WNY Grapplers Hit the Mats at Class Championships

The New York State Class Championships in wrestling were decided on Saturday at various WNY high schools. The biggest names in Section VI went head-to-head for a chance at the State Qualifiers next weekend.

The top five finishers in each weight division would be moving on when it was all said and done.

Lancaster High-School featured Class AA where the back-to-back section champ Niagara-Wheatfield Falcons had six No. 1 seeds in the field.

Four would go onto become Champions including 113 pounder Justin McDougald who also was named Most Outstanding Wrestler.

His brother Warren claimed the 132 division championship while cousin Willie (Niagara Falls) finished first in the 126’s.

Justin McDougald won by way of a tie-breaker over rival Mitch Seaver of Lockport. Justin commented prior to the match that he and Seaver had been wrestling against one another for years “When I was in 7th grade he would get the better of me” McDougald said. “But now I’m more experienced and able to get the upper-hand. We have good matches.”

Older brother Warren had an equally impressive day and finished the day with a tech fall over Clarence’s Andy Burden. “I have a rule, once I beat you, I won’t ever lose to you, I can’t let that guy every beat me” Warren said in between matches. “I’ve been wrestling 10 years and keep working harder to get better.”

The Falcons ended up finishing in 2nd place overall as Clarence finished in the top spot with 209.5 points. Niagara-Wheatfield ended up with 180, just ahead of host Lancaster (176).

“It’s a young team but there’s a lot of experience among them” N-W coach Rick Sweney said. “I’m proud of them, they’ve been working their tails off to get here. We have a good shot of getting a lot of guys to move on to next week.”

Clarence had four division winners, 2 runner-up’s and a 3rd place finisher. Aiden Rabideau (99), Zach Braunscheidel (145), Joe Mannarino (170) and Christian Rider (195) all took home 1st place finishes.

The Legends are sending 7 wrestlers to the State Qualifier’s next weekend including three that won their weight divisions Saturday. Parker Rolzer (106), Ryan Stencel (138) and Mason Mastrangelo (220) scored big wins for the host team. Stencel may have had the biggest victory of the day, scoring an impressive decision over No. 1 seed Jacob DeWolf of N-W (5-4).

The other class winners were Dontay Gill of Lockport (120) who scored a fall over West Seneca West’s Luciano Orsene. Steven Kapuscinski took the 152 division after pinning Chris Bradford of Niagara Falls.

Frontier’s Derek Wojciechowski won by fall over Blake Harlock of Orchard Park in the 160 pound division.

N-W’s Matt Cicco (182) won a 3-2 decision over Lancaster’s Joe Andreesen and his Falcons teammate David Runge pinned Lockport’s Jason Robillard in the 285 weight class.

Class Winners: AA – Clarence A – Williamsville South B – Pioneer C – Falconer D – Randolph