WNY Wrestling Weekend Roundup Four

Area tournament results and notes for the fifth weekend of high school wrestling (Friday, 12/27 – Saturday, 12/28).

Friday, December 27th – Saturday, December 28th

54th Annual Teike/Bernabi Wrestling Tournament @ Spencerport HS (V)

The Lancaster Legends made a strong push for the team title in the first few rounds of the tournament as they only trailed the host by 6.5 points after day one. However, the powerful Rangers ultimately outpaced the Legends behind three champions and four runners-up. Lancaster had six pool winners in the round robin style tournament on day one and crowned a champion in Codie Scotland at 195-pounds. The only other finalist for the Legends was Dan Empfield who fell to Scotland in the 195-pound championship match. Four more Legends captured third places and three more, fourth at their respective weight classes. Keep in mind Lancaster accumulated 325 team points without Ryan Stencel in the lineup, outpacing third place Rush-Henrietta (V) by eighty-one points. The Legends are the #1 seed for Saturday’s Section VI Division I Dual Meet Championships. Four Buffalo area teams placed in the top ten in team scoring in a very diverse field of teams representing sections II, III, IV, V, VI, and the CHSAA. Clarence finished fourth in team scoring led by 160-pound runner-up Jack Feltz who captured four wins, all by pin, in the Friday rounds. Starpoint finished three spots back from Clarence and was led by 126-pound tournament champion Jacob Eckler. Eckler has been excellent for the Spartans this season and holds a current record of 23-2. Gage LaPlante appeared at 99-pounds for the first time this season, taking advantage of the post-Christmas two-pound allowance. LaPlante had to settle for a runner-up finish to Lewiston-Porter’s Caden Barrientos who currently holds a 19-1 record and has been outstanding as of late for the Lancers. St. Joe’s rounded out the top ten in team scoring led by runner-up finishes from Ben Parish and Ronnie Jones. The Marauders have now seen the Rangers three times already this season. Canisius also competed at the event and was paced by 4th place finishes from Luke Brydges and Braydon Vandenberg.

Spc. Kenneth Haines Memorial Tournament @ SUNY Oswego (III)

The Haines Tournament has come to be known as one of Upstate New York’s must see annual post-Christmas events. Niagara Wheatfield has been a consistent participant over the course of the last decade, and made the overnight trip to Oswego again, as did Newfane. After hovering around 2nd place in the team score for most of the tournament, the Falcons ultimately placed fourth overall with 156 team points, 8.5 points behind Section V’s Webster-Thomas. The very strong Fulton Red Raiders (III) ran away with the team title outscoring Section X small school perennial power Gouverneur, 273 to 186. Wheatfield won the team title in 2018-2019. After advancing five wrestlers to the semifinals, only two Falcons advanced to championship matches. Justin McDougald showed up at 138 for the first time this season and was the top seed in the bracket. McDougald (24-0) met state tournament qualifier Dylan Price from Marcellus (III) in the semifinal. After a 5-3 win over Price, McDougald would meet two-time state place winner Carter Baer from Gouverneur. In his second state tournament quality match of the day, McDougald defeated the Wildcat star 3-1 for his fourth straight Haines title. Andre Clause was unseeded at 285 for Wheatfield, and upset the 6, 3, and 2 seeds before falling in the final to returning Section III champion Mike Leibl from Canastota. Newfane advanced four wrestlers to the final and had one champion in Andy Lucinski who entered at 106 for the first time this season. Lucinski (23-1) captured the 106-pound title with another dominating performance, earning two pins and a finals major decision for his second straight Haines title. Aidan Gillings, Adam Huntington, and Ryan Nugent were runners-up to help Newfane to a sixth place team finish, despite only entering a small group of wrestlers. Both Gillings and Huntington started as the 6th seeds at 99 and 113-pounds, respectively, and defeated the 3 and 2 seeds on the way to their finals.

