Catrabone, Hoose Top Seeds for State Wrestling Championships, Eleven WNY Wrestlers In Top Three

Cover photo courtesy of Jeff Pataky

Defending NYS champions in Williamsville North senior Cam Catrabone and Southwestern sophomore Tavio Hoose have earned the number one seeds in their respective weight classes for this weekend’s NYSPHSAA federation wrestling championships while nine more WNY area wrestlers earned 2- or 3-seeds in their brackets.

Southwestern's Hoose // Pataky

2023 NYS champion and Division II tournament Most Outstanding Wrestler Jordan Joslyn from Chautauqua Lake was awarded the 2-seed at 138-pounds in the Division II tournament amongst a field that returns three state champions and eight total returning or past state place winners. Defending NYS finalist and three time place winner Aidan Gillings from Newfane is the 8-seed in the bracket.

Chautauqua Lake's Joslyn

In the large school tournament, St. Francis senior Gage LaPlante is the 2-seed at 170-pounds while sophomore teammate Zach Caldwell is the 2-seed at 190 for his first appearance at the state championships. Fellow Red Raider 10th grader Griffin LaPlante is the 3-seed at 152-pounds.

In small schools, Newfane senior JJ Lucinski (101), Southwestern sophomore Carmine Calimeri (131), CL’s Joslyn, and Wilson sophomore William Wortkoetter (285) all enter the tournament as the 2-seeds in their weight classes.

Lewiston-Porter brothers Jaron (junior) and Caden (senior) Barrientos were both awarded the 3-seed in the 108 and 124-pound Division II brackets, respectively, for each of their first appearances at the state championships.

2023 NYSPHSAA Intersectional Wreslting Championships opening ceremonies // Pataky

All five St. Francis entries received top-6 seeds in their brackets as did St. Joe’s senior Austin Zimmerman who enters at the 6-seed at 116-pounds in Division I.

Southwestern boasts three top-6 seeds out of the four Trojans who qualified for the tournament while Wilson’s three entries are all 6-seed or higher including Wortkoetter and 4-seeded Hamza Merrick, both at 285-pounds.

The 2023 Section VI Division I state tournament team placed ten wrestlers in the top-8 of their weight classes to help land the section a second consecutive top-5 finish in the final large school team scoring in Albany, a first for the Section VI large school team in the split division era going back to 2004.

However, the 2024 team will return only three place winners from 2023 while eleven of the twenty-six athletes return with state tournament experience.

In Division II, nine returning NYS place winners led by Joslyn and Hoose and thirteen total wrestlers with state tournament experience will look to maintain the Section VI Division II state tournament team streak of nineteen consecutive years of finishing in the top-5 of the final team scoring at the state championships.

Finally, six Msgr. Martin representative athletes could help the Catholic school team exceed the team’s highest place finish at the state championships (5th in 2019) with strong individual performances.

Amongst the six Msgr. Martin wrestlers, three have state tournament placements on their resumes, four have tournament experience, and five are Eastern States place winners, including 2024 champion Griffin LaPlante and 2023 champion Gage LaPlante.

2023-2024 NYSPHSAA federation wrestling championships auto-qualifier methodology (via NYSWC)

Wrestling begins at 10am on Friday at MVP Arena in downtown Albany. The finals are scheduled for 6:05pm on Saturday evening.

Official brackets are available here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/nysphsaa.org/documents/2024/2/19/NYSOfficial_24.pdf

Section VI and Msgr. Martin Division I official seeds:

(* = returning NYS tournament qualifier)

101: 5-Tanner Catrabone (Williamsville North/East)

Catrabone // Pataky

101: 17-Cameron Crumpler (Niagara Falls)

Crumpler // Pataky

108: 6-Cullen Edwards (St. Francis)*

Edwards // Pataky

108: 15-Sean McDonald (Starpoint)

McDonald // Pataky

108: 20-Zach Little (Jamestown)

Little // Pataky

116: 6-Austin Zimmerman (St. Joe's)

*Returning NYS 5th place

Zimmerman // Pataky

116: 10-Brayden Kellison (Williamsville North/East)

Kellison // Pataky

116: 17-Eian Peterson (Niagara Wheatfield)*

Peterson // Pataky

124: 14-Dylan Castiglia (Grand Island)

