JORDAN – Getting his post-season started on the right note, Broden Enders emerged as the 152-pound champion, highlighting the Cazenovia wrestling team’s appearance in the Onondaga High School League tournament last Saturday at Jordan-Elbridge.
Starting his meet in the quarterfinals, Enders pinned Cash Homer (Southern Hills) in 40 seconds, then moved on to a semifinal where he nearly got a technical fall on Marcellus’ Anthony DeCapio in a 15-1 victory.
The final, against Phoenix’s Will Burnell, proved much closer, but in six minutes Enders was able to secure a 6-2 decision and, by doing so, improved his season record to 31-3.
As a whole, the Lakers finished with 70.5 points, sixth in an eight-team field. Chittenango finished fifth with 99.5 points, the field ultimately chasing Marcellus, who had seven finalists, two champions and won with 179.5 points.
Gryphon Foster was Cazenovia’s other finalist, at 101 pounds. Having pinned Chittenango’s Noah Haarman in 73 seconds in the quarterfinals and APW/Pulaski’s Logan Zimmer in the semifinals, Foster ultimately was stopped by J-E’s Mason Tanner in the championship round in a second-period fall.
Gabriel Sanchez, edging Phoenix’s Chase Huntley 8-5, finished third at 145 pounds, with Finn Tobin taking third at 170 pounds when he earned a 5-2 decision over J-E’s Drake Allen. Bryce Enders nearly got third place at 160 pounds, only to take a 2-0 defeat to Southern Hills’ Aidan Moltion in the consolation bracket final.
Chittenango, for its part, gathered up podium points without an individual title, though Trevor McDonald came close at 116 pounds. McDonald pinned J-E’s Ryan Gibbs and Marcellus’ Kurtis Gardner, the latter of them in 54 seconds, to get to the finals, where another Eagles wrestler, Liam Mantell, prevailed with a second-period fall.
To get third place at 285 pounds, Elijah McDonald pinned APW/Pulaski’s Nick Todeschini midway through the second period. Peter Schulz was fourth at 215 pounds.
Three other Bears had fifth-place finishes. Norman Coomer got at 170 pounds beating teammate Chris Blair with a third-period pin, while Edward Geer (160) shut out Phoenix’s Leon Smith 8-0 and Casey Silvestro got it at 152 when Ethan Purdy had to take an injury default.
During the Section III championships a week later, Cazenovia, in the Class C meet at nearby Canastota, earned 98 points and finished eighth in a field headed by Phoenix (173), who edged Adirondack (165) for team honors.
And Broden Enders continued his sensational season-long run, winning bouts to reach the finals at 152 and then, against Adirondack’s Braden White, turning back all of White’s challenges to win 3-0.
Bryce Enders finished third at 160, pinning Canastota’s Luken Gaiser in the third period of their consolation bracket final, while Foster pinned Zoey Jewett (General Brown) in the second period for fifth place at 101. Riley Fowler was sixth at 190.
Chittenango, in Class B at Homer, finished ninth in a 10-team field with 69.5 points, led by Geer, who won at 152 when he made his way to the title bout and, against South Jefferson’s Lucas Edgar, pulled out a 5-3 decision.
Dan Mahle was third at 124 pounds, pinning Mexico’s Noah Becker to earn that spot. McDonald and Schulz each had fourth-place efforts and advanced to this Saturday’s sectional Division II championships at SRC Arena, where spots in the Feb. 23-24 state meet are at stake.
