SYRACUSE – With a late-match surge, Cicero-North Syracuse wrestler Dylan Firenze earned the 172-pound title during last Saturday’s Section III Division I championships at SRC Arena.
Since dropping his first two bouts in early December, Firenze has won 24 in a row, and brought the top seed into the sectional meet, where he beat teammate Ayden Sprague 5-0 in the quarterfinals and then pulled out a tough 3-1 semifinal over Central Square’s Jaiden Burdick.
The final pitted Firenze against another Central Square wrestler, Zach Overton, and was close most of the way, but at 2-2 in the third period Firenze executed a reversal to go out in front and, adding three more points, earned a 7-2 decision and the top spot on the podium.
With his pin of Baldwinsville’s Judson Ferris in the semifinals, the Northstars’ John Sherbourne advanced to the 160-pound title bout, only to run into Watertown’s Jack Clough, who claimed a 17-0 technical fall.
Meanwhile, Liverpool had two of its wrestlers reach the championship round – Rocco DeGilormo at 118 pounds and Jonah Geller at 145 pounds.
DeGilormo battled past West Genesee’s Logan Willis 5-1 in his semifinal and was tied, 1-1, with Carthage’s Shay Sinitiere heading into the third period of their championship bout, but Sinitiere made an escape and then got two more points late to take it 4-1.
As for Geller, he was impressive in a 13-5 semifinal win over Syracuse’s Malik Egerton, leading to a final against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Charlie Foster, who managed to prevail with a third-period fall.
Team-wise, C-NS had 107 points to tie Central Square for fourth place, while Liverpool was seventh with 77 points. Fulton, with 163 points, edged Indian River (160.5) to win it, avenging a second-place finish to the Warriors in the sectional Class A meet.
Three different Northstars – Kennedy Thomas at 126 pounds, Domnick Racht at 132 pounds and Kamdin Bembry at 215 pounds – earned fourth place finishes, while the Warriors’ Owen Atchie (160) and Connor Kral (171) each took fourth as well, losing close 2-1 decisions in consolation bracket finals – Atchie to West Genesee’s Colin McAvan, Kral to Burdick.
C-NS’s Drew Baker pinned Jack Phillips (Fulton) late in the first period to get fifth place at 118, with Liverpool’s Tyler Vivacaqua fifth at 132 with a pin over another Fulton wrestler, Elias Reynolds, early in the second period.
