SYRACUSE – For all of the team glory it attained this winter, an individual Section III Division I title nearly eluded the best wrestlers from Cicero-North Syracuse Saturday at SRC Arena.
It took Kennedy Thomas rising from a no. 3 seed to knock off the top two seeds in the 132-pound division to bring the Northstars to the top of the podium last Saturday at SRC Arena.
And in doing so, Thomas garnered Most Outstanding Wrestler honors and helped C-NS, for the first time, win the team crown at this sectional meet, C-NS’s 168 points enough to hold off Carthage (155.5 points) for the title.
Thomas had little trouble pinning Dylan Radcliffe (West Genesee) in the quarterfinals. But his semifinal against no. 2 seed Nathan Finn (Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA) was a classic, plenty of takedowns and other moves that didn’t let up until Thomas had prevailed 13-11.
Now, in the final, Thomas faced the top seed, Carthage’s Logan Munn, who carried a 34-5 record. Here, the points were tougher to get, but Thomas did just enough to hang on late and prevail 5-4, clinching a trip to Albany for the Feb. 24-25 state championships.
All told, C-NS had four finalists. One of them, Jack Sherbourne, ran into Liverpool’s Owen Atchie, who would go to the top at 172 pounds.
As the top seed, Atchie pinned Cosmo Kessler (Syracuse) and Dante Coppola (Central Square) to reach the title bout, while Sherbourne, the no. 2 seed, pinned Matt Cooney (J-D/CBA) and Aaron Fredenburg (Baldwinsville) in his first two bouts.
The final would go the full six minutes, each wrestler able to score points, but Atchie doing a bit more to prevail 7-4, a week after he beat Sherbourne 7-6 in the sectional Class AA meet.
Of course, the Northstars had plenty of podium finishes that contributed to this latest team milestone.
Kamdin Bembry reached the 215-pound final, pinning Ian Schroeder (East Syracuse Minoa) and stopping Jackson Schwab (Fayetteville-Manlius) in 52 seconds in the semifinal before a title bout where the top seed, Central Square’s Rocky Files, did a bit more and held off Bembry 15-9.
In the 160-pound semifinal, C-NS’s Ayden Sprague beat Liverpool’s Dante Mallozzi 6-1, only to lose the final to undefeated Fulton star Johnathan Clohecy as Mallozzi pinned Patrick Barnes (New Hartford) for fifth place.
At 118 pounds, the Northstars’ Anthony Ciciarelli lost in the semifinals, but recovered to take third place, capped by a thrilling 11-10 win over Fulton’s Brady Niver in the consolation bracket final.
Kevin Mossow got fourth place at 110 pounds, dropping a 5-1 decision to WG’s Austin Fesinger in the consolation bracket final, while Sean Aldrich beat F-M’s Harrison Schwab 7-5 for fifth place at 138 pounds.
Jonah Geller reached the semifinals at 145 pounds, only to get injured against Fulton’s Bailey Grubb and default. Joe Kozubowski had a sixth-place finish at 285 pounds.
To finish third at 189 pounds, Liverpool’s Jayce Bliss had to win 9-6 over Zach Overton (Central Square) and then pull out a 6-5 decision over Baldwinsville’ Judson Ferris.
At 102 pounds, C-NS’s Kasey Kalfass and Liverpool’s Paolo Munetz both lost in the quarterfinals, Kalfass to the eventual champion, Carthage’s Ryan Munn.
Liverpool had Lucas Smith get fourth place at 132 behind Thomas, having lost 10-3 to Finn in the third-place bout, while Connor Kral was fifth at 152 pounds after beating James Kimpel (Central Square) 7-2.
Carson Rice finished sixth at 118, while Marek Sokolowski lost in the quarterfinals at 126, matching the finish of the Northstars’ Drew Baker. Joe Piscitelli lost his opening-round match at 215, as did Keegan Meyer at 285.
Liverpool’s success went far beyond Atchie’s victory, though.
When bouts were held to determine at-large berths in the state meet, both Kelly, at 160, and Bliss, at 189, won them, which means they’ll also go to the state meet, giving the Warriors three representatives, the most in the program’s long and storied history.
