VESTAL – This past weekend on Friday and Saturday, the Vestal Golden Bears wrestling team played host to the acclaimed Section IV duel meet tournament, where they would eventually go on to claim the title and remain undefeated on the season.
Despite the Golden Bears successes on the season, now sitting at 24-0, two Chenango County teams, BGAH and Norwich, emerged from the weekend in the top four of the twelve-team tournament. BGAH ultimately placed second losing to Vestal in the finals 46-19.
Coming into the weekend the top four teams by seed in the tournament were as follows and in order from first to fourth: Vestal, BGAH, Johnson City, followed by Norwich. Each of these teams earned a first round bye in the tournament.
The remaining eight teams in the tournament were, in no particular order: Chenango Valley, Newark Valley, Walton-Delhi, Horseheads, Elmira, Tioga, Deposit-Hancock, and Dryden.
The weekend progressed in a series of single elimination rounds.
The first round of the tournament saw the eight unseeded teams vying for a spot to move on to the second round to take on one of the seeded teams. Tioga would defeat Walton-Delhi, 48-27; Newark Valley narrowly defeated Horseheads, 38-33; Chenango Valley got the team win beating Elmira, 41-36; while Deposit-Hancock rolled over Dryden, 70-12.
The second round subsequently saw each of the top-four seeds win their duel meets, with the exception of Johnson City who gave up the upset win to Newark Valley, who won 45-33, knocking number three, Johnson City, out of the tournament.
The Norwich Purple Tornado wrestling squad picked up a tightly contested win over Deposit-Hancock at 39-32, to ensure their bid to the semi-finals round.
“I am proud of my team, coaches and our parents and fans. We have hurt guys that stepped up. Young guys that were willing to get out there and do what they could for us,” said Norwich head coach Bob Hagenbuch.
BGAH faced off in the second round against Chenango Valley, winning 46-26, sending them to the semi-finals as well.
Despite a slow start giving up a 16-0 tech fall at the opening weight class of 132-weight class to Chenango Valley. BGAH responded in a huge way with four back-to-back pins from their 138-pound wrestler, Ben Bivar; 145-pound wrestler, Shane Hoover; 152-pound wrestler Madison Hoover; and their 160-pound wrestler Mason Brown.
Vestal would handily defeat Tioga 57-32.
The semi-finals did not disappoint as both matchups seemingly could have swung either way at any moment. Number one ranked Vestal matched up against number four-ranked Norwich; while number two-ranked BGAH faced off against the upstart Newark Valley team.
Despite high hopes from the Tornado going into the weekend, they fell short of defeating Vestal and reaching the finals by a 3-point margin, losing to Vestal 40-37. Notably this 3-point win for Vestal is the smallest margin the Golden Bears have won by in any match throughout the 2015-2016 season.
“You know we preached about scratching and clawing for every point all season. Not giving up pins. Easier said than done,” said Hagenbuch.
