SYRACUSE – Culminating its climb from relative obscurity to full glory, the Jordan-Elbridge wrestling team won the Section III Division II championship in Saturday’s meet at SRC Arena.
The J-E squad, one that is combined with Port Byron and Cato-Meridian, picked up 139 points, beating out the 123 from runner-up Adirondack. Marcellus, this year’s sectional Class B team champions, finished with 62 points for 10th place.
Three Eagles wrestlers got to finals. At 160 pounds, Jack Lamson, the no. 2 seed with a 37-2 record, added two more wins to his total, including a 7-1 semifinal over Kaleb Martin (Sackets Harbor), before a final where top seed Charles Foster (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) beat him 8-4.
Ben Lamson, emerging from a no. 4 seed at 108 pounds, knocked off top seed Cole Croniser (Adirondack) 6-3 in the semifinals and would finish second, unable to top Croniser’s teammate, Seth Strain, in a final that Strain won 6-1.
Even bigger was a 138-pound semifinal where Dylan Nolan meet Marcellus’ top wrestler, Colin Scherer, and beat him in a 4-2 decision, though Nolan lost the final to Lowville’s Patrick Grimsey.
With every point important, Mason Tanner picked up third place at 101 pounds when he pinned Nahjeed Abel (General Brown) late in the second periods. Lucas Witter got fourth at 124 pounds and Henry Smith fourth at 160 pounds, while Liam Mantell finished sixth at 118 pounds.
Marcellus got its best finish from Scherer, who recovered from the defeat to Nolan by winning his consolation bracket final 5-2 over Dolgeville’s Grayson Eggleston for third place. Chris Doshna made it to sixth place at 170.
Blaine Haney (101) lost in the quarterfinals, as did Knoll McCoy at 108 after he beat teammate Jake Burton 4-3 in the first round, along with Trevor Rankin (152 pounds)Elliot Barbosa (190 pounds) and Caleb Posecznick (215 pounds). Hollis Child (131 pounds) fell in the first round, as did Anthony DeCapio at 160 and Gabe LaFleur at 285 pounds.
Up in Division I (large schools), West Genesee had a seventh-place finish in the team portion with 100.5 points as Cicero-North Syracuse (181.5) edged Carthage (177) for the top spot, led by a victory by Maxx Fesinger at 160.
As the top seed, Fesinger got a technical fall over Ethan Doran (Fulton) and then emerged from a tense semifinal with New Hartford’s Ethan Daley 10-8, leading to a close final where Indian River’s Brady Lynch nearly matched Fesinger, but the Wildcats wrestler pulled it out 9-8 to go to the top of the podium.
Logan Willis had the top seed at 131. Pins over Brendan Fredenburg (Baldwinsville) and Eric Kozlowski (Fayetteville-Manlius) got Willis to the final, but against Carthage’s Landon Copley he was beaten in a tense 5-3 decision, his record falling to 38-5 overall.
Austin Fesinger, at 124, reached the semifinals, only to take a 14-4 defeat to Carthage’s Ryan Munn. Fesinger went on to a fourth-place finish after a 6-3 defeat to Indian River’s Kane Lynch in the consolation bracket final.
Dylan Radcliffe, beaten by eventual champion Bailey Grubb (Fulton) in the semifinals at 152, rebounded quite well, beating Joe Dare (Whitesboro) 10-5 and then pinning Baldwinsville’s Nathan Cali to take third place.
Omar Almlaiti finished fifth at 215 when Fulton’s Micah Collins took an injury default. Ali Abumustafa got a sixth-place finish at 145 after his quarterfinal defeat, as did Elijah Apps at 190, while Cole Willis (101) lost in the quarterfinals. Jacob Severson, at 170, lost his opening-round bout.
