CAZENOVIA – Eleven wrestling teams made their way to Buckley Gym last Sataurday to battle for top honors in the Onondaga High School League championship meet and host Cazenovia would make some noise.
Earning 72.5 points, the Lakers were ninth overall, behind the 94 points from Chittenango in seventh place. Marcellus would prevail with 204 points to Homer’s second-place total of 171.5.
Gryphon Foster managed Cazenovia’s best finish at 108 pounds. After a tight 7-4 overtime defeat to Knoll McCoy (Marcellus) in the semifinals, Foster rebounded, reached the consolation bracket final and shut out Homer’s Patrick Maslin 5-0.
Chittenango did even better having Edward Geer prevail at 160 pounds. Geer pinned Cazenovia’s Paolo Markley in the quarterfinals and did the same to Louis Bennett (Southern Hills) in the semifinals before a title bout where he dominated Marcellus’ Trevor Rankin, earning a 19-3 technical fall to improve to 24-4 on the season.
Adding a third-place finish at 131 pounds, the Bears’ Dan Mahle got it pinning Gavin Sheriff (Southern Hills) in the second period. Kole Smith (145 pounds) pinned Sheriff’s teammate, Tanner Clemens, for fifth place at 145 pounds.
Peter Schulz added his own fifth at 215 pounds outscoring Marcellus’ Caleb Posecznick 10-2 as Noah Haarman (108 pounds), Ian Bentz (152 pounds) and Ryan Oppenheimer (190 pounds) each took sixth place.
Cazenovia, meanwhile, had Nate Chapman get fourth place at 145 pounds recovering from a wild 18-17 defeat to Marcellus’ Dallas Wilson in the quarterfinals.
Carter Sgouris shut out Cody Hall (Homer) 4-0 for fifth place at 124 pounds, which Cullen Arnold equaled at 131 pinning Jordan-Elbridge’s Ryan Gibbs in the third period. Markley gained sixth place at 160.
In girls wrestling during the Homer Lady Legacy Tournament Cazenovia wrestler Marina Davis made her way to third place at 120 pounds, winning the consolation bracket final when she pinned Homer’s Anna Aldrich in the third period. It was the Lakers’ only top-six finish.