Dick Vincent Invitational Duals @ Letchworth HS (V)

The NYSSWA state ranked #4 Falconer Golden Falcons captured the Dick Vincent title for the second year in a row posting a 9-0 record and improving to 20-1 overall this season. Falconer cruised with nine wins over all-Section V opponents, picking up high quality wins over Attica/Batavia, Palmyra-Macedon (their second win over the Red Raiders this season), and a convincing 48-26 win over NYSSWA #3 small school Canisteo-Greenwood. Dual wins against these teams could prove to be highly impactful should any of these squads represent their sections at the state dual meet tournament. Joey Pillittieri and Collin Mower both went a perfect 9-0 to lead the Golden Falcons. ‘Joey P’ is 25-1 on the season with one loss coming to an out of state wrestler in overtime. Mack Mikula and Bryce Baglia posted 8-1 records on the weekend. The Golden Falcons are the #1 seed in Division II for the Section VI Dual Meet Championships on Saturday.

Bolivar-Richburg Wolverine Scuffle @ Bolivar-Richburg HS (V)

B-R captured their own dual tournament title after taking 3rd behind Olean and Portville last season. Portville was the highest placing Section VI squad out of the four that participated. The Panthers went 8-1 on the weekend falling only to a strong Bolivar team in a dual that featured two full lineups and no forfeits. The 52-29 loss is the first and only blemish on Portville’s record thus far, as the Panthers improved to 17-1 overall this season. Sophomore Dakota Mascho went a perfect 9-0 and in doing so captured his 100th career victory. Mascho is cruising with a 25-1 record this season. Also, Mascho defeated Olean’s Gavin Kulp in the ultimate tiebreaker, 3-2, in what could be a sectional semi or final match later this season. Olean, Franklinville, and Maple Grove all went 5-4 on the weekend. With much improved numbers since the start of the season, the Huskies were able to capture five wins including a revenge win over Franklinville who beat them 45-42 on December 5th. Franklinville was able to clip inter CCAA division rival Maple Grove 38-33 for Panthers’ big win of the weekend. And in return, the Dragons took down Olean, 48-42. Also, Nolan Palmatier became the first Panther wrestler in 23 years to achieve 100 career victories.

Saturday, December 28th

52nd Annual Akron Holiday Wrestling Tournament @ Akron HS

The Amherst Tigers escaped with the team title by the skin of their teeth, outscoring second place Churchville-Chili (V) 113.5 to 113 points and crowning two champions. While top seeded Hasan Dobbins earned the 138-pound title by way of a medical forfeit, teammate Ben Buscaglia saved the day with a finals pin to claim the 160-pound title. In doing so, Amherst was able to survive three Churchville champions who all pinned in their respective finals matches. Ten different wrestlers scored team points for the Tigers, and in fourteen of their individual wins throughout they day they collected bonus points. Kenmore West/East was third in the team scoring led by 195-pound champion Noah Michael. Michael earned two tech falls and a pin to capture the individual title. Cole Kreiger was a runner-up for Kenmore and four more wrestlers placed third or fourth. Williamsville South finished 5.5 points behind Kenmore for 4th place and had three finalists with one champion in Luqman Ahmad at 132-pounds. Ahmad beat St. Mary’s Zach Ash who collected some very quality wins at the Linda Knuutila tournament a week ago. Newfane placed 5th in the team score with a limited lineup. Phil Stevenson, Simon Lingle, and Jaden Heers were all runners-up for the Panthers. Lockport was paced by two champions in Kevin Daskavitz and Jaheim Clayton. Clayton pinned in all three wins to claim the 220-pound Akron title. The host team was led by one champion in Ryan Yaeger at 170-pounds. Barker/Royalton-Hartland crowned two champions in Gavin Ciarfella at 99 and Brett Ricker at 113-pounds. Gowanda’s Ethan Fort was the lone Panther champion and captured the 152-pound title. Alden/Depew’s retuning sectional champion Carson Alberti again had to square off with his brother Mike, this time in the 126-pound final where Carson was a winner, 11-4. Finally, in the bracket of the day, Albion’s Cody Wilson captured the 285-pound title defeating Newfane’s Jaden Heers in the final, 4-2. However, before he got to the final, Wilson had to face off with Amherst’s Ryan Bitka in the semi, where Wilson was a winner 2-0 in a match between Trench Trophy finalists. In the quarterfinal, Bitka was pushed by North Tonawanda’s Chris Kinney and needed overtime to advance to the semi. With wins over Heers and Bitka in the same day, Wilson has to be seen as a possible contender for the Division II heavyweight title in February. Wilson was also recognized as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.

