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.
Tanner Cook of Central Valley Academy earned a first place spot at the weight with a win in the finals at 10-8 over Adam Wagner of South Seneca.
• 152 pounds: Cole Rifanburg, Norwich's lone senior, was sitting pretty at his weight, being seeded-third. Cole climbed his way to join Squires in the semifinals – producing a Friday evening going 2-0 with wins over Sean McGarvey of Pearl River at 2-1, and Mason Compton of Attica-Batavia by fall at 5:41.
With a big task at hand, and a chance to make the finals – Cole was faced with a match in the semifinals against second-seeded Ross McFarland of Phoenix.
0-0 in the first, Cole found himself in a big hole come the end of the second as he fell behind 9-0 – eventually taking the loss at 11-1.
“Once a good wrestler gets a lead, it is hard to come back,” said coach Hagenbuch of McFarland.
A loss in the first wrestle-back to Jacob Nolan of Saranac at 5-2, sent Cole to the fifth and sixth place match against Dan Torres of Falconer. Torres and Cole were locked into a tight 1-0 match after an escape from Torres at :57 left in the second period – eventually things went south from their as Cole was caught and pinned at 4:12 – earning him a spot on the podium at sixth place as a senior.
Hunter Richard of Holland Patent collided with Ross McFarland of Phoenix in the finals – to which Richard won 4-1 – notably earning him his third state championship in a row.
• 160 pounds: Madison Hoover, a senior from BGAH, was seeded-fourth in the state at his weight, and saw his first match of the weekend against Mike Labow of Gouverneur. It took Hoover just 4:00 minutes to secure the win by technical fall at 15-0.
Advancing to the quarterfinals, Hoover saw a match against Fritz Scheffler of Tamarac go his way – notably Scheffler upset the fifth-seeded Caleb Beach of South Jefferson-Sandy Creek – again Hoover proved his dominance taking the win at 5-0.
A spot in the semifinals, a guarantee of placing in states, and a shot at top-seeded Noah Grover of Warsaw is all that stood in Hoover's way of a trip to finals as a senior. That is all, a big mountain to climb.
Hoover gave his best efforts in the eventual loss, earning the early 2-0 lead over Grover at :19 left in the first period.
With a 2-0 lead, Grover was afforded the choice to which he chose down, taking full advantage of the position. At 1:35 the match moved to 2-1 as Grover escaped Hoover – only to see the lead flop in favor of Grover with a takedown turned pin at 3:32.
“You always shoot for higher. Going in, I always tell them (BGAH wrestlers) it's simple. When talking about goal setting, set a goal, get on the podium first. Then everything after that is gravy,” said coach MacNaught. “We were in it, had a 2-1 lead after the first, then we made a little tactical error. It is what it is, it wasn’t like we went in their scared. We went in their to battle, thinking we could win and he (Hoover) could have. As a coach it is the hardest round to get your athlete ready for. When they come off the semifinal loss, especially at states, it is basically a one hour turnaround. It is the hardest round to prep an athlete coming off a loss like that.”
Hoover moved to the wrestle-backs – coming off a big loss in the semifinals – Hoover wasn’t able to overcome yet another close battle – falling to fifth-seeded Beach by a 1-0 score coming from a third period escape at just :36 seconds left in the final period.
Hoover was given no breaks on the weekend – battling in each and every win and loss – moving in position for a fifth place spot, Hoover was again locked in a dogfight. A second period escape from Hoover followed by a solid ride-out in the third handed Hoover a spot at fifth place in the weight – following his 1-0 win.
Last year, Hoover made an appearance at the state tournament as a wild-card selection, but was unable to find the podium.
Noah Grover of Warsaw earned the top spot at the weight with a win over Noah Curreri of Eldred-Liberty-S.West at 7-3.
• 170 pounds: BGAH saw their second senior, Austin Carr, also a fourth-seed – start much as Hoover had with a win in the first round.
Carr snagged the win over Eric Bartnik of Cheektowaga by a 6-2 decision before faltering in the quarterfinals.
Carr was matched with fifth-seeded Connor Fredericks of Chittenango. A 0-0 first period, Carr was the first to break the tie, earning an escape at 1:44 in the second period.
Down 1-0 to Carr, Fredericks chose down only to be allowed the escape at 2:00 – with the match tied at 1-1 it was in fact Carr who was taken down at :40 left in the match. Carr managed to earn the late escape just eight seconds later at :32 but fell victim to Fredericks for the 3-2 loss.
“He (Carr) wrestled extremely well all weekend. Our quarterfinal match was a kid Austin had beat in the CNY finals this year, and was almost an identical match,” said coach MacNaught. “At CNY it was 1-1, we went to overtime and got the takedown. This time it was 1-1, and at the very end of the third, that kid got Austin for a takedown.”
