Amid a large and active contingent of Canastota wrestlers during Saturday’s Section III championship meet at Utica Memorial Auditorium, both Zack Zupan and John Carver would make it to the final round. Zupan worked at 160 pounds as the no. 3 seed. Following a first-round bye, he met Ed Hatten (Hannibal) in what turned out to be a close, tense battle. By a 7-5 margin, Zupan fought off Hatten, then advanced to face Cato-Meridian’s Ethan Holt in the semifinals. Though again it proved tight, Zupan did a strong job of defense, winning a 6-2 decision to go to the championship match. Unfortunately, that meant facing defending state champion Ryan LeBlanc, from Morrisville-Eaton, and LeBlanc took just 2:47 to earn a technical fall on his way to being named the meet’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. Still, Zupan had a second-place finish and an overall season record of 31-5. As for Carver, he got going at 189 pounds as the no. 2 seed, earning a bye and then, in the quarterfinals, pinning Cody Keefer (Beaver River) 29 seconds into the second period. Then came one of the most memorable matches of the entire sectional meet. Carver’s semifinal with Josh Dieterich (General Brown) went well beyond the six minutes of regulation. Tied at 2-2, then went through two overtime periods, neither wrestler budging. It took Carver making a single escape in the third overtime to win that match 3-2. All that meant, though, was that Carver would run into Holland Patent star Dan Fruscella in the finals, and Fruscella pinned Carver early in the second period to leave the Canastota star with a record of 32-10. Tyler Sirota, the no. 3 seed at 135 pounds, beat Isiah Riccio (Beaver River) 8-3 to reach the semifinals, but lost in that round to Sandy Creek’s Jared Soule in a second-period pin. Sirota then dropped an 8-7 match to Homer’s Saxon Sprouse, but rallied to beat Riccio again 4-1 to finish in fifth place. Up at 215 pounds, Sam Stagnitti, after beating Conor Cosgrove (Bishop Ludden) 5-4, nearly knocked off M-E’s Alex Meyers in the quarterfinals, only beaten 7-4. Meyers would go on to win the sectional title. Jeremy Brodfuehrer, at 145 pounds, ripped past Alex Marshall (Dolgeville) 10-2 in the first round, only to fall to Watertown IHC’s Bill Koelmel 11-4 in the quarterfinals. Fred Sherman (152 pounds) met the same fate, handling Sam Carroll (Fabius-Pompey) 10-3 in the opener, but falling to Cato-Meridian’s Nick Lalone in a second-period pin. Brandon Durfee lost his 119-pound opening-round match to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Dan Walts.