CENTRAL VALLEY – The Norwich Purple Tornado were busy this past weekend when the varsity wrestling team took the Leo J. Sammon Memorial Tournament by storm – claiming a four individual champions en route to a second place team finish.
Norwich ultimately edged out Camden for the second place team finish, on Jan. 7, when Norwich amassed 262.5 points taking second place only to the home team Central Valley who won the tournament with a massive 351 points.
Norwich saw champions at 120 pounds in Nick Glanville, 152 pounds in Cole Rifanburg, 170 pounds in Jake Franklin, and 182 pounds in Brennan Slater.
99 pounds: Norwich's Dante Geislinger took home a fifth place finish in the tournament. Geislinger finished the day going 3-2 in his matches, as he fell to Central Valley's Marek Bush by pin in the quarterfinals before wrestling back for a fifth place win over Joey Reed of Mexico – a win by pin at 2:23.
106 pounds: Norwich's Mike Squires grabbed a semifinal win to make an appearance in the finals at the weight class. However, fell to Jon Charles of Central Valley by a 6-1 decision in the finals for a second place finish, going 3-1 on the day.
113 pounds: Norwich's Eli Rodriguez nearly snagged a first place finish at the tournament, however, fell victim to the wrestler voted Most Outstanding Wrestler in Little Falls Neiko Scarano by a score of 3-2. Rodriguez finished with a second place finish going 4-1 on the day.
120 pounds: Norwich saw their first of four champions crowned on the day when Nick Glanville emerged to take the weight class by storm. Glanville four wins – all four by pin – en route to his finals match where he defeated Hunter Williams of Camden by a score of 3-1.
126 pounds: Norwich's Chris Cabalero saw action this last weekend, scratching and clawing his way into a respectable finish at sixth place. Cabalero finished 2-3 on the day of wrestling, while claiming wins over Poland's Garret Jones and William Clark – both pins – before suffering his last loss to Kyle Dimon of Mexico by a decision of 5-3 for the sixth place spot.
132 pounds: Seth Wessels was unable to secure a placing spot in the tournament for the Tornado. Wessels did enjoy one win out of four at the weight, defeating Nick Feasel of Little Falls by a pin at 3:23.
138 pounds: Norwich entered two wrestlers into the weight – Dakota Powers and Austyn Hatton – neither claimed a placing spot in the tournament. Powers finished the day 1-3 on on the day, taking a win over Dane George of Cortland by injury default. Hatton would finish 1-3 on the day as well – pinning his one opponent for the win in 4:49.
145 pounds: Ty Rifanburg fell short of a championship tournament goal when he lost an early back to Daniel Alberico of Camden by a major decision at 10-1. Following the early loss, Ty ripped his way back through the tournament to take a third place finish with a win 9-3 over Liverpool's Zachery Curcie.
152 pounds: Cole Rifanburg gave Norwich their second champion on the day when he dominated his weight class for a first place 5-0 day. Rifanburg enjoyed solid matches en route to the finals where he defeated Isaiah Roes of Lowville by a decision of 6-0.
160 pounds: Keegan Wright took to the mat this past weekend battling for a chance at placing – falling short while going 2-3 on the day. Wright enjoyed a forfeit win as well as a win by pin over Ryan Baron of Poland at 1:20 as his two wins on the day. Also wrestling at the weight was Dakota Hall, Hall finished the day going 2-2 – taking his two wins in fashion with a pin over Anson Curtis of Mount Markham and a major decision win over Ryan Baron of Poland at a score of 11-3.
170 pounds: Norwich's Jakob Franklin – although suffering a defeat to Central Valley's Trent Ingraham by a 5-3 decision – was afforded a shot at the first place spot on merit of it being a round robin tournament. Franklin took full advantage of this opportunity when he edged out Jaden Allen of Mexico with a 5-4 win in the placing round. This gave Norwich their third champion on the night – despite going 4-1 on the day,
182 pounds: Norwich's Brennan Slater dominated his weight – earning five wins, all by way of pins – as he marched his way to the finals where he earned his fifth win of the night over Josh O'Reilly of Mexico by pin at 4:45. Slater snagged Norwich's fourth and final first place finish on the night.
220 pounds: The Tornado's last wrestler on the mat – no wrestler entered into the 285 weight class – was Tyler Rice. Rice managed to grab a fourth place finish in the tournament, while going 3-2 on the day. With four of the five matches being decided by a pin – three pins in favor of Rice – it was his final match that dropped him to fourth and would not be decided in similar fashion as the prior four. Rice dropped to a fourth place finish after battling with Rome Free Academy's Chris Whitman – losing by a 9-0 major decision in the placing rounds.
Next up for Norwich wrestling, they will be on the road next, as they travel to Windsor on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at 7 p.m.
ONEONTA – The annual Ross Kordell Rotary Tournament in Oneonta attracted the likes of two Chenango County teams in 2017 – as Sherburne-Earlville and Unadilla Valley ventured over the hill to take part in the 16 team tournament. Notably, S-E and UV each saw one place finisher each – as S-E gained theirs in Ethan Eldred who snagged a fourth place spot at 152 pounds; while the Storm enjoyed a third place finish from Morgan Lakin at 126 pounds.
Final standings placed S-E in 13th place with 62 team points, while UV came in at 16th place with 16 team points (only one wrestler on the team).
113 pounds: Jason Price of S-E failed to find a placing spot in the tournament, going 1-2 on the day with his lone win coming over Dylan Eggleston of Chenango Forks by a score of 11-1.