Carr defeated Section IV's Micah Miller of Maine-Endwell at 7-3 in his first bout in the wrestle-backs before also downing Trevor Micek of Maple Grove by a score of 3-1.
It was then that Carr caught second-seeded Sean Mosca of Carle Place-Wheatley in the wrestle-backs. An early takedown had the match at 2-0 in favor of Mosca – however, a terrible second period, including three near-falls, landed Carr in hot water – as he eventually succumbed to Mosca, losing 14-4.
Revenge was in the air. Carr was afforded a second shot at Fredericks – who lost the semifinals matchup against top-seeded Matthew Gaiser of Alexander at 10-0 – a revenge match that did not end well for the Bears of BGAH.
Carr surrendered a takedown and near-fall in the first period – a tone that earned Fredericks a fifth place spot and a second win over Carr, this time at 6-1.
Matthew Gaiser of Alexander earned the first place finish over Jason Hoffman of Hadley Luzerne/Lake George by fall at 1:52.
• 182 pounds: Norwich junior Brennan Slater took to his weight from the fifth-seeded spot. A spot that he and the Norwich faithfuls were hoping would allow a smooth route to a potential finals berth.
Slater took the first match by storm with a 5-1 win over Zak Trim of Maple Grove. However, following the win, Slater was picked apart by the fourth-seeded Chance Lapier of Ausable Valley.
Lapier proved his higher seed was worthy with an 18-4 win over the Tornado, sending Slater to the wrestle-backs.
Slater would look to battle in the wrestle-backs taking a win over third-seeded Mike Sutliff of Hadley Luzerne/Lake George. Slater came back from the 18-4 loss with a vengeance to defeat Sutliff 6-1.
With a 0-0 first period, Slater moved to make things happen, following a deferment in the second period and a subsequent choice of down, Slater used his power to maneuver a near-fall at 1:24 for the 2-0 lead. An escape at :35 from Sutliff, followed by a takedown at the buzzer at :02 Slater led the match 4-1 – in a win or go home scenario.
To remain alive and in contention for a spot on the podium, Slater hit a reversal with 1:03 left in the period to climb the lead over Sutliff to 6-1, where despite a stalling call he held on to survive one more round.
That was it, one more round. Slater was bounced from the tournament one round shy of a spot on the podium, when he came up just short of a win over Dillon Warner Schoharie.
0-0 heading into the third period, Slater jumped out to a 1-0 lead when he was afforded an early period escape. However, this escape was overshadowed by a takedown from Warner at 1:31 who used a stalling call up in order to hang on for the remaining minute and a half to advance over Norwich – final of 2-1 score.
Cliffton Wang of Edgemont earned the 3-2 win in the finals over Doug Simmons of Canastota.
“Friday night we won nine matches I think, then Saturday, the wheels came off and we only won one match,” said coach Hagenbuch of his wrestlers lack of success on Saturday. “That was rough day, we didn’t see that coming. All year long we were getting those close wins, and unfortunately when it counted at the end of the year, we couldn’t get them.”
With the completion of the 2017 NYS Wrestling Tournament it concludes two fine chapters in Chenango County Wrestling history.
The BGAH Bears held a season dual meet record of 16-4 and earning a first place finish in Section IV Class C tournament, while dominating the MAC division going 6-0. The individual side of the year saw BGAH take home three Section IV Champions and three state placers in Ben Bivar (5th at 138), Madison Hoover (5th at 160), and Austin Carr (6th at 170).
The Norwich Tornado finished the dual meet season with an 11-4 overall record, taking home a first place finish at the Section IV Class B tournament – while the individual side saw Norwich break their school record of most Section IV Champions in a year with four while also managing to send five athletes to states where two placed – Cole Rifanburg (6th at 152), and Mikey Squires (5th at 106).
“It was a good season. We had individuals that had great seasons. It looks promising for the future, and I am proud how these guys responded all year long,” said coach Hagenbuch. “They worked their tails off to reach their goals. Some fell short of those goals, but we'll get back at it next year and set new goals.”
Notably, Norwich finished in 13th place as a team in Albany, having scored just 29.5 points, while BGAH finished in 17th with 27.5 points.
Winning the NYS Tournament for DII in 2017 was Central Valley Academy with 110 points – while Section III dominated the landscape as a whole with 275 combined points, besting Section V with 220.5 points. Section IV combined for just 135 points to land them in fifth place for DII.
The DI landscape for Section IV was dreadful, as the section came in at dead last with just 42.5 points – Section 11 won the DI side with 250 points, besting Section V at 198.5 points. Hilton recorded a team win at states for DI with 74 points, defeating Monroe Woodbury who scored 69.5 points.
All results, standings and statistics can be found on trackwrestling.com or on cnywrestling.com.