ONONDAGA COUNTY – February is where high school wrestling championships are decided, starting this Saturday with the Section III championships involving the large schools.
Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy and Fayetteville-Manlius both are heading to the Class AA meet at Cicero-North Syracuse, with East Syracuse Minoa part of the Class A festivities at Indian River.
Before that, though, ESM junior Akasha Nunnally joined 27 other Section III wrestlers last Friday at SRC Arena for the first-ever New York State Public High School Athletic Association Girls Wrestling Invitational.
Competing at 100 pounds, Nunnally was with Fulton’s Tessa Newton and Holland Patent’s Alyssa Russell, and Nunnally was victorious in the opening round, pinning Alexander’s Kennedy Lear in one minute, 40 seconds.
In the quarterfinals, Nunnally lost to Jasmine Brucato (Honeoye Falls-Lima) in a third-period fall, but that would be her only blemish.
Sweeping the consolation bracket, Nunnally pinned Russell in 41 seconds, got a second-period fall over Leah Waite (Fredonia) and then, facing Newton, pinned her, too, in just 49 seconds.
Finally, in the third-place bout against Bethpage freshman Gabrielle Severin, Nunnally again put together a quick pin, finishing off Severin in 79 seconds.
Five Section III wrestlers made the finals, with two of them – General Brown’s Zoey Jewett and Mexico’s Renne Kinikin at 165 pounds – emerging as inagurual state champions in their weight classes.
Liverpool’s Gabby Gonzales (154 pounds), Homer’s Lily Sorenson (185 pounds) and Sherburne-Earlville’s Selina Moore (138 pounds) were also finalists.
Back in boys wrestling, Fayetteville-Manlius met up with Jordan-Elbridge last Tuesday night and, despite a fair amount of success, the Hornets still took a 42-27 defeat to the Eagles.
Victorious in every bout from 126 to 160 pounds (six in all), J-E withstood F-M’s success at both ends, which included Jackson Schwab pinning 215-pound opponent Noah White in just 24 seconds.
Andrew Dabulewicz (285 pounds) waited until near the end of the first period to pin Raiden Yale as Francis Barr (172 pounds) held off Alex Coomber 8-1.
Sam Reikes, at 118 pounds, pinned Lucas Witter in 57 seconds and Athan Dauszka got a forfeit at 102 pounds. Eric Kozlowski (126 pounds) and Grover Chowning (152) each lost five-point decisions – Kozlowski 9-4 to Kaylee Swalgin, Chowning 7-2 to Glen Sanchez.
East Syracuse Minoa competed Saturday at the Baldwinsville Duals and went 3-1, defeating Dryden 42-36 as Max Wunderlich’s pin of Aaron Thompson clinched the victory.
A close 42-36 win over Watertown included Ian Schroeder’s 21-second pin of Trent Smith as the Spartans also beat Syracuse City 42-30, but lost 57-18 to host B’ville despite Peyton Spencer’s 70-second pin over Cael Bruce.
