Keith Lanfear Photo

ALBANY – Six of the nine Chenango County wrestlers placed at this weekend’s New York State Wrestling Championship. Norwich’s 99-pound Dante Geislinger came home a State Champion, the first for the school since 2015 when the Tristan Rifanburg and Frankie Garcia both brought home a title.

In front of a packed house at the Times Union Center in Albany, Geislinger came back from an early 2-0 deficit to top Section III’s Devin Coleman of Camden by a final of 9-4 for the decision win in the 99-pound Division II final Saturday night in the NYSPHSAA Wrestling Championships.

Geislinger reached the finals by taking down top-seeded Mason Bush of Central Valley. Bush and Geislinger had met three times this season prior to Saturday morning’s semifinal match. In close losses the first the meetings,

Geislinger avenged by taking a 6-2 decision win, pulling off the big upset.

The senior from Camden had only been beaten twice this season prior to the championship tournament. Coleman scored two points by a taking Geislinger down to the mat after 1:15 into the match.

The first period ended with Coleman holding the 2-0 advantage. Geislinger choose bottom but Coleman gave up point by choosing to go neutral, making the score 2-1.

With about 50 seconds left in the second period, Geislinger set up his shot that led to a takedown and then three back points for a 5-2 lead. Geislinger added another two back points as he put Coleman on his back again late in the second period.

Geislinger added another point with Coleman against deciding to go to neutral position. With a 9-2 lead in the third, Coleman took Geislinger down and tried to set up the comeback win. But the Norwich wrestlers lead was too much and ended with the 9-4 decision win, grabbing the state title.

As the fifth-seed, Geislinger was the only Section IV title winner and one of three in the finals.

With five wrestlers in the tournament, Norwich took second as team with 64 points and finished just seven points behind first-place Central Valley.

The Purple Tornado wrestlers all placed in the tournament, ending their season on a strong note.

Norwich’s seniors Ty Rifanburg finished sixth and Brennan Slater placed fourth in their respective weight classes.

Rifanburg made it to the semifinals match with a 5-4 decision in the first round and an ultimate tie-breaker win in the quarterfinals.

His opponent in the semis: Ross McFarland of Section III’s Phoenix.

These two have met twice at in the finals at the Windsor Christmas Tournament. Earlier this season, McFarland defeated Rifanburg at the tournament with a 12-3 decision win. But one year earlier, in the same tournament, Rifanburg only fell by a 1-0 decision.

In the year’s state semi match, McFarland was leading Rifanburg 11-7 with about 30 seconds remaining the match. Rifanburg went after his shot but it did not go accordingly. McFarland then took Rifanburg to the mat hard, incidentally injuring the Norwich senior.

Having to forfeit the rest of his matches, Rifanburg still placed after reaching the semis, a point where all wrestlers are guaranteed to place. McFarland went on to win the state title at 170.

Slater landed in the semifinals as a two-seed and tore through the bottom half of the bracket with 8-1 and 3-0 decision wins.

Again meeting a Section III wrestler, Slater faced Connor Fredericks, the three-seed of Division-II.

Fredericks took Slater down with an 11-6 decision win. Fredericks ended up as the 182-pound State Champion.

Slater won his consolation semifinal match with a 7-0 decision win over Port Jervis’ Jason Butler. In the consolation finals match, Slater faced the four seed from Southwestern, Giuseppe Hoose.

Slater went into the third period trailing Hoose. 47 seconds after the start of the third, Hoose pinned Slater. Slater ended with his fourth place finish.

Tyler Rice and Mike Squires were the other two wrestler for Norwich after earning spots two weeks ago by winning their weight class at the Section IV Championship two weeks ago.

Squires reached the quarterfinals as the six seed. Topping the 11-seed in his first match with a 4-2 decision, Squires faced Vince Miceli, the three-seed from Port Jefferson.

Losing a close 3-1 decision, Squires made his way through the wrestleback rounds. One his matches on his path to place was against Matt Campo of Mount Sinai.