OXFORD – It was not a good day for defending Section IV champions at the 44th Annual Clyde Cole Tournament in Oxford Saturday.
Devon Brown of Marathon avenged a loss to Greene’s Nick Wilcox in last year’s 103-pound Section IV championships, while Justin Davy of B-G/Afton topped Shayne Wilcox of Unadilla Valley at 135 pounds, that victory atoning for a two-point defeat last season.
“We came out and wanted to wrestle our match and dictate the pace,” said B-G/Afton coach Brandon MacNaught. “To beat a good kid, such as Wilcox, you have to get an early takedown.”
Davy did score in the first period taking Wilcox down, and led late in the match, 3-2. With Wilcox pressing for the lead, Davy wrapped up the win with another takedown for one of two Bears titles on the day.
Wilcox and Brown split their two matches a year ago, although it was Wilcox prevailing when it mattered most winning 6-2 in the Division II finals en route to a New York State championship. Brown was the aggressor and scored takedown and back points n the first and third periods to down the freshman Trojan wrestler, 12-4.
Fulton was the runaway team champion sending seven wrestlers to the finals and winning five to outdistance Greene (162) by over 100 points. The Trojans sent five wrestlers to the finals, but all of them came home with second-place finishes.
B-G/Afton was a mere half-point behind the Trojans for third place. Danny Gormley, the Bears’ 96-pounder, set the stage for Davy topped Jacob Shearer of Greene, 4-0. After a scoreless first period, Gormley caught Shearer in a cradle in the second, and held that the rest of the stanza to create a 3-0 bulge.
