ONONDAGA COUNTY – As both the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool wrestling teams prepared to battle for top honors in the Section III Division I Division I Dual Meet, they did so with strong tournament records.
The Northstars had those wins in the Andersen Tournament and Kenneth Haines Memorial from December, and continued to roll Wednesday as it beat Baldwinsville 51-15.
Splitting the first four bouts on the card, C-NS had Drew Baker win the 132-pound opener over Michael Spinner 9-3 and Jonah Geller, at 145 pounds, pin Michael Fults late in the first period.
Later on, the Northstars benefited from four forfeits amounting to 24 points, but also had Ayden Sprague, at 160 pounds, earn a 25-second pin over Nathan Cali.
In the last contested bout at 126 pounds, Anthony Ciciarelli pinned Collin Zeman late in the first period as Kamdin Bembry (215 pounds), Joe Kozubowski (285 pounds), Kasey Kalfass (110 pounds) and Javone Dawkins (118 pounds) got those forfeits.
Three other bouts were close, too. Sean Aldrich, at 138 pounds, lost 3-0 to Keegan Hayes, with Ethan Warmblr (152 pounds) dropping a 7-6 decision to Davian McLeod and Kevin Mossow (102 pounds) losing 4-3 to Brennan Kline.
Liverpool, meanwhile, had nearly won Jan. 7 in the Fayetteville-Manlius Duals, only topped by Indian River 40-36 at the end of a successful day of competition.
After a 62-9 rout of Whitesboro and 78-0 shutout of Hannibal, the Warriors battled past Fulton 44-25 as most of the points came from pins by Lucas Smith (132), Connor Kral (152, Jayce Bliss (215), Keegan Meyer (285) and Paolo Munetz (102).
Then, after a 66-12 win over East Syracuse Minoa, it came down to the Indian River match, two sets of Warriors going at it but IR getting the best of its 40-36.
Smith moved up to 138 and opened with a pin, with Kral and Owen Atchie (160) also earning falls. But Liverpool’s early lead went away when IR went 5-1 in a six-bout stretch, broken up only by a forfeit, though Matthews Bonato-Borges (132) did close with a pin.
Then, going head-to-head against Section V’s Greece in the Rochester suburbs last Wednesday night, Liverpool managed to roll to a 49-13 victory.
While it helped that the Warriors got forfeits to Bonato-Borges (138), Tyler Vivacqua (145 pounds) and Joe Piscitelli (189 pounds), it also had plenty of mat success.
At 102, Munetz pinned Aaron Saltares, while Samir Amiri did the same at 126 over Daniel O’Dea as Kral earned a pin against Kaden Searight.
Other bouts were much closer. Goodave hung on against Joe Molica for a 5-3 decision and Anthony Kelly, moving to 160, edged Tamar Jasper 10-9 as Bliss beat Cameron McCoy 9-3 and Smith beat Evan Connelly 13-4.
