Dwayne A. Lobdell Photos

ALBANY, NY – All roads lead to Albany. That was the thought process of two Chenango County Section IV DII teams all season long – Norwich and BGAH – however, much like the rest of the Section IV stock for the NYSPHSAA Wrestling State Championships for 2016-2017, neither local team cracked the mold as all nine local wrestlers fell short of a finals berth on the weekend.

For the first time in two decades, Section IV wrestling – and that includes Chenango County – did not bring home a State Champion at either division, at any of the 15 weight classes.

Just seven total Section IV DII wrestlers – and just one Section IV DI wrestler – appeared in semifinal matches this year in Albany – all but one of the eight wrestlers failed to earn wins in their semifinal bouts – instead getting tossed back into the wrestle-backs.

“It is hard sport, but the greatest sport on earth,” said Norwich head coach Bob Hagenbuch. “We just got a little humble pie this weekend.”

Norwich brought five wrestlers to Albany on the year, four by way of Section IV Champions at their respective weight classes – Mikey Squires, Eli Rodriguez, Ty Rifanburg, and Brennan Slater – one by way of a wild-card in Cole Rifanburg.

BGAH produced similar results in this years sectional tournament, taking home three Section IV Champions – Ben Bivar, Madison Hoover, and Austin Carr – while eventually bringing four to the state tournament by way of a Brody Oleksak, a wild-card selection.

Nine representatives were sent to Albany from Chenango County on the weekend of Feb. 24 and 25 – five stepped on to the podium Saturday evening, while none took home a top-three finish.

• 106 pounds: Chenango County had two representatives at the weight in Mikey Squires of Norwich who was the fourth-seed and Brody Oleksak of BGAH, the fifth-seed at the weight,

Squires, a Norwich freshman, snagged an early victory in the tournament – eventually cruising his way to the semifinals of the state meet. In the first round Squires defeated Ricky D`elia of Port Jefferson by a major decision at 11-2; before earning a second round win over Joe Contrastano of Carle Place-Wheatley by fall at 1:46, following an early takedown in the match.

Friday was a fantastic day for Squires – one of just two Tornado wrestlers to reach the semifinal round – setting himself up for a Saturday match with top-seeded junior Jon Charles of Central Valley Academy.

Following a takedown turned near-fall, Charles led 4-0 come the second period, where Squires deferred choice to Charles who chose neutral, resulting in a 0-0 second period. Squires chose down in the third, but would subsequently be ridden out for the 4-0 loss in the semifinals.

Squires suffered a loss in round one of his wrestle-back pursuit of third place, losing 4-0 to Matt Garland of South Jefferson-Sandy Creek, before snagging another win over Contrastano – this time at 14-5 for the spot on the podium, taking fifth place.

“Mikey won his wrestle-back and that was the only win on the day,” said coach Hagenbuch on the lack of wins Norwich had on Saturday of the state tournament.

Brody Oleksak, a BGAH eighth grader, saw his first match – which happened to be against Contrastano – end in a 4-3 loss. An early takedown by Contrastano and reversal in the second period gave Contrastano a 4-0 lead – eventually becoming too much for Oleksak who climbed to a 4-3 loss in the final period.

Oleksak then went the way of the wrestle-backs, defeating D`elia by a 3-0 margin taking a second period escape and takedown for the win.

That is when – just like Squires – Oleksak met his match in third-seeded Garland. The high-scoring affair saw Oleksak impressively take advantage of the situation, climbing to a 6-3 lead after the second period. Garland chose down, and with :54 seconds left to which he reversed Oleksak to draw the match to 6-5 – an escape from Oleksak gave the BGAH eighth grader the two-point advantage with :33 seconds to go.

That is when Garland kicked it into gear, handily securing the takedown with just :12 seconds left, forcing overtime.

Garland earned the win, and essentially ended the match at :42 left in overtime as Garland secured the takedown to take the win at 9-7. This effectively removed Oleksak from the tournament, Garland went on to take home a third place finish.

“Him and I are both frustrated. Brody wrestled phenomenal in that match. We are right there with him (Oleksak) in the matches, we're on the cusp.” said BGAH head coach Brandon MacNaught. “He (Oleksak) is young, he is an eighth grader. Unless health steps in the way, which we hope not. He will be there for four more years. I would be surprised if he doesn’t get on the podium for four more years.”

Trent Svingala of Maple Hill was the eventual champion at the weight, as he defeated Jon Charles of Central Valley Academy at 9-2.

• 113 pounds: One of the most surprising weight classes on the weekend was the 113 pound weight class where Norwich's top-seeded Eli Rodriguez, a freshman, fell victim to a first round loss. Rodriguez's fall from grace – as an expected finalist at states – started with a loss to Matt Laporte of Hoosick Falls by a score of 10-4.

