Section IV Class B and C tournament results

Section IV Class B

BINGHAMTON – The Norwich Purple Tornado took the mats by storms this past weekend on Saturday– winning in a landslide at the Section IV Class B tournament held at Chenango Valley High School – while qualifying 13 wrestlers for the upcoming Section IV tournament. Norwich filled 14 of the 15 weight classes – excluding the 285 weight – and saw wrestlers qualify for the Section IV tournament on Friday, Feb. 10, and Saturday, Feb. 11, at nearly each and every weight entered.

This year, Section IV wrestling has decided to split the wrestling of DI and DII schools – rather than have the two-days of wrestling for both smaller and larger schools happen in one location like it had in the past. Watkins Glen will be the host of the DII, smaller schools, and will see the likes of all Section IV Chenango County teams head their come next weekend.

The 2017 Class B championships were kind to the Norwich wrestlers who saw their hard work and dedication pay off when seven wrestlers took home a first place finish – with three take second, two take third and two claim a fifth.

• 99 pounds: The eighth grade lightweight, Dante Geislinger dominated his way in the weight to a first place finish on the day. Due to numbers, Geislinger received two forfeits before seeing his first match of the day in the semifinals. When met with his first opponent, Geislinger showed no signs of rust, defeating Richard Champion of Chenango Valley by pin at 1:02. This advanced Geislinger to the finals where second-seeded Mitch Shipman of Dryden awaited. Alas, Geislinger proved too much for his opponent in the finals, as he dominated Shipman with a win by pin at 2:25.

• 106 pounds: Mikey Squires, a Tornado freshman, continued the trend as the weight classes progress – nabbing a first place finish of his own. Squires, like Geislinger, was afforded two first round byes to begin the day of wrestling. Squires first taste of victory came in the semifinals when he landed a solid 5-0 win over Windsor's Mike McDaniels (fourth seed). With a win in the bag, and a trip to the finals – Squires – the first seed – was matched with a showdown against the second-seeded Nate Lehr of Chenango Valley. Squires was able to maneuver his way to a 6-1 victory in the finals to take Norwich to two champions thus far.

• 113 pounds: Enter Norwich's Eli Rodriguez. The Tornado freshman cruised his way to a third consecutive championship for Norwich. Rodriguez, facing a slightly more filled weight class, first saw action in the quarterfinals – when Nick Spinner, the eight seed from Waverly, was afforded a shot at top-seeded Rodriguez. 1:28 later, Rodriguez earned the quick win by pin over Spinner advancing to the semifinals to face off against Joel Choynowski of Owego (fourth seed). Rodriguez saw nearly no challenge once again, besting his time in the quarterfinals with another win by pin at 1:15 to advance to a shot at the championship. Second-seeded Tayson Evans of Susquehanna Valley did manage to avoid the pin from a pin-happy Rodriguez – however, the Tornado sealed the third first place finish with a win at 15-2 in the finals.

• 120 pounds: A classic first verses second seed finals matchup was once again what fans were given at the weight – although Norwich's Nick Glanville would succumb to a pin in the finals to take home a second place finish. With two early bye's Glanville cashed in on a trip to the finals with a win over third-seeded Ethan Stotler of Waverly – as Glanville secured the win by pin at 4:24. That is when top-seeded Caleb Wiggins of CV stole the show in the finals halting the Tornado from a fourth consecutive run at the top spot. Glanville battled in the loss but was caught in a pin at 2:06 for the second place finish.

• 126: Norwich's Cristobal Caballero, a senior at the weight suffered through a few tough matches before tasting victory to advance to sectionals. Caballero finished in fifth place following early losses which jettisoned him to the wrestle-backs. A quarterfinal loss to Maine-Endwell's Cheyenne Sisenstein (fourth seed), saw Caballero drop to the lower half of the bracket, as a hope of third was then the goal. However, an unlucky draw to face third-seeded Cole Volpe of CV handed Caballero his second straight loss – as the back-to-back losses by pins at 3:47, and 2:37 respectively – set Caballero up for one last shot at fifth. Caballero capitalized on his chances late, with a win over Hunter Martin of Owego, winning by pin at 4:16 for the fifth place spot.

