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:
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