Dwayne A. Lobdell Photo

VESTAL – Coming off back-to-back road wins – the Bears of BGAH (Bainbridge-Guilford-Afton-Harpursville), conquered another opponent – or should we say mountain of opponents as they drove their way to the top of the Section IV leader-board winning the 2017 Section IV dual meet, marking the first time ever the team has done so.

Three dual meet wins later, and BGAH – already ranked fifth for DII schools in the state by the New York Sportswriters Association – continued their climb to the top when they toppled each and every team that crossed paths with them this past weekend in Vestal.

Split into two divisions – DI (Horseheads,1, Elmira 2, Vestal 3, and Newark Valley 4) and DII (BGAH 1, Norwich 2, Chenango Valley 3, and Tioga 4) – The Bears not only claimed the DII championship with wins over CV and Tioga. BGAH solidified their state ranking with a win over DI first top-ranked Section IV team Horseheads with a 40-36 win for the outright crown.

Down 34-36 to DI top-ranked squad Horseheads and with one final match to – the grit and and perseverance shined through brighter than ever. With the clock ticking down in the final minute of the final match – 145 pounds – BGAH's Ben Bivar secures the pinning combination over Bailey Butler. Butler ultimately falls to Bivar who stuck his Horsehead opponent with :55 seconds left at 5:05 into the final match – reversing the lead for a 40-36 championship win for BGAH.

Prior to climbing the championship mountain and during the first round of the dual meet tournament on Jan. 28, the following match-ups occurred: Horseheads defeated Newark Valley 48-24 to advance; while Vestal upset Elmira 45-36 to advance – both in the DI bracket; In DII, BGAH crushed the Warriors 74-12, while a depleted Norwich roster fell to Tioga 43-32.

• BGAH saw a win at nearly every weight class – save a forfeit at 220 pounds – as 13 out of 14 BGAH wrestlers earned wins in the dual. Furthermore, 10 of the 13 wins for the Bears, came by way of pin, as the following wrestlers stuck their CV opponents: Austin Eggelston (138), Shane Hoover (152), Hayden Lewis (160), Bradley Wilson (170), Madison Hoover (182), Austin Carr (195), Mitchell Weist (285), Dylan Decker (99), Brody Oleksak (106), and Damien Knapp (126).

BGAH trounced the Warriors – finding themselves up 41-0 before surrendering the first points by forfeit at 220 pounds. In what truly was a pin-happy Bears team in the quarterfinals, it was a race for the fastest pin in the dual – as senior Austin Carr (wrestling up from his natural weight of 170 pounds), managed to maneuver his way into a pinning combination in a team best :56 seconds over Jake Aurelio at 195 pounds.

Also earning wins in the dual for BGAH – not by pin – was Ben Bivar at 145 pounds who tech-falled Nathan Aylward 16-1 at 5:23; and Cody Ferrara who won the final match of the dual at 132 pounds by major decision at 10-0 over Derek Goga.

Quarterfinals: 138 Austin Eggelston BGAH pinned Zach Scarvey CV 1:46, 145 Ben Bivar BGAH TF Nate Alyward CV 16-1 5:23, 152 Shane Hoover BGAH pinned Brady Hope CV 1:57, 160 Hayden Lewis BGAH pinned Mike Mettler CV, 170 Bradley Wilson BGAH pinned Kobie Parks CV 3:35, 182 Madison Hoover BGAH pinned Trenton Gates CV 1:01, 195 Austin Carr BGAH pinned Nate Aurillio CV :56, 220 Jack Riegal CV won by forfeit, 285 Mitchell Weist BGAH inned Will Blewett CV 5:59, 99 Dylan Decker BGAH pinned Richie Champion CV 2:44, 106 Brody Oleksak BGAH pinned Dominic Napoli CV 1:00, 113 Haiden Burns BGAH won by forfeit, 120 Caleb Wiggins CV pinned Seth Foster BGAH 1:21, 126 Damian Knapp BGAH pinned Colston Volpe CV 2:46, 132 Cody Ferrara BGAH maj. dec. Derrick Goga CV 10-0.

• Norwich suffered through terrible timing to be missing wrestlers from their lineup – as they fell to Tioga by a score of 43-32.

A powerful Norwich squad was crippled in the dual – due to numbers – surrendering two forfeits and a no match at 195 pounds, 120 pounds, and 220 pounds respectively.

The Tornado enjoyed six wins in the dual, one of which cam by way of forfeit to Brennan Slater at 195 pounds.

Already down 10-0 after two losses to start the dual, the Tornado made the best of the situation when they ripped off four straight wins to take the team lead 24-10. With nine potential matches remaining in the matchup – and a chance at a rematch of against the Bears (lost 37-36) Norwich could only muster two wins to close out the dual.

Alongside the earlier wins from Cole Rifanburg (152), Keegan Wright (160), and Jakob Franklin (170) – all pins – Norwich's lightweights attempted to keep pace with Tioga with a Dante Geislinger win at 99 pounds, followed by a Mikey Squires win at 106 pounds. Geislinger simply toyed with Mason Welch for a 15-0 win when time expired; while Squires was locked into a much more competitive match, winning 5-3 over Brady Worthing.

Following a Tyler Rice loss at 285 pounds – wrestling up from his natural weight class – and the two wins at 99 and 106, Norwich dropped the remaining four matches to take the team loss to Tioga at 43-32. This loss knocked them out of contention of the crown as they fell to the consolation dual against Chenango Valley.

Quarterfinals: 138 Owen Wanck (Tioga) pin Austyn Hatton (Norwich) 1:12, 145 Emmett Wood (Tioga) maj dec Dakota Powers (Norwich) 10-0, 152 Cole Rifanburg (Norwich) pin Zach Warner (Tioga) 0:24, 160 Keegan Wright (Norwich) pin Jason Spear (Tioga) 3:08, 170 Jakob Franklin (Norwich) pin Joe Lloyd (Tioga) 0:39, 182 Brennan Slater (Norwich) fft, 195 Quintin Yaple (Tioga) fft, 220 No Match, 285 Stephen Taylor (Tioga) dec Tyler Rice (Norwich) 6-4, 99 Dante Geislinger (Norwich) tf Mason Welch (Tioga) 15-0 6:00, 106 Mikey Squires (Norwich) dec Brady Worthing (Tioga) 5-3, 113 Jacob Welch (Tioga) pin Izaiah Cabalero (Norwich) 0:58, 120 David MacWhinnie (Tioga) fft, 126 Austin Lamb (Tioga) pin Chris Cabalero (Norwich) 1:01, 132 Collin Elston (Tioga) pin Seth Wessels (Norwich) 4:43.