At last, the Cicero-North Syracuse wrestling team found its way to the top.
The Northstars, competing on its home mats, won the first Section III championship in head coach Dereck Bigford’s tenure when it seized the Class AA championship on Saturday. In doing so, CNS gained a small amount of payback on Baldwinsville, the team it lost to 34-32 just eight days earlier in a game that decided the CNY Counties League National division race. B’ville won there – but the Northstars prevailed here, edging the Bees 229 points to 210.5 in the race for the top spot in the 11-team field. Central Square (172.5 points) edged Rome Free Academy (166.5 points) for third as Liverpool, with 150 points, claimed fifth place. With every point important, the 103-pound final gained CNS some room. Dan Ciciarelli and B’ville’s Tim Sposato went at it for six minutes, but Ciciarelli did just enough to prevail in a 3-2 decision. Each of the other three CNS titles were attained in easier fashion. James Segars, at 152 pounds, pinned his finals opponent, Josh Knapp (RFA), in 3:10, while Matt Mastro won the 215-pound title when he pinned RFA’s Kevin Torchia late in the second period. Clayton D’Onofrio, to win the 285-pound championship, had to beat Liverpool’s Pat Carroll-Marsh in the finals. And D’Onofrio won quickly, taking just 1:29 to pin Carroll-Marsh. Overall, CNS went 4-1 in finals, the only defeat coming at 96 pounds, where Drew Dyer fought hard against B’ville’s Kevin Paul in an 8-4 loss. Mende Cukalevski notched Liverpool’s only title at 152 pounds, working his way through the bracket until, in the finals, he held off Central Square’s Garrett Claffey 3-2. At 189 pounts, the Warriors’ Joe Pizzuto made the finals, only to fall to B’ville’s Pat Nasoni in a third-period pin. All of these wrestlers qualified for this Saturday’s Section III Division I championship meet at Utica Memorial Auditorium, which starts at 9 a.m. CNS, the night before the sectional meet, took on Fayetteville-Manlius and earned a 54-24 victory over the Hornets. They traded wins in the first five matches as Cicarelli pinned Eric Mohr, Tony Battista (119) did the same to Mike Davis and Jacob Murdock, at 130, handled Colin Tyyan 12-2. But starting with Kiel Dyer’s 145-pound technical fall over Jon Hajduk, CNS won six straight matches, two of them forfeits, to clinch the meet. Segars pinned Tyler Neveldine, Andrew Osborne (160) pinned Chris Bortel and Jordan Ramos (171) edged Jordan Kalil 8-4.