CENTRAL NEW YORK – February means post-season high school wrestling in Section III, and each of the area’s three teams would plunge into it last weekend at two separate venues.
Up at Cicero-North Syracuse, Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy and Fayetteville-Manlius were part of the Class AA tournament, and the Rams nearly repeated its title from 2022.
Overall, J-D/CBA had 188 points, which almost matched the hosts from C-NS, who prevailed with 195.5 points to add to the sectional Division I Dual Meet title it earned a couple of weeks earlier. F-M was seventh with 76 points.
Leading a trio of Rams to the top of the standings, Gerald Vielhauer, at 152 pounds, pinned C-NS’s Jacob Day in the semifinals and then shut out Liverpool’s Connor Kral 5-0 in the finals.
Another shutout happened in the 110-pound title bout as Matt Dougherty blanked West Genesee’s Austin Fesinger 6-0 after he topped C-NS’s Javone Dawkins 9-2 in the semifinals.
And it was Nathan Finn winning at 132 pounds, doubling up C-NS’s Kennedy Thomas 16-8 in the finals after a semifinal where he pinned Liverpool’s Lucas Smith in 58 seconds.
Three other J-D/CBA wrestlers reached the finals. At 189 pounds, Ben Paul fell 9-5 to Syracuse’s Trey Darmody-Latham as Mason Porter (145 pounds) was pinned by WG’s Maxx Fesinger and Hayden Fleet, at 285 pounds, was pinned by Syracuse’s Sean Hunt.
F-M had two finalists. At 215 pounds, Jackson Schwab blanked J-D/CBA’s Bryce Dadey 12-0 in the semifinals before a pin by C-NS’s Kamdin Bembry in the title bout. Bembry was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Up at 126 pounds, Schwab’s teammate, Eric Kozlowski, won 11-4 over C-NS’s Drew Baker to reach the final, where he lost to West Genesee’s Logan Willis in a third-period fall.
Dadey went on to edge Joe Piscitelli (Liverpool) 3-2 for third place, equaling teammate Dominic Shiano (102 pounds), who pinned Baldwinsville’s Brennan Kline in his consolation bracket final.
Harrison Schwab edged C-NS’s Sean Aldrich 1-0 for third place at 138 pounds as Andrew Dabulewicz was fourth at 285 and Trent Gloo, at 132, pinned Liverpool’s Matthews Bonato-Borges for fifth place, equaled by the J-D/CBA quartet of Carlos Barroso (110), Sean Cavanaugh (160 pounds), Matt Cooney (172 pounds) and Michael Darling at 215.
Meanwhile, East Syracuse Minoa went further north, to Indian River, for the Class A sectional tournament, where with 91 points it finished sixth in a 10-team field as Carthage (220) edged Central Square (212.5) for top honors.
No Spartans wrestler reached the finals, but Andrew Lamarche (189) and Ian Schroeder (215) each finished third, Lamarche pinning teammate Colin Caiello in 28 seconds in his consolation bracket final.
Schroeder got a second-period fall over Central Square’s Andrew Fleischmann for his third-place finish. Max Wunderlich was fourth at 285, with Akasha Nunnally sixth at 102.
Before this, ESM had a match last Monday against Auburn, where the Spartans benefited from a full roster that produced a 48-24 win over the Maroons. Just one of ESM’s wins came on the mat, from Schroeder as he pinned Colton Hai in 85 seconds.
Otherwise, forfeits went to Max Wunderlich (285 pounds), Andrew Lamarche (189 pounds), Ondrej Kristof (172 pounds), Daniel Diaz (160 pounds), Charlie English (145 pounds), Caiden Scott (126 pounds) and Peyton Spencer at 110 pounds.
