DEWITT – Again proving itself to be the top program among the largest schools in the area, the Cicero-North Syracuse wrestling team brought home the banner from Saturday’s Section III Class AA championships at Jamesville-DeWitt.
All told, the Northstars earned 200.5 points, just enough to fend off the challenge of host J-D/CBA, who was second with 179.5 points. Liverpool, with 109 points, was seventh in the nine-team field.
Four different C-NS wrestlers earned titles, starting at 116 pounds, where Anthony Ciciarelli, in his title bout against New Hartford’s Caden Beecher, kept Beecher from getting a point in six minutes on the mat, finishing with a 6-0 decision after pinning Sam Reikes (Fayetteville-Manlius in the semifinals.
Sean Aldrich did not go the full distance in his 138-pound final as, facing Liverpool’s Samir Almiri, he got a pin of Almiri late in the second period. In the semifinals, Aldrich pinned CBA/J-D’s John Lemondes as Almiri outscored F-M’s Luis Rivera 11-8
It was even more lopsided for Kennedy Thomas at 145 pounds, for in his title bout Thomas only needed 67 seconds to finish off J-D/CBA’s Mason Porter, not that much longer than the 57 seconds needed for Thomas to pin F-M’s Charlie Caput in the semifiinals.
Finally, there was Kamdin Bembry, who worked his way to victory at 215 pounds with an impressive championship-round effort against J-D/CBA’s Bryce Dadey, winning it by a 12-5 margin in the wake of a second-period semifinal pin over WG’s Omar Almlati.
Two other Northstars nearly went to the top. At 101 pounds, Kasey Kalfass pinned Baldwinsville’s Zach Boudreau in 66 seconds to get to the final, only to face Boudreau’s teammate, Brennan Kline, and in a tense battle to the final seconds drop a 7-6 decision.
It was identical at 124 pounds, where Javone Dawkins, blanking J-D/CBA’s Max Griffin 7-0, made his way to the finals and lost by a single point, in this case managing a single escape against WG’s Austin Fesinger and nothing more in a 2-1 defeat.
C-NS tacked on a third-place finish at 215 pounds when Joe Kozubowski pinned WG’s Omar Almlati in less than two minutes. Aaron Westcott (116 pounds) and Austin Hartman (190 pounds) both had fourth-place finishes, while Grady Ellsworth pinned WG’s Jackson Austin for fifth place at 108 pounds and Kaydin Welch (170 pounds) beat Syracuse’s Jeff Petties 13-5 to also finish fifth.
Liverpool had one other finalist besides Almiri – Dante Mallozzi, who got to the title bout at 170 pounds by pinning J-D/CBA’s Michael Darling in 95 seconds, only to run into New Hartford’s Patrick Barres, who won with a third-period fall.
At 108, Aiden Adams-Bovenzi claimed third place when he pinned J-D/CBA’s Akasha Nunnally. Eric Kozlowski got fourth place at 131 pounds, with Paolo Munetz (116) and Gavin Connolly (124) each finishing fifth, Munetz by beating Sam Reikes (Fayetteville-Manlius) 8-3 and Connolly winning 17-8 over Syracuse’s Dontae Smith.
Top finishers here all could meet each other again this Saturday at SRC Arena during the sectional Division I championships that determine the automatic berths for the Feb. 23-24 state championships in Albany.
