It proved quite a good outing for the Cazenovia wrestling team when it ventured to nearby Canastota to take part in Saturday’s Section III Class C championships.
Helped by individual titles from Lucca Ferreira and Kevin Valentine, the Lakers picked up 143 points for third place, trailing only General Brown, who won with 218 points, and Phoenix, who was second with 164 points.
Ferreira wrestled at 132 pounds, where he beat Devin Cerda (Phoenix) in a wild 16-10 semifinal before a title bout where Ferreira pinned General Brown’s Chester Grazier midway through the second period.
For Valentine to win at 170 pounds, he needed to pin Eden Koperda (Holland Patent) in the third period of his semifinal, leading to a championship bout against Canastota’s Casey Bixby that Valentine won 12-3.
John Frega, at 220 pounds, held off Jordan-Elbridge’s Jared Lawrence 5-2 in the semifinals, but lost the final 6-2 to General Brown’s Nick Rogers as Jake Tobin got to the final at 160 pounds before getting pinned by Phoenix’s Jadan Bruno.
As Patrick Livingston finished fourth at 182 pounds, five different Lakers won fifth-place bouts.
Shaun Zampetti (106 pounds) pinned Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Trey Wickham in 4:38, while Matt Knutsen won fifth at 126 pounds when HP’s Austin Racquet had to default.
Jedrek Olkowski pinned J-E’s Gauge Parker in 88 seconds for fifth place at 138 pounds, with Alex Rodriguez pinning another General Brown wrestler, Xavier Vargas, for fifth place at 160 pounds as Carter Polhamus (285 pounds) earned his fifth-place pin over teammate Reilly Hanson.
As this went on, Chittenango was at Central Valley Academy for the sectional Class B meet, where John Spencer gave the Bears a victory at 285.
Spencer pinned Santana Salvador (Hannibal) in 2:43 and then pinned Jacob Becker (Mexico) in 3:32 to get to the title bout, where against Marcellus’ Kyle Brown Spencer got yet another fall in 3:50.
Andrew Bailey earned third place at 145 pounds when he pinned Chittenango teammate Joe Mariani in 93 seconds in the consolation bracket final. Mark Young finished sixth at 132 pounds.
Many of these same wrestlers will go to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena next Saturday for the sectional Division II (small school) championships, vying for berths in the Feb. 28-29 state meet in Albany.
