Section VI Class AA Tournament Roundup

Niagara Falls followed up their Niagara Frontier League title with an impressive team victory at the strong Class AA tournament at Williamsville South. The #5 Wolverines outpaced second place tying squads #2 Lancaster and #3 Clarence by only eight points, 232 to 224. #6 Frontier finished fourth in the team scoring with 176 points followed by #8 Williamsville North with 153 and #9 Orchard Park with 136-points. Falls placed all fifteen wrestlers led by individual champions Amarfio Reynolds, Jr and Willie McDougald and advanced twelve athletes to next Saturday’s Section VI Division I state qualifier at Starpoint.

“It’s been our theme this year to compete as a team,” said Falls head coach DJ Giancola. “We have a strong sense of family within our program and it was evident Saturday. We were in each other’s corners rooting one another on. Each of our wrestlers looked for bonus points whenever they could. It was a team accomplishment this weekend and I am very proud of our growth this season. We believe you should never finish the season as the same ability at which you started. Our wrestlers have been very dedicated and hard working all season long and have showed tremendous growth and improvement this season.”

99: Top seeded Frontier sophomore Travis Browning (41-3) captured another tournament crown cruising past his first two opponents and defeating Falls’ Jaden Crumpler in the final, 3-0. Browning and Crumpler should be the top two seeds in the Division I tournament next weekend. The Wolverines’ unseeded Mike Syposs had to face off with Crumpler in the first round, but won four straight matches in the wrestlebacks including a win over the 3-seed in the consolation semis to capture 3rd in the weight class. Also unseeded Zach Dellinger from WN lost in the first round but wrestled back to the third place match, defeating the 4-seed in the process, and finished 4th to qualify for the sectional tournament.

106: Niagara Falls freshman Amarfio Reynolds, Jr continued his strong second half of the season in capturing the Class AA 106-pound title. Reynolds was a 7-6 decision winner over 2-seed Carter Tadusz from Lancaster in the final. 4-seed Brendan Dellinger claimed 3rd in the bracket after having to defeat Falls’ Grady Peterson twice on Saturday. The 5th seeded Peterson earned a quality win over 7th grade rising star David Van Horn (Clarence) in the consolation semifinal to guarantee a spot in large school state qualifier.

113: The third straight 1vs.2 matchup to start the finals saw top seeded retuning sectional finalist Myles Gronowski claim the AA title by defeating Clarence’s Ian Howell, 4-0, in the final. Gronowski and Howell both pinned in semifinal matches on the way to the final. Unseeded Ja’Shad Bumpers from Niagara Falls met Gronowski in the quarterfinals and wrestled back to 3rd in the bracket to help the Wolverines to the team title. Bumpers was an 8-5 decision winner over Jamestown’s 4-seed Taylor Crofoot in the consolation final to round out the four AA entries to the state qualifier.

120: Williamsville North’s returning Section VI champion Cam Catrabone (8th grade) fell behind 4-0 in the final against Frontier senior Adam Kowalski but came back to earn a pin in the second period and his second class title. Catrabone pinned all three of his opponents on the day. Kowalski edged 2-seed Kaleb Schurkus from Lancaster in the semi, 4-3. Schurkus wrestled back to 3rd in the bracket defeating Clarence 7th grader Jefferson Long in the consolation finale.

126: North earned back to back champions when defending sectional champion Mike Catanzaro captured the AA 126-pound title. Catanzaro was a winner by pin over Orchard Park’s Brody Banks in the final. Lancaster’s unseeded 9th grader Micah Harry claimed 3rd in the weight after defeating 3-seed Darren Christian in the consolation finale.

132: Top seeded Clarence junior Jon Palozzi captured the 132-pound AA title to help keep the Red Devils in the team race, defeating Niagara Falls’ Wilfredo Borges, 7-4, in the championship match. Borges was a winner by pin over 2-seed Marco Fuoco from West Seneca, who wrestled back to 3rd in the weight class. Unseeded Williamsville senior Cole Andalora punched a ticket to the state qualifier taking 4th place in the bracket.

138: Top seeded Lancaster sophomore Trevor Sheehan claimed 1st in a quality bracket at Williamsville South. Sheehan captured the AA title with a 7-5 finals victory over 3-seed Jesiere Carter, who defeated teammate and 2-seed El-Shaddai Ashley in the semifinal. Frontier’s Jacob Petricca fell in the semifinal to Sheehan, but wrestled back to 3rd place after defeating Clarence’s 5-seed Dylan Carns in their second close head to head decision of the day. Carns advanced to the consolation final and secured an entry at Starpoint after winning by pin over Ashely in the consolation semis.

