baldwinsvlle’s Ryan Hemund for third place at 152.
Gaetano Julian’s tough 6-5 win over J-D/CBA’s Anyas Goeman left him third at 132.
At 285, Brady Ramos pinned teammate Jared Bradish in 2:05 to finish fifth, while Vincent Ciciarelli beat Jamyr Grimes (Auburn) for fifth place at 138. Dom Racht was fifth at 126 and Zach Overton was sixth at 160.
Most of these same wrestlers will battle for state championship berths next Saturday as part of the overall sectional Division I (large school) tournament at SRC Arena.
