ALBANY – In search of some history, two West Genesee wrestlers got as far as the semifinal round in their respective New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships in Albany.
For Riley Butler, it was going to be special no matter what happened because Butler was involved in the inaugural NYSPHSAA girls meet and would earn a fifth-place finish at 126 pounds.
It began in the opening round Thursday when Butler, the no. 5 seed, pinned MacArthur’s Olivia Rausenberger late in the second period before a tougher quarterfinal against Niskayuna-Schenectady’s Amy Erikson.
Going to the final seconds, Butler edged Erikson 8-6 and advanced to the semifinals, where she ran into Rocky Point’s top-seeded Julianna Hernandez and was pinned in 52 seconds, Hernandez going on to the state title beating Minisink Valley’s Sara Pauls 18-6.
Another defeat, 10-0 to Caitlin Maragioglo (Bellport) put Butler in the fifth-place bout, but she recovered here and claimed an 8-3 decision over Kequesha’s Alivia Cartwright.
Section III had just one state champion – Mount Markham seventh-grader Samantha Massey who didn’t drop a point in any of her bouts, two of them pins and two of them 10-0 shutouts including the final where she beat Shaker’s Julia Duro.
A day later at MVP Arena WG boys wrestler Maxx Fesinger entered the Divisoin I (large school) NYSPHSAA boys tournament as the no. 2 seed at 170 pounds and proceeded to breeze to the semifinals.
Fesinger needed less than four minutes to get a 15-0 technical fall over Peter Hinze (Briarcliff-Byram Hills-Valhalla-Westlake) in his round-of-16 bout. Then, in the quarterfinals it was Fesinger topping Horseheads’ Lucas Mosher 14-6.
Only in Saturday morning’s semifinals did this state championship quest end, Fesinger unable to do much against the no. 3 seed, Rochester McQuaid’s Casey Liess, who took it 7-3.
From there, Fesinger went up against Logan Pennell (Pine Bush) and, just past the four-minute mark, had to default due to injury, ending his state tournament as he had to forfeit the fifth-place bout to Mosher.
Elsewhere, WG’s Logan Willis, working at 145 pounds in Division I, shut out Jonathan Fox (MacArthur) 7-0 before a quarterfinal where he could not get a point against Fairport’s Philly Provenzano in a 5-0 loss. Another decision went against Willis in the consolation bracket as he lost 9-3 to Walt Whitman’s Michael McGuinness.
Moving to Division II, Marcellus wrestler Chris Doshna was the no. 6 seed at 215 pounds, only to take a 3-2 loss in the opening round to Cooperstown’s Matt Perrino.
Still, Doshna won four bouts in the consolation bracket on his way to a fourth-place finish.
Doshna got a technical fall over Lyndon Weng (Canton) 17-1, topping Ethan Robar (Scotia-Glenville) with a pin near the end of the first period, beating Gabe Soundararaj (Windsor) in an 8-0 shutout and topping John Glenn’s Carmine Gerbino 4-1.
Takota Smith (Pioneer) was next and again Doshna controlled the bout, winning it 7-1 to get to the third-place bout where, in another close battle, Arkport’s Drew Giblin kept Dosha off the board, prevailing 7-0.
As for the Mustangs’ Jake Burton, at 116 pounds he pinned Ethan York (Warrensburg-Lake George) with 11 seconds left in their opening-round bout before an 11-0 defeat to Medina’s Reece Senske. A 13-0 loss to Corinth’s Riley Bernash ended Burton’s season
Jordan-Elbridge wrestler Mason Tanner was the top seed at 108 pounds in Division II, pinning Kenji Clark (Rye Country Day) early in the second period only to get upset in the quarterfinals by Oyster Bay’s Colton Schmiesing 7-3 as Schmiesing eventually advanced to the finals.
But when Tanner got a 16-0 technical fall over Joel Diaz (Seaford) and pinned Avery Bowman (Waverly) in 100 seconds he clinched a podium finish.
Elsewhere for J-E, at 124 Liam Mantell was an at-large entry and pinned Tysun Gilliard (Eagle Academy) early in the third period but then ran into Section III teammate Brock Frederick from South Jefferson, who beat him in a 19-4 technical fall.
Mantell would go 1-1 in the consolation bracket, edging John Mignanelli (Island Trees) 2-1 before running into Wyatt Rock (Duanesburg-Scoharie) and getting pinned in 21 seconds.
