Zimmerman Repeats As Catholic State Wrestling Champion; CHSAA Championships Roundup

Sunday’s 56th Annual Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Wrestling Championships brought together seventeen Association member teams at St. Mary’s High School for the annual state championship event. Since the most recent locally competed CHSAA Tournament was in 2017, the dozen other member squads from Long Island, New York City, and lower Hudson River Valley journeyed to Buffalo for this year’s championship.

“The St. Mary’s crew did an awesome job. They have a nice facility and the league works well together to support [St. Mary’s head coach Zach] Weiss staff. Nobody has to go it alone in our league…everyone kicks in,” said Msgr. Martin wrestling chairman and CHSAA assistant wrestling chairman Pete Kennedy after the tournament. “Operationally, the tournament went well. We had volunteers and officials on super bowl Sunday. Competitively, all of the schools involved had shortened seasons last year, and some didn’t even allow wrestling. So, to come out of it with the CHSAA having a good event and very competitive matches, I think everyone needs to understand that some of these coaches were dealt the worst hand possible…and they figured out a way.”

“One of the cool things about our league is the week between All-Catholics and the CHSAA Championships we always work together for the benefit of us all,” said Weiss. It isn’t common place to have rivals like this, but when it all comes down to it we always have each other’s backs.”

Top seeded St. Joe’s sophomore Austin Zimmerman was the lone Monsignor Martin ‘Catholic states’ winner on Sunday, capturing 1st place at 110-pounds in a dominate performance over the rest of the field. Zimmerman earned three pins in the championship rounds before a convincing 16-1 technical fall win in the final over 3-seed William Casey from St. John the Baptist High School. Zimmerman was also named the CHSAA Division II Most Outstanding Wrestler.

Zimmerman (28-8 record) was one of four MMHSAA finalists and earned an automatic entry to the NYS federation championships in Albany which are scheduled for February 25th-26th at MVP Arena in the state capitol. With the implementation of the auto-qualifier system to fill the state tournament brackets, there is no chance for CHSAA runners-up or 3rd place wrestlers to receive an at-large invitation to Albany meaning only the thirteen CHSAA champions will represent the Association in the federation state tournament.

Since there was no NYS tournament in 2021, this will be the Marauder sophomore’s first experience competing at the federation event.

“Im just excited to be there,” Zimmerman said.”I have to eat right, focus on my nutrition, and train every day. I just want to get on the podium and make up for not having the tournament last year. I’m going to do everything I can.”

St. Joe’s placed three wrestlers in the CHSAA Championships on Sunday including Zimmerman, junior Luke Ventresca (3rd, 145-pounds), and freshman Jefferson Long (4th, 152-pounds) who helped the team to a 6th place finish overall with 99.5 points, but a 1st place team finish in the ‘small’ school scoring. Ventresca’s 3rd place finish is his third straight placement in the CHSAA championships while Long impressed in his debut performance in the event.

Canisius finished just behind St. Joe’s in the team race with 90 points for a 7th place finish with only eight wrestlers entered in the tournament; they placed higher than four teams with more wrestlers in the overall standings.

The Crusaders were led by four placers and a pair of finalists in seniors Sam Whistler at 189-pounds and Braydon Vandenberg at 215-pounds. In only his first ever year on the mats, Whistler made a run to the final coming from the 6-seed spot with pins in each round of the championship bracket. In the final, Whistler fell just short of top seeded Claudio Pinto from Chaminade High School, 3-2.

“Sam came out originally just stay in shape for lacrosse,” said Canisius head coach John Baldwin. “Once he started having some success, it was like a lightbulb went off. He was like a sponge. He got better and better and ended up having a great year.”

Top seeded Vandenberg impressed again with his uncanny ability to pin with three falls in less than a minute in each of his first three bouts on Sunday. However, the three-time defending CHSAA finalist fell in the 215-pound championship match by a narrow 7-6 decision in a rematch of the 2021 final with St. Anthony’s’ 2-seed Andrew Bardak. On Sunday, Bardak used a late third period takedown and held on for the one point win in the title match.

Also placing for Canisius were seniors Luke Brydges (3rd, 138-pounds) and Cody Franklin (6th, 160). Brydges finishes his Crusaders career as a four-time CHSAA Tournament placer earning the Association’s ‘Ironman’ designation.

“The biggest mark these seniors will leave on the program is leadership,” said Baldwin. “We came from a covid year where we started the year with those four guys. They went out and recruited some more guys. They created a great culture and demanded a lot of themselves. The thing I am most proud of is that they are really high character kids that worked really hard this year.”

St. Francis finished 8th in the overall team standings with 56.5 points with three place winners in seniors Liam Edwards (3rd, 145) and Tyler Wilkinson (6th, 152) and sophomore Connor Miller (5th, 172).

Edwards, who also achieved his 100th career victory on the day, finishes his Red Raiders career with the CHSAA Ironman distinction for placing in the state championships four years in a row. Wilkinson, also a 100-match winner, secured his second career CHSAA place finish on Sunday.

“This year, just because we had such a young team with many kids new to wrestling in general, having Liam and Tyler be our anchors was really important for us,” said Raiders head coach Mike Messore on his senior stars. “While we had some young guys step up, those two were money. They had convincing wins over some good wrestlers. They went out and got their jobs done and really set a good example. As far as our team goals went, Liam and Tyler were good leaders and really helped bring our young team along.”

St. Francis captured the Msgr. Martin regular season dual meet title with a perfect 4-0 record in league duals this season.

St. Mary’s seniors Trevor Sheehan (2nd, 160) and Griffin Dempsey (4th, 172) helped pace the Lancers to an 11th place team finish with 51.5 points total.

Sheehan dominated in the first three rounds with three pins on the way to the final. In the championship bout, Sheehan met 2021 CHSAA champion Frankie Theroux from St. Anthony’s but fell by decision, 15-8. Sheehan finishes his Lancers career as a three-time CHSAA placer, two-time finalist, and as the St. Mary’s wrestling program all-time wins leader with 104 career victories.

“Trevor did what he set out do up until the very end,” said Weiss. “He has a good reputation for being a tough wrestler and worked really hard to get there. It’s been a pleasure seeing him grow into the young man that he’s become.”

Weiss added on Dempsey, “Griffin started wrestling as a freshman and worked extremely hard to get where he is. He had a goal and did everything he could to get there. When he had a moment of perspective he was able to appreciate what he did to get there.”

St. Francis senior Liam Edwards captured his 100th career victory at Sunday’s CHSAA Championships.