DEWITT – On its home mats, the Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy wrestling team nearly found its way to the top in last Saturday’s Section III Class AA championships.
The Rams’ total of 179.5 points beat everyone except Cicero-North Syracuse, who won with 200.5 points. Fayettteville-Manlius had a strong showing, too, earning 132 points for fifth place in the nine-team field.
Neither F-M nor CBA/J-D ended up with a champion in any of the 13 weight classes, though both would come close.
Bryce Dadey, wrestling at 215 pounds for the Rams, got to the finals pinning C-NS’s Joe Kozubowski, only to run into Kozubowski’s teammate, Kamdin Bembry, and take a 12-5 defeat, while at 145 pounds Mason Porter got pinned in his final by another C-NS wrestler, Kennedy Thomas, after he pinned F-M’s Trent Gloo in the semifinals.
F-M also had two finalists. Joe Rafuse almost won it at 108 pounds, edging Aiden Adams-Bozenzi (Liverpool) in the semifinals 4-3 and battling Baldwinsville’s Cael Bruce but taking a 5-2 defeat as, at 285 pounds, Jackson Schwab lost his final to New Hartford’s Chris BelMonte following a pin of teammate Andrew Dabuliewicz in his semifinal.
Four other Hornets had third-place finishes, starting with Eric Kozlowski, who at 131 pounds pinned Liverpool’s Marek Sokolowski in just 36 seconds in their consolation bracket final.
Luis Rivera (138 pounds) pinned J-D-CBA’s John Lemondes in the second period for third place, while Trent Gloo, facing the Rams’ Chris Grosso in the consolation backet final, prevailed 5-1.
Yet another Hornets third-place finish at J-D/CBA’s expense came at 285, where Dabulewicz pulled out a 4-2 decision over Mykola Fabian.
The Rams countered with Carlos Barrroso edging C-NS’s Aaron Westcott 3-0 for third place at 116 pounds as Max Griffin (124 pounds) equaled that finish by pinning Liverpool’s Khai Anderson in 96 seconds. In a second-period fall, Michael Darling pinned West Genesee’s Jacob Severson to finish third at 170 pounds.
Two other J-D/CBA wrestlers – Akasha Nunnally (108) and Logan Oppedisano (160 pounds) – joined Lemondes, Grosso and Fabian as fourth-place finishers, with F-M’s Harrison Schwab, at 145, dropping a close third-place match 8-7 to B’ville’s Nathan Cali. The Rams’ Andrew Cooney (190 pounds) and Hornets’ Tyler Delaney (160) each got fifth-place finishes.
These teams, along with East Syracuse Minoa, will still send their top wrestlers to SRC Arena this Saturday for the sectional Division I championships, where winners are guaranteed trips to Albany for the Feb. 23-24 state meet.
The Spartans, during the sectional Class A meet at Carthage, had two of its wrestlers get sixth-place finishes – Peyton Spencer at 124 and Owen Roche at 170.
