CENTRAL NEW YORK – By margins both big and small, wrestling teams from West Genesee and Marcellus emerged from two different meets Saturday as Section III champions.
At Jamesville-DeWitt it was the Wildcats on top in Class AA with 234.5 points clear of the 191.5 from runner-up Cicero-North Syracuse, while at General Brown a closely-fought Class C meet had the Mustangs need 231 points to edge Sherburne-Earlville (230.5) by half a point to earn the top spot.
Each finish was important for Marcellus, starting with two winning individual efforts. Blaine Haney prevailed at 124 pounds claiming an action-packed 19-14 final over Canastota’s Brennan Soucia, while in a close 215-pound final Chris Doshna fought past Southern Hills’ David Frazee 2-0.
Jack Burton nearly won at 138 pounds taking an 8-7 overtime defeat to S-E’s Trenton Anderson in the title bout, with Jayden Abbott matching that second-place finish at 170 pounds with a finals defeat to General Brown’s Tristan Jarvie.
What ultimately helped the Mustangs win was taking six of six consolation bracket finals for third-place finishes, from Jake Burton pinning Jackson Gerstenschlager (General Brown) at 116 pounds to Caleb Posecznick at 215 pounds pinning Mason Sturteveant (Adirondack) in 93 seconds.
Key points were earned in the 190-pound third-place match by pinning S-E’s Aiden Kiehn in 44 seconds. Brayden Borst was even quicker at 101 pounds pinning Southern Hills’ Jacob Meyer in 17 seconds, with Anthony Decapio holding off Cazenovia’s Gabriel Sanchez 4-2 at 152 pounds and Trevor Rankin (160 pounds) topping Canastota’s Luken Gaiser 7-1.
Travis Stack finished fourth at 285 pounds despite a 7-4 loss to Adirondack’s Conner Petersen as, at 108 pounds, Knoll McCoy outscored William Soucia (Canastota) 19-15 for fifth place, which Dallas Wilson matched at 145 pounds shutting out Tanner Clemens (Southern Hills) 15-0.
Meanwhile, in the Class AA sectional meet West Genesee saw brothers Austin and Maxx Fesinger each repeat as sectional champions, Austin edging J-D/CBA’s Max Griffin 2-0 in his final at 131 pounds as Maxx won at 170 when teammate Jack Wade forfeited.
Logan Willis added a title at 145 outscoring Cicero-North Syracuse’s Sean Aldrich 12-7 in his title bout. Elijah Apps reached the final at 215 before falling to J-D/CBA’s Bryce Dadey as Aiden Wright reached the final at 101 before a defeat to Baldwinsville’s Zach Boudreau.
Three other Wildcats finished third, Cole Willis doing so at 108 pinning J-D/CBA’s Nick Gormel in 99 seconds as Ali Abumustafa got the same at 152 winning his consolation bracket final 9-6 over Liverpool’s Matt Loncosky. At 285, Omar Almlaiti edged C-NS’s Ahmed Ashkar 2-1.
Owen Fuller got to fourth place at 116, which Raul Colon equaled at 190. Sixth-place finishes went to Max Alexander at 124 pounds and Samir Aboshreakh at 160.
In the sectional Class B championships Jordan-Elbridge had a strong showing, getting to fifth place with 141.5 as the host Homer Trojans claimed team honors with 205.5 points.
Mason Tanner claimed the Eagles’ lone title at 108, pinning Arlo Brouillette (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) in 32 seconds in the semifinal before a title bout where he needed just 79 seconds to pin APW/Pulaski/Sandy Creek’s Luke Ackerman.
To get third place at 124 Ben Lamson had to beat teammate Liam Mantell 5-2 after Tyler Chilson pinned Aidan Lagowski (APW/Pulaski/Sandy Creek) in the consolation bracket final at 116.
Logan Merriam, who routed Mexico’s Mason Wilcox 19-5 for third place at 145, was among a trio of other J-E wrestlers in that spot, Adam Delcostello pinning Antonio Soullas (Central Valley Academy) at 152 and Glen Sanchez, at 170, blanking Homer’s Colin Murphy 7-0.
Drake Allen was sixth at 170 and Alex Coomber nearly got to fifth at 215, taking a 9-8 defeat to CVA’s Luke Lawton for that spot.