“He (Rodriguez) had a real tough time making weight, and it broke him mentally. He picked a bad time to have his weight be a little out of control and it cost him his energy,” said coach Hagenbuch. “Eli actually got the first takedown, but he just ran out of energy from there.”

Rodriguez grabbed the 2-0 lead at 1:22 before getting reversed with :20 left in the period. Tied at 2-2 Laporte reversed Rodriguez and turned him for the near-fall – the rest is history as Laporte climbed to a 10-4 win over the top-seeded Tornado.

Following the loss, Rodriguez recovered from the lack of energy, to take a first round wrestle-back win over Tristian Richardson of Ogdensburg at 17-2 – truly showing how dominant he could be when energized.

With win number one under his belt, Rodriguez notched another win on Friday, when he defeated seventh-seeded Dalton Gardner of Fredonia at 6-4.

However, with everything pointing toward the podium for Rodriguez, it was the dreaded Saturday of wrestling that was his undoing, losing to Shane Hetrick of Maple Grove at 8-6.

Rodriguez, was taken down with :18 to go in the second to take the match to 7-6 before a late escape at 1:00 in the third sealed the deal – and eliminated Rodriguez from contention of a spot on the podium.

Notably, Rodriguez was a wild-card in last year's state tournament, and placed third, but did not place in 2017.

Trey Laflamme of South Jefferson-Sandy Creek won the weight class after he defeated Caleb Robinson of Walton-Delhi at 5-2 in the finals.

• 138 pounds: Ben Bivar, a BGAH junior and eighth-seed at the weight, battled his way to a fifth place spot on the weekend. Bivar suffered an early setback with a first round loss to Phil Calandra of Depew-Cleveland Hill by a 9-4 margin.

That is when Bivar ripped off three wins in a row in the wrestle-backs – defeating Billy Seiders of Dunkirk 5-1; Mason Gray of Warsaw at 3-2; and third-seeded Jack Ward of Locust Valley at 4-0.

With a guarantee of placing, Bivar finally met his match at top-seeded TJ Philpotts of Holland Patent – who was just coming off a 5-3 loss in the semifinals. Philpotts snagged an 8-2 win over Bivar who only managed a reversal on the match in the third period.

Despite the loss, Bivar recovered well to dominate Colin Hogan of Peru in the fifth and sixth place match – winning 8-0. Two escapes and three takedowns later and Bivar's first trip to states saw him on the podium at fifth place.

“Seeding the state tournament, everyone's intentions is well meant, and a good thing. But if you actually believe that it is seeded the way it would be, it's not. There are better systems out there,” said coach MacNaught. “He (Bivar) wrestled well, he won four matches at the New York State Tournament. Heart of gold, but if we really want to make the next step from the neutral position, we have got to get better before next year. If we do that, he (Bivar) will be pretty darn tough to beat. Very happy with him, he has not touched his potential yet. We're nearly out of time, so it has to happen now.”

Hunter Shaut of Central Valley Academy defeated Tanner Lapiene of Ogdensburg in the finals by a score of 4-3.

• 145 pounds: Norwich's Ty Rifanburg, a junior, faced much adversity on the weekend – after originally not being seeded, he was thrust into the eighth-seeded spot due to a wrestler dropping out of states at the last opportunity.

“Ty didn’t make it to the second day, which was a shock. He ended up getting seeded-eighth. All along we were planning on who we were going to wrestle, then when we got their Thursday night, and the number five seed dropped out – it changed the brackets and Ty got seeded eighth, which was a tougher draw than before. That played into a bit of a mindset,” said coach Hagenbuch.

Ty fell to Daniel Bogie of Eagle Academy Bronx at 9-2 in the first round, sending him to wrestle-backs where he was faced with a win or go home scenario.

Ty defeated Carmine Vergari of Mattituck in a tight match at 4-2 – after a 0-0 first period, Ty took advantage of two near-fall opportunities to reach a 4-0 lead heading into the third. A reversal from Vergari landed the match at 4-2 and Ty moved on.

Unfortunately, Ty then fell to Christian Tartaglia of Cold Spring Harbor at 6-3 – eliminating him from the tournament on Friday.

A reversal in the second period opened up the match to which Tartaglia took full advantage of – claiming to a 4-1 lead going into the final period. Ty escaped at 1:53 left in the third to move the match to 4-2, however, Tartaglia took the commanding lead with a takedown over Ty at :57 left, moving the match to 6-2. Ty was only able to secure another escape in the loss.

Notably, Ty did place at the state tournament last year, taking home fifth place – however, failed to find the podium in 2017.