Section VI Division 1 State Tournament Preview

The 2017-2018 NYSPHSAA state wrestling championship kicks off Friday at the Times Union Center in downtown Albany. Twenty-two Section VI wrestlers will represent the area large schools in Albany. This number includes 15 sectional champions and 7 at-large qualifiers. The brackets have been released heading into this weekend’s tournament and a number of online sources will provide live coverage all weekend long.

99 pounds: Niagara-Wheatfield seventh grader Colin Coughenour claimed the sectional title and will represent the Falcons and Section VI in Albany. Colin will face off against the 7-seed Section IV (Binghamton region) champion Dante Rigal from Johnson City in the first round on Friday morning. Section VIII (Nassau Co.) Massapequa’s Chase Liardi is the top seeded wrestler in the weight class. Shenendehowa’s (Sec. II – Albany region) Stevo Poulin, the 99-pound Eastern States champion, is the #2 seed. No place winners from a year ago return at weight in this bracket.

106: Two Section VI wrestlers will compete in the 106-pound large school tournament in North Tonawanda’s Tyler Bartolomei and Lancaster’s Jacob Harry. Bartolomei goes as the sectional champion and Harry was selected as an at-large qualifier into the tournament. Bartolomei will open the tournament wrestling the 8-seed Anthony Surace from Webster-Schroeder (Sec. V-Rochester region). Surace enters the tournament as a wildcard qualifier. Harry will face off against Newburgh Free Academy’s (Sec. IX-Catskill region) sectional champion and 5th seeded Greg Fischer in the first round. Five defending state place finishers return at this weight. CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt’s (Sec. III-CNY) Matt Griffin and Section I’s (Hudson Valley) Ivan Garcia from Port Chester are the top two seeds, respectively, and are both state tournament placers from last season.

113: Lancaster senior Parker Rozler is back at the state tournament after defending his Section VI title. Rozler looks to place after missing the podium at last season’s states. He will face off against Kai Yudelson from Brooklyn Tech High School (Public School Athletic League-NYC) in the first round. Yudelson is the 8-seed in a weight class that returns 2017-2018 NYS champion and #11 nationally ranked Greg Diakomihalis from Hilton (V) and a defending finalist in Dylan Ryder from Half Hollow Hills West (Sec. XI-Suffolk Co.). Only one other defending placer returns in this bracket.

120: Aiden Rabideau from Clarence makes his second trip to the NYS tournament in an absolutely loaded bracket. The Section VI champion is the 8-seed and will wrestle Section V champion Ryan Burgos from Hilton in the first round. Five returning place finishers round out this bracket including returning finalist Cody Anders from Brockport (V) and federation champion Myles Griffin from CBA/JD. The top two seeds are Anthony Sciotto from Rocky Point (XI) and Devin Woodworth from Horseheads (IV), respectively.

126: Niagara-Wheatfield’s Justin McDougald is on his third trip to Albany and enters the tournament as the 3-seed. Justin made it to the state final a year ago, falling by decision to Diakomihalis. He is back in Albany now two weight classes up. Anthony Corigliano from Clarence was selected as an at-large qualifier to Albany and will wrestle 3x NYS champion and #1 nationally ranked Adam Busiello from Eastport-South Manor (XI) in the first round. The only other returning placer in the bracket is Columbia’s (II) Michael Gonyea who is the 2-seed.

132: Willie McDougald from Niagara-Falls returns to Albany for a third time coming off of a 6th place finish in 2017. The Wolverine sophomore is the 2-seed, only behind defending NYS champion Justin Vines from Wantagh (VIII). Vines defeated McDougald in the quarterfinal of the 126-pound bracket in 2017 by decision, 9-6. One other defending state place finisher returns in this bracket. Look out for what could potentially be a huge showdown between McDougald and 3-seed Rafael Lievano from Ward Melville (XI) in the semifinals should both wrestlers make it. Lievano defeated McDougald for 5th place at Eastern States back in January by decision, 6-4.

138: Section VI enters two wrestlers in the bracket in sectional champion Vinny Catanzaro from Williamsville North and wildcard Jake DeWolf from Niagara-Wheatfield. Catanzaro will wrestle Section III champion and 5-seed Garrett Bauer from CBA/JD in the first round. DeWolf will take on Section IX champion Dom Vetrano from Minisink Valley who is the 8-seed in the opening round. 2017 place winner Anthony Sobotker from North Babylon (XI) is the weight’s top seed while in-section rival and defending state placer Chris Gomez from Patchogue-Medford is the 2-seed.

