The 2021-2022 Spartans achieved several program milestones to make a case as perhaps the best team in the history of the program.
With an already highly talented cast of wrestlers returning this winter, head coach Steve Hart and the Spartans welcomed the addition of former Lewiston-Porter student-athletes Caden (junior) and Jaron (sophomore) Barrientos, whose family moved into the district before the start of this school year. The brothers, who are both returning Section VI Division II place winners, will give the already strong Spartans lineup an unmistakeable boost in the lower-middle part of the lineup.
Caden carries a 109-23 career record through four seasons on the varsity roster at Lewiston-Porter and is already a three-time Section VI Division II place winner. Jaron won the Class B title and placed 4th in the section in his second varsity season last winter while posting a 25-8 overall record.
“We are starting to really see our own wrestling community here at Starpoint…things are beginning to come together for us,” said Hart. “We will take it one match at a time. We’re not overlooking anyone. We’re taking every match seriously…cannot overlook one person, one team, nothing, because that’s how you fall. We say what the Bills say: ‘be humble and hungry.’ If you lose that hunger, that’s when you take a loss, individually, you shouldn’t take, or the team takes a loss it shouldn’t take because of bad individual performance.”
Despite losing four main starters in the upper weights at graduation, a returning cast that includes two New York State individual place winners, eleven class tournament place winners, and 9 top-four sectional tournament place winners, the Spartans are in prime position to potentially repeat as ECIC II champion, contend for the Section VI Division I dual meet title, and possibly make a deep run at the NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Championships, should they qualify.
**2021-2022 team accolades:**
17-4 overall, 6-0 ECIC II
ECIC II league champions
ECIC Tournament champions
Section VI Class A champions
Section VI Division I dual meet runner-up
NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Championships semi-finalist
**Potential** starting varsity lineup (with current grade, 2022 postseason finish, and 2021-2022 personal record):
**Lightweights**
Sean McDonald – 9th – 8-2 (jv)
Jack Sole – 9th – 13-9 (jv)
Kole Haseley – 9th – 2nd in Class A, 4th place in Section VI Division I – 23-17
Jaron Barrientos – 10th – 1st in Class B, 4th pl Sec. VI Div. II – 25-8
JR Leuer – 12th – 2nd in A, 3rd pl. Sec. VI Div. I – 37-6
Coen Freundschuh – 9th – 26-8 (v and jv matches)
**Middle weights**
Caden Barrientos – 11th – 2nd in B, 3rd pl. Sec. VI Div. II – 26-8
CJ Uptegrove – 12th – Class A champion, 3rd pl. Sec. VI Div. I – 34-12
Griffin LaPlante – 9th – Class A champion, Sec. VI Div. I champion, 5th place NYS – 46-7
Gage LaPlante – 11th – Class A champion, Sec. VI Div. I runner-up, 7th place NYS – 41-5
Zach Caldwell – 9th – 4th in A, 5th pl. Sec. VI Div. I – 23-22
**Upper weights**
Phil Pirinelli – 11th – 11-4 (jv)
George Thompson – 12th – 4th in Class A – 12-18
Landon Grainy – 12th – 2nd in A, 3rd pl. Sec. VI Div. I – 33-14
Matt Caldwell – 12th – Class A champion, 3rd pl. Sec. VI Div. I – 31-16
Hunter Ducharme – 12th – 12-4 (jv)
The Spartans kickoff the 2022-2023 season at home on Saturday, Dec. 3rd with the Starpoint Duals which features a very challenging field including Niagara Falls, Clarence, Southwestern, Iroquois, and Frontier.
The following Tuesday, Dec. 6th, the Spartans will travel to Fairport to take on the defending Section V Div. I Dual Meet champion Raiders. Starpoint at Fairport will feature two returning NYS Duals competitors and current top five state ranked large school teams.
Starpoint will host Williamsville South in the ECIC II opener for both squads on Dec. 8th before rounding out the first seven days of action at the annual Hillcrest Company Pioneer Duals on Dec. 9th and 10th at Pioneer HS.
Keep an eye on a handful of Spartans wrestlers slated to compete in high level individual tournaments like the Windsor Christmas classic, the daunting Powerade Wrestling Tournament in Pennsylvania, and the Eastern States Classic in addition to the rest of the Spartans’ regular season schedule.
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