CENTRAL NEW YORK – Just two victories separate the Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy wrestling team from a possible Section III Division I Dual Meet championship.
Six teams are in the field, and the Rams carry the no. 2 seed, joining top seed Indian River with byes straight into Tuesday’s semifinals at Fulton.
As it turned out, J-D/CBA faces no. 3 seed Fulton in that semifinal round if the Red Raiders get past Carthage. IR meets Cicero-North Syracuse or Liverpool in the other semifinal, with the title bout set for Thursday night.
Tuning up for this event, J-D/CBA would go to Saturday’s Phoenix Mid-Winter Classic and, with 164.5 points, finish fourth in a 14-team field as General Brown (206 points) took team honors.
Leading the way, Nathan Finn prevailed at 126 pounds, claiming his final 9-1 over Gouverneur’s Zoe Griffith, and three other Rams wrestlers reached the title round.
William BeSeth did so at 132 pounds, dropping a close 9-6 final to Copenhagen’s Tavian Camper, while Ben Paul, in the final at 215 pounds, lost 7-2 to Cain Roberts (Watertown) and Jordyn Hill (110 pounds) was pinned by Chenango Valley’s Connor Mika.
Enver Bulatov finished third at 189 pounds, with Gerald Vielhauer fourth at 152 pounds. Leonardo Tallarico (172 pounds) and Cameron Beecher (285 pounds) each recorded sixth-place finishes.
Fayetteville-Manlius wrestled on Jan. 8 in the Port Byron Mid-Winter Classic, where with 85.5 points it took eighth place in a 12-team field as Jordan-Elbridge (182.5 points) finished on top.
Sam Reikes (102 pounds) and Jackson Schwab (215 pounds) both won titles for the Hornets. Reikes by holding off Auburn’s Mike Boyhan 3-0 in the final as Schwab had to pull out a 4-3 decision over North Rose-Wolcott’s Nate Wazinski.
Kyle Sykes, at 145 pounds, edged Phoenix’s Leon Smith 4-2 for third place. Paul Cange (132 pounds) pinned J-E’s Jacob LaForce for fifth place as Chase Giammichele 145 pounds) got sixth place.
From there, the Hornets went on to an SCAC Metro division match against Cicero-North Syracuse last Wednesday that resulted in a 66-10 loss to the Northstars.
Only Reikes and Sykes were able to win bouts, as Reikes pinned Jacob Dawkins in 80 seconds and Sykes dominated Zion Mukasa in a 12-0 shutout. Every other bout went to C-NS through pins or forfeits.