145: Niagara-Wheatfield junior Warren McDougald returns to Albany for the third time with a top-6 finisher there in 2017. McDougald is the 8-seed and will wrestle the CHSAA champion Justin Crawford from St. Anthony’s High School in the opening round. 3x NYS champion and #5 nationally ranked Frankie Gissendanner from Penfield (V) is the weights’ top seed. Defending state finalist Kiernan Shanahan from Shenendehowa is seeded 2nd.

152: Defending Section VI champion Ryan Stencel from Lancaster and tournament wildcard Adam Daghestani from Grand Island will represent the section. Stencel one-win shy of placing in Albany in 2017 and is looking to make the podium this season. Ryan is the 6-seed and has Abimael Luperon from Grand Street Campus (PSAL) in the Friday opener. Daghestani will wrestle the 3-seed in Section V champion Cooper Kropman from Penfield in the first round. Another nationally ranked wrestler leads the field in this bracket, in 4x NYS champion and #2 nationally ranked Jacori Teemer from Long Beach (VIII). Defending state finalist Matt Grippi from Fox Lane (I) is the weights 2-seed. A Teemer/Grippi Eastern States final rematch could happen on Saturday night. Teemer was a winner by a score of 9-5 in January.

160: Section VI champion Josh Thibeault from Niagara-Wheatfield makes his first trip to Albany after wrestling much of the season at 152. Josh will wrestle the 5-seed and Section VIII champion JD Moore from Levittown Division in the opening round. Returning state finalist and #18 nationally ranked Jake Silverstein from Hauppauge (XI) is the top seed, while returning place finisher Chris Barker from Fairport (V) is the 2-seed. A Silverstein/Barker final would be the rematch of the Eastern States final where Silverstein was 3-0 winner by decision.

170: Three area wrestlers are entered in the bracket. Section VI champion Dan Emblidge from Grand Island will wrestle 8-seeded Section IV champion Chris Eames from Horseheads on Friday morning. At-large wrestler Derek Wojciechowski from Frontier will face off with Section VIII champion and 5-seed Matt Rogers from Wantagh. Also, CHSAA champion Dominik Thomas from St. Francis returns to Albany and will see 6-seed Gevorg Arakelov from Maspeth (PSAL) in the opening round. Defending NYS champion Tyler Barnes from Ballston Spa (II) is the top seeded wrestler and defending state finalist Grant Cuomo from Brewster (I) is #2. Both Barnes and Cuomo are top fifteen nationally ranked wrestlers, so a Saturday night final match between the two could be one of the weekend’s best.

182: Section VI has multiple entries again at this weight. Section champion Connor Kenney from Grand Island and wildcard Steve Daskavitz from Lockport both head to the state tournament for the first time. Kenney will wrestle Eastern States and Section V champion 3-seed Sammy DePrez from Hilton in the opening round. Daskavitz has the 5th seeded Joe Franzese from John Glenn (XI), a place winner at last year’s state tournament, in the Friday opener. Four of the top eight seeds were all participants in Albany last season but did not place. Two more, in top seeded Jake Logan from New Rochelle (I) and Franzese did make the podium a year ago. Consider this one of the deeper weight classes at the tournament.

195: Williamsville North’s Cam Walter will represent Section VI in this bracket in Albany. Walter is the 8-seed and will wrestle Section III champion Matej Zavacky from Fulton in the first round. Wantagh’s Jon Loew is the top seeded wrestler in the weight and is the clear favorite to win the state title. The recent Cornell wrestling commit is the only returning state place winner in the bracket.

220: It comes down to this weekend for Lancaster’s Joe Andreessen who is riding high on an outstanding senior year in both football and wrestling. Andreessen is on his second trip to states after a 5th place finish in 2017. After spending most of the season at 195-pounds the Legend senior committed to 220 down the stretch. Now, Joe finds himself the second seeded wrestler in the weight after only top seeded Elijah Rodriguez from Long Beach. In a back and forth match at Eastern States Rodriguez was able to secure an early third period pin over Andreessen in the third place match. A finals rematch may be one of the best of the weekend. Andreessen will begin the tournament with Section III champion Mykle Thomas from Syracuse City School District.

285: Section VI has two entries and both are seeded. Calik Kennedy from Amherst is seeded 4 and Grand Island’s Jaquan Johnson is the 5. The two split their season head to head matches 2-2. It was Kennedy who was able to secure the Section VI title and Johnson earned a wildcard. Kennedy will wrestle Section III champion Spencer Pisaneschi from Rome Free Academy in Friday morning’s opening round. Johnson will wrestle fellow wildcard entry Tim Nagosky from Smithtown West (XI). The top seeded wrestlers are also from Section XI. Top seeded Deonte Wilson from Amityville upset Eastern States finalist Joey Slackman from Commack in the Suffolk County final.