CENTRAL NEW YORK – Once more the Jamesville-DeWitt/Christian Brothers Academy wrestling team found itself competing in the Section III Division I Dual meet, this time held at Jefferson Community College in Watertown.
In the semifinal round Monday the Rams faced Central Square, and though it would go back and forth it was the Redhawks ultimately prevailing 33-23.
Tom LaValle put J-D/CBA on the board at 116 pounds in a tough 9-7 win over Sam Widrick, with Dominic Schiano (124 pounds) claiming a forfeit to produce a 9-4 advantage.
But it turned when Max Griffin, at 131 pounds, lost 7-5 to Jaxon Perkins, Central Square taking six of eight bouts to move ahead for good.
Kai Vien, at 145 pounds, still edged Jordan Ransom 4-3, while Braeden Hennessey (170 pounds) got a pin over Jack Taskey late in the first period.
Central Square clinched it when Angelo Turo, at 215 pounds, beat Mykola Fabian 9-4 before Bryce Dadey (285 pounds) beat Ryan Fleischmann 10-2 and Biruk Royal (101 pounds) held off Chris Pulis 7-5.
Two days earlier, J-D/CBA wrestled at the Red Devil Invitational at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, where it earned 137.5 points to finish a close second behind Beaver River (143 points) and Fayetteville-Manlius was third with 111.5 points.
Three different Rams won, starting at 131 where Griffin pulled out a 9-6 decision over Camden’s Talon Kimball in his title bout.
Gaining another victory at 215, Dadey handled Warrensburg’s Cameron Hunt-Allen 17-2 in a technical fall right before the 285-pound final where Fabian pinned Lowville’s Charles Vonwal in the second period.
Third-period pins allowed Schiano (124) and Zion Garelick (131 pounds) to reach finish third, while Royal was fifth at 101 equaled by Vien at 145. Hennessey and Chris Grosso (152 pounds) both took sixth place.
For F-M, Harrison Schwab landed a victory at 170 pounds getting past Central Valley Academy’s Nikolai Penree 8-4 in the title bout as Joe Rafuse was second at 124 pounds.
Eric Kozlowski secured third place at 138 pounds blanking Liverpool’s Lantz Herrera 11-0, with Tyler Delaney fourth at 160 and Sam Herber the same at 190. Jacob Pavlov, wrestling at 160 pounds, grabbed sixth place.
East Syracuse Minoa went to the Jan. 18 Akley Duals at Oswego where it went 0-5, the closest of those matches a 30-27 defeat to Morrisville-Eaton where Matt Russo, at 285 pounds, topped Gabe Gillis 4-1.
Also the Spartans fell to Oswego 48-24 despite a trio of pins from Peyton Spencer (124 pounds), Brenden Zweisler (170 pounds) and Colin Caiello (190 pounds). There was also a 48-17 defeat to Canton, a 65-12 defeat to Phoenix and a 63-11 loss to Homer.
F-M had its girls wrestling team split two matches on Jan. 18 against Section V opponents, defeating Webster Thomas 28-26 but taking a 30-25 defeat to Fairport.
Laurel Varga earned a pin over Thomas opponent Derrian Brown at 235 pounds as, at 165 pounds, Persephone Spates blanked Mallory Denton 10-0. All of the points against Fairport came from forfeits to Spates, Varga, Lacey Teaken (126 pounds), Lucy Gallery (138 pounds) and Sydney Graham (145 pounds).
J-D/CBA wrestled at at multi-team meet in Fulton where Abigail Benzinger, at 132 pounds, won twice with pins over Fulton teammates Madalyn Labeef and Allison Treneer.
Then in Monday’s Red Dragon Duals at Fulton, F-M lost a trio of matches, from a 35-15 defeat to Mexico to more lopsided defeats to host Fulton (58-5) and Homer (44-5).