• 138 pounds: Dakota Powers, another freshman for the Tornado, earned himself another fifth place finish on the night. Powers failed to find the early win, taking a loss by fall at 2:49 in the quarterfinals to Bobby Brotherton of Dryden. With a bye to advance in the wrestle-backs, Powers then advanced to face third-seeded Dillon Morgan of Windsor – to which, like Caballero, Powers fell once again by pin at 3:39 to move to the a chance at fifth place. That is when Powers snagged a key win over Cody Chandler of Waverly, taking the win by pin at 2:36 for a fifth place spot.

• 145 pounds: 3-0 on the day, Ty Rifanburg, a junior and younger of the two Rifanburg brothers on the Norwich squad, advanced to the finals – gliding through all of his competition with ease for the first place finish. Ty earned the early pin in the quarterfinals over Dryden's Isaac Powers to advance to the semifinals where fourth-seeded Gabe Monroe would take his shot at knocking off the top-seeded Ty. 15 points later, and Ty saw his hand raised with a 15-0 technical fall win over Monroe. Following an upset win from Sus. Valley's Jason Moelder who defeated second-seeded Nate Aylward by pin at 5:26 – Ty made simple and short work of Moelder. Earning the first place victory with a first period pin at 1:56.

• 152 pounds: Due to a smaller number at the weight, older brother Cole Rifanburg was only afforded a chance to go 2-0 on the day. However, despite his first win coming in the semifinals for top-seeded Norwich senior, he would best his younger brother in the fastest pin at :47, when he handily defeated fourth seeded Alex Quinn of Windsor at the mark. With another upset – third-seeded Cameron Bundy of Owego knocking off Wyatt Andrews of Dryden by a 5-4 decision – Cole was faced with nothing resembling a challenge. Cole dominated his finals matchup with Bundy to win by fall at 2:35 for the first place finish – marking fifth on the day thus far.

• 160 pounds: Norwich sophomore, Keegan Wright was in a favorable spot in his weight class – as the weight only featured five wrestlers, essentially guaranteeing Wright a placing finish. However, despite the chance to just slide to place finish, Wright instead rose to the challenge to take home a third place finish on the day. Following a loss to second-seeded Mike Wilmot of Windsor at 3:05 – Wright was dropped to the wrestle-backs. That is where his true grit shined through with back-to-back wins coming for the third place spot, Wright snagged a :41 second win in the first round, defeating Kobe Parks of CV; before he snagged another win by pin over fourth-seeded Trevor Frable of Sus. Valley at 1:23.

• 170 pounds: The Norwich senior and second-seed of the weight had a major mountain to climb when faced with an appearance in the finals – Jake Franklin ultimately battled to the finals where he fell to Micah Miller of Maine-Endwell by a close match of 1-0. This one point is all that separated Franklin from the ultimate win on the day. However, instead, Franklin was made to take second with the loss in the finals to go 1-1 on the day. Earning the early win over third-seeded Mitchell Knapp of Sus. Valley Franklin punched his ticket to the finals with a hard-fought 9-4 victory in the semifinals.

• 182 pounds: Norwich saw their final champion on the day come when junior Brennan Slater stepped onto the mat at the weight. Slater, the top-seed, snagged a semifinal win over Ben Gates of Waverly at just 1:29, before advancing to the finals where the eventual victory awaited. Slater went head-to-head with second-seed Nate Aurelio of CV – taking the quick win by pin in the finals at 3:14.

• 195 pounds: Another depleted weight – a weight class with just four wrestlers – Norwich's Angel Francis was able to take advantage of the match ups in order to slide himself into a win for third place overall. After falling to top-seeded Richie Knapp of Sus. Valley at 1:28, Francis was faced in a match for third against second-seeded Jack Riegal of CV. Notably, Riegal did lose his match to Matt Nichols of Waverly by injury default – eventually having to forfeit to Francis as well for the third place slot.

• 220 pounds: The biggest wrestler on the Norwich squad happens to be up and coming phenom in the making Tyler Rice. The eighth grader, found himself in the finals of his very first of ever Class finals. Rice earned a trip to the finals after defeating Braxton Acquisto-Ray by fall at 3:42. With the win in the books, Rice, the second seed was faced with a finals match of VanDreisen of Owego. Avoiding any major turns in the match, Rice snagged a second place spot in the weight with his 9-2 loss to VanDreisen in the finals.

Notably, Norwich brought Izaiah Caballero and Seth Wessels to the tournament, where Caballero wrestled at 113 pounds and Wessels wrestled at 132 pounds – neither placed.