Grand Island Duals @ Grand Island HS

Possibly the best and most impactful GI Duals occurred on Saturday. With the Section VI Duals weekend being moved to the 4th, the results of this tournament would be taken into consideration heavily, as it was the last major dual meet event before the Duals and also featured nine teams in the mid-season WNY Athletics team ranking. #2 Iroquois went a perfect 5-0 defeating #3 Fredonia in the pivotal in-pool match to advance to the championship against Section V powerhouse Brockport. In the Iroquois/Fredonia dual, the Hillbillies won eight matches to the Chiefs’ seven, however Iroquois earned bonus points in each of their wins and captured five pins to Fredonia’s four. In critical matches, Iroquois captured pins when needed. In the heart of their lineup, Iroquois captured five wins in seven bouts from 99 to 138-pounds. And, a Ryan Current/Ceric Kristan match at 182 looked like it was going to happen and perhaps maybe will later this season. At 120-pounds Fredonia’s David Ball defeated Donovan Bukaczeski 9-6 in another three-point rematch from last year’s 106-pound Division II state qualifier. Dalton Gardner was out of the Hillbillies lineup all day as well. Fredonia finished 3rd overall with a 48-33 win over #7 big school Frontier. A possible Iroquois/Fredonia rematch could be on the horizon as they have earned the 2nd and 3rd seeds, respectively, for the Section VI Division II Dual Meet Championships. Iroquois also beat Brockport, 48-34, #4 large school Niagara Falls, 42-27, #9 Lake Shore, 66-22, and Southwestern, 61-15. In the other pool, Frontier survived #9 Grand Island 41-40. The Falcons also defeated the Vikings 42-35 on December 6th. Frontier won seven matches to GI’s eight, however the Falcons earned six team points in each of their wins by way of six pins and a forfeit. Andriy Petrov performed the critical job of holding GI’s Adam Daghestani to a 6-1 decision, as Daghestani has earned a pin or forfeit in sixteen of his nineteen wins this season. Frontier’s Adam Kowalski also held on against Jack Randle, falling 11-4, but only conceding a decision win whereas an eight point differential would’ve given GI four team points instead of three. Frontier also got revenge on #7 Chautauqua Lake, 42-36, and saw senior Dylan Wojciechowski capture his 100th career victory. Southwestern also picked up a win over a ranked team beating East Aurora, as did #9 Lake Shore over the #8 Blue Devils, 42-39 in an ECIC II preview. The final standings: 1. Iroquois (5-0) 2. Brockport (4-1) 3. Fredonia (4-1) 4. Frontier (3-2) 5. Grand Island (3-2) 6. Lake Shore (2-3) 7. Niagara Falls (3-2) 8. Chautauqua Lake (1-4) 9. Southwestern (2-3) 10. Lackawanna (0-5) 11. East Aurora (0-4)

Holley Holiday Duals @ Holley HS (V)

#5 Pioneer cruised to the team title picking up five important dual wins to help bolster their record for Section VI Duals entry considerations. The Panthers scored at least 64 points in all five matches against Section V squads and had eight wrestlers go undefeated on the day, seven of whom went 5-0. As it turns out, the Panthers improved to 15-4 and earned the 5-seed on the Division II side for Saturday at Lancaster. The first round dual between #4 Newfane and #5 Pioneer has the potential to be one of the best of the entire tournament; Newfane escaped with a 40-39 win over Pioneer on December 13th.