DEWITT – Led by the duo of Brennan Kline and Cael Bruce, the Baldwinsville wrestling team claimed a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s Section III Class AA championships at Jamesville-DeWitt High School.
Close decisions helped Kline prevail at 101 pounds and Bruce do the same at 108 pounds. In Kline’s case, it meant going six full minutes with Cicero-North Syracuse’s Kasey Kalfass and working until the final seconds to pull it out 7-6 after beating Cole Willis (West Genesee) 7-2 in the semifinals.
Fewer points were registered in the 108-pound final between Bruce and Fayetteville-Manlius wrestler Joe Rafuse, but enough moves were made by Bruce to pull it out 5-2, which followed up a semifinal where Bruce pinned Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA’s Akasha Nunnally in the second period.
All told, the Bees had 145.5 points, trailing C-NS (200.5), host J-D/CBA (179.5) and West Genesee (152) as two other B’ville wrestlers would make it to the championship round.
Aaron Fredenburg got close at 160 pounds, pinning Arthur Daley (New Hartford) in the semifinals and pushing West Genesee’s Maxx Fesinger to the last second in the title bout but then taking a 6-4 defeat.
In the 190-pound final, Judson Ferris, who beat WG’s Eljiah Apps in the semifinals by a comfortable 11-4 margin, ran into Syracuse City’s Ryan Brown and lost, 12-5.
Elsewhere, Nathan Cali registered B’ville’s only third-place finish at 152 pounds. Pinned by Jesus Moreno (Syracuse) in the semifinals, Cali responded with two wins, including a tense consolation bracket final against Harrison Schwab (Fayetteville-Manlius) which he pulled out by an 8-7 margin.
Zach Boudreau finished fourth at 101 pounds, dropping his consolation bracket final 8-3 to New Hartford’s William Griffith. Michael Spinner, at 138 pounds, beat Liverpool’s Will Cowan 12-4 for fifth place, which Davian McLeod equaled at 152 pounds by edging J-D/CBA’s Sean Cavanaugh 3-1 and Don’Sincere Allen got at 285 pounds with a pin of C-NS’s Michael Pease. Brendan Fredenburg was sixth at 131 pounds.
Kline, Bruce, Ferris and Aaron Fredenburg will all have top seeds this Saturday at SRC Arena for the sectional Division I championships, where only the winners are guaranteed spots in the Feb. 23-24 state meet in Albany.