Castiglia // Pataky

124: 15-Sam Berti (Hamburg)

Berti // Pataky

131: 16-Trevor Mueller (Clarence)

Mueller // Pataky

131: 17-Tyler Zwald (Jamestown)

Zwald // Pataky

138: 8-AJ Didas (Clarence)*

Didas // Pataky

138: 15-Garrett Chase (NW)*

Chase // Pataky

145: 4-Te'Shaun Mathews (NW)

*Returning NYS 4th place

Mathews // Pataky

145: 14-Chase Richards (NW)*

Richards // Pataky

152: 1-Cam Catrabone (Williamsville North/East)

*Defending NYS champion

Catrabone // Pataky

152: 3-Griffin LaPlante (St. Francis)

*2022 NYS 5th place

LaPlante // Pataky

152: 19-Zak Saeed (Amherst)

Saeed // Pataky

160: 9-Joe Cicco (NW)*

Cicco // Pataky

160: 10-Dylan Gagnon (North Tonawanda)*

Gagnon // Pataky

170: 2-Gage LaPlante (St. Francis)

*2022 NYS 7th place

LaPlante // Pataky

170: 6-Michael Schaefer (Lancaster)*

Schaefer // Pataky

170: 15-Evan Braunscheidel (Hamburg)

Braunscheidel // Pataky

190: 2-Zach Caldwell (St. Francis)

Caldwell // Pataky

190: 15-Liam Whalen (Lockport)

Whalen // Pataky

190: 20-Iain O'Donnell (NW)

O'Donnell // Pataky

215: 5-Connor Miller (St. Francis)

Miller // Pataky

215: 6-Kahmari Cook (Lafayette/Buffalo Public Schools)

Cook // Pataky

215: 10-Jack MacDonald (Orchard Park)

*Returning NYS 7th place

MacDonald // Pataky

285: 4-Mike Welsh (Frontier)

Welsh // Pataky

285: 5-Bryce Hawes (Clarence)*

Hawes // Pataky

Section VI Division II official seeds:

101: 2-JJ Lucinski (Newfane)

*Returning 4th place NYS

Lucinski // Pataky

101: 22-Mason DellaPenta (Eden)

DellaPenta // Pataky

108: 3-Jaron Barrientos (Lewiston-Porter)

Barrientos // Michelle Gilbert

108: 9-Reece Senske (Medina)

116: 6-Dylan Newman (Falconer)*

116: 12-Thandon Bensink (Chautauqua Lake)

Bensink // Pataky

124: 3-Caden Barrientos (Lewiston-Porter)

Barrientos // Gilbert

124: 10-Trevor DellaPenta (Eden)

*Returning NYS 8th place (Div. I)

DellaPenta // Pataky

131: 2-Carmine Calimeri (Southwestern)

*Returning NYS 7th place

Calimeri // Pataky

131: 11-Kenji Walters (Southwestern)*

Walters // Pataky

138: 2-Jordan Joslyn (Chautauqua Lake)

*Defending NYS champion

Joslyn // Pataky

138: 8-Aidan Gillings (Newfane)

*Returning NYS runner-up

Gillings // Pataky

145: 5-Ayden Buttery (Newfane)

*Returning NYS 6th place

145: 6-Ethan Coleman (Portville/Cuba-Rushford)

*2022 NYS 5th place

152: 8-Caden Inkley (Randolph)

152: 11-Michael Horth (Gowanda)

160: 6-Jacob Stephenson (Wilson)*

Stephenson // Pataky

160: 21-Ronan Klug (Barker/Royalton-Hartland)

170: 6-Neves Hoose (Southwestern)

Hoose // Pataky

170: 20-Evan Leonard (Franklinville)

190: 1-Tavio Hoose (Southwestern)

*Defending NYS champion

Hoose // Pataky

190: 9-Jayden Malecki (Chautauqua Lake)

Malecki // Pataky

215: 5-Matt Trim (Maple Grove)

*Returning NYS 8th place

Trim // Pataky

215: 6-Mason Maring (Chautauqua Lake)*

Maring // Pataky

285: 2-Willy Wortkoetter (Wilson)

Wortkoetter // Pataky

285: 4-Hamza Merrick (Wilson)

*Returning NYS 8th place

Merrick // Pataky