SYRACUSE – A pair of individual victories – one of them expected, the other far less so – helped the Cicero-North Syracuse boys wrestling team nearly claim the top spot in last Saturday’s Section III Division I state qualifier at SRC Arena.
Kasey Kalfass was the no. 6 seed at 124 pounds, but but knocked off the top three seeds in a row to earn a trip to the Feb. 28-March 1 state meet in Albany and also land Most Outstanding Wrestler honors for the meet.
To start with, Kalfass blanked East Syracuse Minoa’s Peyton Spencer, the no. 3 seed, in a 15-0 technical fall in the quarterfinals before outlasting the no. 2 seed, Indian River’s Eli Faus, 7-3 in the semifinals.
Only top seed Dominic Schiano from Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA remained, but in the championship bout Kalfass controlled matters most of the way, piling up points and topping Schiano 12-4.
Kennedy Thomas added a victory for C-NS at 152 pounds. Unlike Kalfass, Thomas was a favored top seed, pinning Gayge Amrhein (Whitesboro) in 62 seconds and Isaiah Ward (Carthage) in 46 seconds to get to the final, where he earned a third consecutive pin stopping Fulton’s Colen Austin in the second period to move to 34-3 on the season.
Two other C-NS wrestlers, Javone Dawkins and Kaydin Welch, got to finals – and by doing so, they augmented what were already strong seasons and earned at-large berths in the state meet to join Kalfass and Thomas.
Dawkins (26-12 on the season) was the no. 7 seed at 131 pounds but he pinned the no. 2 seed, West Genesee’s Austin Fesinger, in the quarterfinals and then handled Fayetteville-Manlius’ Eric Kozlowski 10-1 in the semifinals only to get stopped in the final by Central Square’s Jaxon Perkins in a technical fall.
Meanwhile, at 190 pounds Welch pinned Gage Babcock (Carthage) in the quarterfinals and pinned Noah Long (Whitesboro) in 83 seconds in the semifinal but lost his final in a rematch with Syracuse’s Ryan Brown, who also topped Welch in the sectional Class A final a week earlier. Welch is 33-5 this winter with two of the defeats coming to Brown.
Up at 101 pounds Grady Ellsworth pinned Zach Hammond (Fulton) for third place, while Ahmed Ashkar (285 pounds), Michael Pease (215 pounds) and Mason Indick (138 pounds) lost in the quarterfinals and Derek Eells lost in the opening round at 160 poundss.
For Liverpool, Sajad Amirzada made his way to fourth place at 116 pounds, taking a defeat to Fulton’s Lucas Hammond in the consolation bracket final. Samir Amiri finished fifth at 145 pounds when C-NS’s Sean Aldrich had to take a medical forefit. Nick Lonkowski lost in the opening round at 152, as did Jonathan Underwood at 170 pounds.
All of this preceded Sunday’s sectional girls wrestling state qualifier, also at SRC Arena, where Shea Ellsworth made it all the way to the championship round at 100 pounds.
Ellsworth, who is 24-6 this season, blanked West Genesee’s Julianna Martini 10-0 in the quarterfinals and took just 2:50 to pin Phoenix’s Agnes Terpening in the semifinals, only to run into General Brown’s Zoey Jewett in the title bout and take a 10-0 defeat.
Aniyah Burton had C-NS’s other top-four finish, getting fourth at 165 pounds. Beaten in the quarterfinals by Homer’s Eila Spanbauer, Burton worked her way back to the consolation bracket final, only to run into Spanbauer again and take a 14-1 loss.
