St. Francis Wrestling Rewrites CHSAA Recordbook, Advances Ten to NYS Federation Championships

All photos courtesy of Jeff Pataky

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The top high school wrestling team in New York State and #48 nationally ranked team (via MatScouts) asserted total dominance at Sunday’s NYS Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Wrestling Championships at St. Mary’s High School.

St. Francis, St. Joe’s, St. Mary’s, and Canisius face off with wrestlers from other CHSAA member schools from New York City and Long Island at the end of every season to crown a ‘Catholic state’ champion who automatically qualifies for the NYSPHSAA federation championships in Albany. Every four years, the CHSAA championships return to Buffalo.

St. Francis senior Cullen Edwards (top) working for a pin

On Sunday, St. Francis advanced thirteen wrestlers in fourteen weights to the finals, eventually crowning ten individual champions while securing the team title. The Red Raiders tied 2011 St. Anthony’s High School's record of thirteen CHSAA finalists in fifteen weights. The Raiders’ ten champions did however break the Friars’ record of nine Catholic champions from 2011.

St. Francis’s 423 team points on Sunday crushed St. Anthony’s 2011 CHSAA tournament record 336 team points. After St. Francis, the next highest placing team was Chaminade High School (Nassau County) with 245 points.

The team title over both CHSAA Division I and II teams is the first for St. Francis wrestling at CHSAA’s since 1985.

“It’s pretty amazing that we put up that many points,” said St. Francis head coach Ron Lorenz after the tournament. “For the guys, it’s more about them wanting each other to win and get to Albany more so than it was about the records. The kids are very individually goal based but they are always helping each other to win. When you have that kind of support from your teammates, you’re going to win and move forward for place finishes, and that’s what accumulates points. That’s what this is more about than chasing records.”

Lorenz (l) with assistant coaches Steve Hart (m) and Kevin Lucinski (r)

Winning 2026 CHSAA titles for St. Francis and advancing to the federation championships:

103-pounds: Patrick Winseman, sophomore, 40-4 season record

110: John Winseman, junior, 35-4

118: Tanner Catrabone, sophomore, 33-8

132: Cullen Edwards, senior, 40-6

150: Max McCarthy, junior, 39-10

165: Griffin LaPlante, senior, 43-5

175: Rory White, senior, 39-5

190: Zach Caldwell, senior, 35-5

215: Dominic Darch, freshman, 36-3

285: Willy Wortkoetter, senior, 21-3

Also placing for St. Francis at CHSAA's:

4th-103: Jaxson Tocco, freshman, 35-12

4th-118: Ali Hamideh, sophomore, 25-13

3rd-126: Brayden Kellison-Neglia, junior, 35-8

2nd-138: Kole Haseley, senior, 31-9

2nd-144: Zak Massaro, junior, 29-12

2nd-157: Joe Colantino, sophomore, 31-10

6th-157: Owen Miller, senior, 13-21

Senior and defending NYS federation champion Griffin LaPlante led the way for the Red Raiders in the finals winning his third consecutive CHSAA title. He was joined by classmates Cullen Edwards and Zach Caldwell who also achieved the CHSAA three-peat while Tanner Catrabone, Rory White, and Willy Wortkoetter earned second straight Catholic state titles.

Edwards

 White

LaPlante, who is the #11 ranked 157-pound wrestler in the country (via FloWrestling) is the highest returning NYS place winner out of St. Francis’s eight total returning & past federation place winners on the roster.

LaPlante

All five St. Francis returning NYS place winner seniors are bound for Division I programs after graduation in the spring; LaPlante to North Carolina State University, Edwards and White to SUNY Buffalo, and Caldwell and Wortkoetter to Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA.

“You’ve got to have great senior leadership to have a great team…and we have that,” said Lorenz on his strong senior group. “Coaches can only do so much. As far as motivating each other and behind the scenes stuff, you have to have great leaders. They all kind of led a little bit differently, but they did a really nice job working together helping to motivate and encourage our younger guys in practice and in competition.”

Lorenz continued on his seniors, “It’s just the character of the kids. They’ve been leaders the whole time they’ve been here. They had the maturity and experience this year to take a meaningful role and make it matter to the underclassmen.”

Sophomore Patrick Winseman, junior Max McCarthy, and freshman Dominic Darch will all make their first appearances at the NYS championships which are Friday-Saturday, February 27-28 at MVP Arena in downtown Albany.

Darch

St. Franics’ ten champions combined for a 38-0 record on Sunday alone including twenty-four pins, eight technical falls, and three major decisions for team bonus points. As a team, the seventeen Raiders place winners combined for a 59-10 record against the field.

Junior John Winseman, a 2024 NYS place winner, had a particularly dominant performance outscoring the 110-pound bracket 60-0 on the way to the title.

Winseman (top)

“Our mindset is that ‘if we lose, finish next best’ and ‘if you get scored on, score the next point,’ that’s just part of our system,” said Lorenz. “They all lost matches this year; nobody is undefeated, and that is by design. We do that to make sure that these guys know that it’s not shocking to take a loss. And when you do, the only thing you can control is being next best.”

The 2025-2026 Red Raiders were faced with a top-50 nationally challenging schedule including four out of state, ‘national’ caliber events. St. Francis took on six fellow nationally ranked teams in just seven days in January, earning a signature win over Michigan powerhouse Dundee (USA #38, FloWrestling), 35-28, in Detroit on Jan. 17th.

On February 7th, St. Francis concluded the league season in WNY with winning the 60th Msgr. Martin All-Catholic Tournament team title while capturing all fourteen individual bracket titles.

 Junior Max McCarthy earned MMHSAA All-Catholic Championships MOW honors // 2.7.2026