145: The match of the day saw Niagara Falls state champion and nationally ranked senior Willie McDougald take down fellow local star Aiden Rabideau from Clarence, 4-0, in the final. With eight state tournament appearances so far between both wrestlers, it was a matchup between two of WNY’s most accomplished wrestlers of the last six years. McDougald was also named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. Earlier in the day, Rabideau set the Red Devils’ program wins record with his 205th career victory as well, passing 2015 NYS finalist Nate Schwab. Lancaster’s 3-seed Bryce Bolognese claimed 3rd in the weight class taking down Orchard Park’s 4th seeded Caleb Potter in the consolation final.

152: Clarence’s Jimmy Dicostanzo wrestled to the Class AA title after starting the day as the 5-seed in the weight class. Dicostanzo defeated teammate Jake Slowinski in the quarters before defeating OP’s Lucas Schaffer in the semis, who had upset the top seed in the round before. Dicostanzo was a 9-6 winner over 2-seed Teddy Hengel from Kenmore in the championship match. OP’s 7-seed Dylan Coe defeated Schaffer as well as the 3 and 4-seeds on the way to capturing 3rd place in the bracket, defeating Clarence’s Slowinksi, 5-2, in consolation final.

160: Jack Feltz was Clarence’s third champion of the afternoon cruising past the field on the way to the Class AA 160-pound title. Feltz earned two pins and a finals major decision over 3-seed Owen Weller from Frontier. Weller earned a narrow 2-1 decision over Lancaster’s 2-seeded Josh Jelonek in the semifinal to earn a spot in the final. Jelonek wrested back to a 3rd place finish defeating 4-seed Brett Santarelli from Orchard Park to round out the sectional qualifiers from AA.

170: Frontier’s top seeded Dylan Wojciechowski pinned his first two opponents and earned a finals major decision to claim the AA title. Wojciechowski defeated WN’s 2-seed Evan Brophy in the final, 11-3. Niagara Falls 5-seed Javion Carter had the tough task of defeating 4-seed Camden Smith from Lancaster twice in one day, but did so in the quarterfinals and again in the 3rd place bout in a 7-5 overtime thriller. Smith was a winner by pin over Clarence’s 3-seed Juan Santiago in the consolation semis to guarantee entry to the sectional tournament.

182: Lancaster senior Ryan Stencel captured his fourth straight Class AA title and in doing so broke Derek Ostrowski’s program wins record with his 194th career victory. Stencel earned three more pins as he chases down the program’s season and career pins totals as well before defeating Lockport’s freshman star Kevin Daskavitz, 3-0, in the final. Daskavitz, a rising star in WNY, was a winner by pin over defending Section VI champion Mike Pataky from Orchard Park in the semifinal. Frontier’s Andriy Petrov wrestled to a 3rd place finish as the 4-seed in the weight class. Pataky medical forfeited the last bout of the day for 4th in the bracket but advances to the state qualifier.

195: It was an all-Lancaster final (again) as Codie Scotland captured his second Class AA title after defeating teammate Dan Empfield, 3-2, in the final. Empfield defeated 2-seed Konrad Kryszton from Frontier 4-2 in the semifinal for another meeting in their season long series. Kryszton finished 3rd overall in the weight defeating Niagara Falls’ Levi Cox 5-1 in the consolation final. Cox moved up a weight for the postseason after wrestling 182 most of the year.

220: Top seeded Orchard Park senior Matt Wagner claimed his second straight Class AA title defeating 3-seeded Noah Michael from Kenmore in the title bout. Michael’s semifinal pin over 2-seed in Clarence’s Marquis Carns earned him a spot in the final on Saturday. Carns wrestled back to 3rd place and received an injury default win over Niagara Falls’ Carl Ealy.

285: Top seeded Kenmore junior Shain Constantin pinned his way through the field on Saturday to claim the AA heavyweight title. Unseeded wrestlers in Lockport’s Stefaan Fearon and Lancaster’s Tommy Carlsen met in the semifinal as they defeated the 2 and 3-seeded wrestlers, respectively. Fearon edged Carlsen 4-0 in the semifinal to earn a spot in the final. Carlsen would fall in the consolation semifinals to another unseeded wrestler in Frontier’s Drew Mascio, whom would fall in the 3rd place match to Williamsville North’s 3-seed Ryan Venohr who had fallen in the quarterfinal to Carlsen.