OXFORD – Norwich’s Kegan Levesque may have set the stage for a banner season. Meanwhile, Oxford sophomore Joe Nelson made it 2-for-2, and Greene junior Mike Beckwith made sure the Trojans did not walk away empty-handed in Saturday’s 49th Annual Clyde Cole Memorial Tournament.
The second-oldest high school wrestling tournament in New York State was again dominated by Pennsylvania powerhouse, Wyoming Seminary. The Blue Raiders, led by former Oxford wrestling coach Scott Green, ran away with their second straight team title winning eight individual titles out of 15, and polled an astonishing 366 points – 166 better than runner-up Queensbury, and more than 200 ahead of Chenango County’s top entry, Greene.
Wyoming Seminary’s stacked lineup had a pair of champions – Dom Malone at 126 pounds and Eric Morris at 160 – knock off New York State champions en route to titles. Malone, headed to Northwestern next year on a full scholarship, pinned Norwich’s Tristan Rifanburg at 3:35, while Morris blanked LaSalle Institute’s Connor Sutton, 5-0, in the 160-pound final.
Before the Blue Raiders started their run of championship victories, though, Nelson kicked off the evening with a hometown victory at 99 pounds. A 2010 Clyde Cole titleist, Nelson shook off any jitters in a hurry. He took down South Glens Falls’ Anthony Sgorrano just 10 seconds into the match, and added back points with 40 seconds left in the first period to take a commanding 5-0 lead. After an early second-period escape, Nelson wasted little time with his second takedown of Sgorrano, and earned the pin at the 3:39 mark. After the pin, Nelson raised two fingers on each hand to signify the two titles on his home mat, and he finished the tournament without surrendering a point.
“I was a little nervous before the last match with everyone chanting,” Nelson said. “Right before it started, everyone got quiet. When the whistle blew, I was able to focus.”
Beckwith was one of four Greene wrestlers to reach the finals. All four of Greene’s finals matches were decided by one or two points, but it was just Beckwith who solved his opposition winning a thrilling 8-7 decision over South Glens Falls’ Stephen Lumley at 170 pounds. The two wrestlers traded leads throughout the match, but it was a reversal in the third period that gave Beckwith the edge.
Levesque, who has placed well in just about every tournament his has entered the past three years, faced a short, but difficult road to his first Clyde Cole championship. In the 195-pound semifinals Saturday morning, Levesque outlasted Wyoming Seminary’s Matt Doggett, 8-5. In the finals, Levesque secured a third-period takedown against Greene’s Joel Roselle to polish off a 5-3 victory.
“He gutted out both matches, and he didn’t give up,” said Norwich coach Joe Downey of Levesque. “I think we’re getting over that hump this year. We have been working on conditioning and technique, and his technique has already improved a ton this year. Usually it takes (Kegan) a month to really get warmed up, but right now he is wrestling very well.”
In placing third overall, Greene had an area-best nine wrestlers finish among the top six. Keegan Cerwinski (182), Roselle (195), and Kyle Stanton (220) led the way with runner-up finishes. “We kind of ran into number one seeds all the time, and I thought we would close the gap,” said Greene coach Tim Jenks. “There is a lot to be learned from this tournament, and the competition here is really good. It was good to see this level of competition early in the season, and we can see the mistakes that we need to work on.”
