Frank Speziale Photo

NORWICH – With :10 seconds left at 106 pounds, Brody Oleksak of Bainbridge-Guilford-Afton-Harpursville maintained control in a scramble situation with Norwich's Mikey Squires to win 1-0 and take the 3-point team swing back on top for the 37-36 win over Norwich.

The New York State rankings for varsity high school wrestling had just been released by the New York Sportswriters Association on Jan. 3, and the weather held out enough for the Bears of BGAH to travel over the hill to take on Norwich.

The newly released rankings affirmed what many already knew – an inter-county showdown of state ranked Division II wrestling teams was going to be happening in Norwich on Jan. 5, at 6:30 p.m. – with the Norwich gymnasium packed with fans, ninth ranked BGAH unseated seventh ranked Norwich by a mere point, at 37-36.

A one-point swing, a point that can be made up anywhere in the 15 matches during the dual meet, BGAH emerges victorious – with a still unblemished 9-0 record on the season.

“The first thing we had to do was win the coin toss, they wanted the coin toss of what we got and luckily that helped us greatly,” said BGAH head coach Brandon MacNaught of how close the dual meet was expected to roll out. “I don't like forfeiting, and I apologize to Cole (Rifanburg), because I really don't like it, but we couldn’t win if I threw my guy out.

The swing match-ups for the showdown came at every turn in the 15 man weight class spread, as BGAH with a coin-toss win in their favor was able to move their roster around, allowing a forfeit 'safer' matches to occur throughout.

We knew going in that 106 pounds would have to be ours. And that if we got the toss that we would have to reverse 126 pounds, because we lost to him at Clyde Cole and then to get a pin out of that was huge,” said coach MacNaught. “Ben Bivar had to suck it up, weighing in at 138 pounds and last time Ty (Rifanburg beat him 7-0, and to only lose 2-1 now. You know it was an overall team effort.”

Norwich jumped out to a early 12-0 start in the dual, as Eli Rodriguez at 113 pounds and Nick Glanville at 120 pounds each earned pins for the Tornado – over Haiden Burns at 2:32 and Seth Foster at just :35 respectively.

That is when the powerful Bears ripped through the Tornado to land a three match, three pin swing in their own favor – taking the team lead at 18-12; following pins from Damien Knapp at 126 over Cristobal Cabolero at 2:32; Cody Ferrara at 132 pounds of Seth Wessels at 4:49; and Austin Eggelston over Dakota Powers at just 1:51.