NORWICH– Tuesday night, Jan. 19, the Norwich Tornado varsity wrestling team traveled to their longtime rival school of Oneonta to claim yet another duel meet win on the year, winning 64-18.
This latest matchup concludes Norwich’s scheduled duel meets for the season and moves the Tornado to an impressive 14-2 on the season, while dropping Oneonta to 9-12 on the season.
“We looked pretty good tonight. They had some of their guys out and we had a couple out so that left a few matchups,” said Norwich Head Coach Bob Hagenbuch.
Despite late season injuries piling up for both teams, there were still nine matchups wrestled on the night out of the possible 15.
The night began with the 152 weight class where Norwich’s Dusten Marvin would ignite the Tornado with a pin over his opponent Richie Amato just 3:36 into the match.
Norwich would go on to secure wins for the next three matchups. Senior Nick Murphy at the 160-pound weight and Brennan Slater at 170-pounds would secure pins for the Tornado, followed by a dominant showing from their teammate Jake Franklin over his opponent at the 182-pound weight, winning 10-1.
These early wins for Norwich had them rolling at a team lead of 22-0, before Oneonta could get points on the board.
The forfeits from both sides would be littered throughout the remaining matches on the night.
Cole Rifanburg at the 145-pound weight class would round out the evening with a win for the Tornado in the last match of the night. Rifanburg would pin Tony Giovagnoli on Oneonta just 2:43 into the 6-minute bout.
Norwich would secure wins by pin on the night at: 152-Dusten Marvin, 160-Nick Murphy, 170-Brennan Slater, 106-Mike Squires, 126-Dalen Geislinger, and at 145- Cole Rifanburg. These 6 pins would account for 36 of the 64-team points Norwich needed to ultimately win 64-18.
As Norwich has now concluded their scheduled duel meets for the season they are in full tournament mode at this point in the season.
“We are a little banged up but hopefully we will have all the horses at the gate for the Section 4 duals this weekend in Vestal,” said Hagenbuch.
The Section 4 Dual Meet Tournament will be held this coming weekend in Vestal starting Friday Jan. 22, with the preliminary rounds and continuing Saturday Jan. 23 with the semi-finals and final rounds.
The top four teams in the tournament have garnered first round byes. Vestal claimed the top spot with a 21-0 record followed respectively by BGAH at 8-0, Johnson City at 11-3, and Norwich claiming the final bye with a now 14-2 record.
We just need to get healthy. Wrestling is a long season and we have had a crazy schedule with a lot of competitions so close together this season,” said Hagenbuch. “we have some guys that are nicked up and we have a week to heal and get ready and go over some fundamental things and keep on getting better with each day.”
Johnson City despite having one less team win than that of Norwich, earned the third seed due to defeating Norwich 39-37 in a head to head matchup earlier this season.
“Vestal is the team to beat but Elmira has a really tough team, Horseheads is also really good. So there will be some great duals and we are looking to have the bragging rights at the end of the day,” said Hagenbuch.


Match Results:
152: Dusten Marvin(N) pinned Richie Amato(O) at 3:36. 160: Nick Murphy(N) pinned Jerry Wells(O) at 2:53. 170: Brennan Slater(N) pinned Jacob Croster(O) at 5:31. 182: Jake Franklin(N) defeated Thomas Fishcer(O) 10-1. 195: Richie Seratin(O) pinned Dakota Hall(N) at :49. 220: Double fft. 285: Lekoy Williams(O) won by fft. 99: Nate Perry(O) won by fft. 106: Mike Squires(N) pinned Cheyne Fassett(O) at 1:38. 113: Nick(N) won by fft. 120: Kaleb Stansbury(O) pinned Cristobal Caballero(N) at :48. 126: Dalen Geislinger(N) pinned Trystan Jennings(O) at :50. 132: Zach Mills(N) won by fft. 138: Keegan(N) won by fft. 145: Cole Rifanburg(N) pinned Tony Giovagnoli at 2:43.