CENTRAL NEW YORK – Each of the area’s high school wrestling teams had important contests and events to consider, including Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy taking part in the Division I portion of the Section III Dual Meet.
Yet it wasn’t quite what the Rams envisioned when the seven-team bracket was released early last week.
When it did, J-D/CBA held the no. 5 seed and was slated to face no. 4 seed Liverpool in the opening round last Tuesday at Henninger High School. However, icy roads forced a postponement.
Thus, all the rounds would take place Thursday at Cicero-North Syracuse, but that was curtailed a bit, too, when two teams, no. 3 seed Indian River and Carthage, could not travel, again due to inclement weather.
That only left five teams and now the Rams would find itself meeting C-NS, the top seed, in the semifinals, which proved to be the pivotal match of the tournament.
Matt Dougherty opened at 118 pounds by pinning Chris Young in 53 seconds. Two bouts later, Nathan Finn, at 132 pounds, pulled away from Drew Baker 16-5.
C-NS then won the next three bouts before Gerald Vielhauer, at 160 pounds, pinned Ayden Sprague at the end of the second period.
This, along with Ben Paul (189 pounds) shutting out Khol Kalfass 9-0 and Cameron Beecher (285 pounds) claiming a 3-2 thriller over Joe Kozubowski, had the Rams within one, 24-23, with two bouts left.
However, Dominic Shiano (102 pounds) lost, 6-2, to Kevin Mossow, and when Carlos Barosso (110 pounds) fell to Javone Dawkins, the Northstars advanced to the final, where it beat Fulton 34-19 for its first-ever Dual Meet title.
Back on Wednesday night, neighbors East Syracuse Minoa and Fayetteville-Manlius met, and it was the Spartans getting particularly satisfying revenge in a 37-30 victory over the Hornets.
These same teams had met just four days earlier in the F-M Duals, and the hosts prevailed 37-30, but ESM was able to turn it around with a late-match comeback.
With three bouts to go, the Hornets led 30-19, but then Daniel Diaz (160 pounds) pinned Sam Herber and, at 171 pounds, Ondrej Kristof got a pin over Francis Barr. That, along with a forfeit to Colin Caiello at 189 pounds, won it.
They opened at 215 pounds with Jackson Schwab handling Ian Schroeder 14-4 before a 285-pound classic where ESM’s Max Wunderlich did just enough for a 4-3 decision over Andrew Dabuliewicz.
Three straight ESM wins followed, Askaha Nunnally (102 pounds) blanking Athan Dauksza11-0 as Peyton Spencer (110 pounds) and Caiden Scott (118 pounds) got pins over, respectively, Joe Rafuse and Graham Dauksza.
Then it was F-M’s turn to win five in a row, only one of them a forfeit to Sam Reikes at 126 pounds.
Pins by Paul Cange (138 pounds) over Brayden Galway and Josh Leffkowicz (145 pounds) over Charlie English bridged Luis Rivera’s 13-0 shutout of Owen Roche at 132 pounds and Grover Chowning, at 152 pounds, winning 12-4 over Brenden Zweisler.
ESM competed Saturday at the Fallen Heroes Tournament in Canastota, where it beat Cazenovia 36-28, but lost to C-NS, West Genesee, Baldwinsville and the host Raiders.
As that went on, J-D/CBA prevailed in the 14-team Hornell State Farm Classic with 189 points to runner-up Bolivar-Richburg’s 165.
Paul won at 189, topping Bolivar-Richburg’s Caden Allen 2-1 in the finals, while Hayden Fleet won at 285 pounds with a single escape in a 1-0 win over Churchville-Chili’s Gael Sanchez.
Four other Rams wrestlers – Dadey, Finn, Shiano and Mason Porter (145) – had second-place finishes, Finn dropping a 3-2 final to Cael Raines (Churchville-Chili) and Porter an 8-7 final to Raines’ teammate, Andrew Frost. Vielhauer finished third at 152.
