CENTRAL NEW YORK – With some high-profile matches, the area’s trio of high school wrestling teams provided an exciting start to 2024.
In particular, Jordan-Elbridge had a great match Wednesday against Baldwinsville at Baker High School, rallying late to pull out a 35-31 victory over the Bees.
With three bouts remaining, the Eagles trailed 31-21, and needed a win from Liam Mantell at 116 pounds. Mantell got it, edging Cael Bruce 5-4 right after Ben Lamson (109 pounds) had a 4-2 defeat to Brennan Kline.
A forfeit to Connor Fraher at 124 pounds meant it all rode on the 131-pound finale. Lucas Witter dominated for J-E, accumulating enough points for a 15-0 technical fall over Scottie Warner.
Before all this, the Eagles won four of the first six bouts. In the 138-pound opener, Logan Merriam pinned Brendan Fredenburg in the second period, with Dylan Nolan (145 pounds) pinning Michael Spinner in 61 seconds.
After a forfeit to Jack Lamson at 170 pounds, Drake Allen wrestled at 190 pounds and outscored Connor Daughton 13-9, but the Bees won the next four bouts before the Eagles’ late comeback.
West Genesee entered the new year in good spirits, too, the Wildcats having placed fifth out of 30 sides that were together at SUNY-Oswego on Dec. 29 for the Kenneth Haines Memorial Tournament.
Earning 139 points to only finish behind South Jefferson and Cicero-North Syracuse among local sides, the Wildcats had Maxx Fesinger emerge victorious at 160 pounds. Against Niagara-Wheatfield’s Joe Cicco in the finals, the bout went to overtime, where a takedown helped Fesinger prevail 7-5 after he beat Goshen’s Dan Weeden 6-1 in the semifinals.
Two other WG wrestlers got to finals, but lost. At 124, Austin Fesinger ran into Waterloo’s Robert Pullen and lost his title bout 8-1, while Logan Willis got second at 138, close in his final but falling 6-3 to Niagara-Wheatfield’s Garrett Chase.
Jacob Severson recovered from a quarterfinal defeat at 170 to land third place, sweeping the consolation bracket capped by a pin of Owego’s Bobby Struble in the third-place bout.
Also on Dec. 29 was a girls edition of the Haines Tournament wher WG’s Riley Butler, at 120 pounds, made it all the way to the championship round.
Butler shut out Fulton’s Gionna Allen 8-0 in the semifinals, only to run into Shenendehowa’s Makenzie Harbour in the championship round and take a last-second fall. Still, it helped the Wildcats finish 16th in a 24-team field.
Back on the boys side, WG met Fayetteville-Manlius head-to-head last Wednesday and defeated the Hornets 36-24.
F-M won three of the first five bouts despite Austin Fesinger’s pin of Sam Reikes and a forfeit to Willis. But four straight wins starting with Maxx Fesinger’s second-period pin of Tyler Delaney turned it in the Wildcats’ favor.
Severson, Elijah Apps (195 punds) and Santino Sanford (215 pounds) all had to earn decisions, with Severson beating Jacob Pavlov 10-3, Apps edging Francis Barr 3-1 and Sanford topping Caleb Haase 8-3.
A narrow 1-0 defeat by Omar Almlaiti to Andrew Dabulewicz at 285 pounds was followed by WG winning two of the last three bouts – a forfeit to Cole Willis at 101 and Max Alexander,(109) edging Athan Dauszka 5-3.
Marcellus, like J-E, was off during the school break, but came back Wednesday with a lopsided effort against Homer, dropping just the opening bout before winning everything else in a 57-5 romp over the Trojans.
Pins went to Colin Scherer (145), Elliott Barbosa (195), Caleb Posecznick (285), Jake Burton (109), Knoll McCoy (116) and Jack Burton (124), but other bouts were closer.
At 138, Hollis Child got the Mustangs on the board by edging Anthony Cincioni 11-9. Jayden Abbott (215) blanked Owen Burhans 4-0 and Anthony DeCapio (160) shut out Jameson Swab 7-0 as Trevor Rankin (152) won, 7-2, over Dom Burlingame and, late in the match, Blaine Haney, at 101, held off Patrick Maslin 7-4.
