WINDSOR – What has been said to be the longest running wrestling tournament in New York State, the 61st annual Windsor Christmas Tournament was a successful outing for a few Chenango County schools.
The tournament field was comprised of a maximum of 15 wrestlers per school and hosted 28 teams from NY and PA.
Norwich entered with tournament not having won a team title since 1992.
But their hopes of bringing it home in 2017, 25 years later, became very large when they left Thursday night. Heading home, the Purple Tornado had an 11 point lead over the second place team, Mount Sinai.
The Bears of BGAH weren’t far behind as they left Thursday night in fourth place with 55 points.
When the teams entered the gym Friday morning, 13 county wrestlers were slated for semifinals matches.
Norwich’s Dante Geislinger kicked off the day in the 99 pound weight class. Pinning all of his opponents to get to his semifinal match, Geislinger faced Brendan Goodrich of Mount Sinai. The match ended in with another Geislinger pin at 3:55, securing him the first spot in the finals for the county wrestlers.
The next weight class wrestling their semifinal bouts were the 106 pounders. That included Cooper Rice of Oxford. Rice defeated Norwich’s Andrew Brown by a major decision to get into the the semifinals and continued his path into the finals by defeating another tough opponent, Zach Levey of Horseheads.
Levey had a 7-0 lead heading into the third and final period of the match. That’s when Rice kicked it up a notch and found a way to make an amazing comeback with about seven seconds left as he landed a reversal.
Norwich’s Nick Glanville was the next to wrestle Friday morning in the semis, one of the two 113 pound matches. Also pinning his way that point, Glanville faced Jordan Sartin of Saratoga Springs. The two dueled it out for the full three periods with Sartin taking a 1-0 decision and a final appearance. Glanville headed to the wrestle back bracket still looking to place in the tournament. Glanville won the first round with a 2-0 decision win but lost in the third place match by a pin near the end of the second period.
BGAH’s Brody Oleksak entered Friday’s placing day of the tournament set up in the 120 pound semifinals against Indian River’s Logan Patterson. Patterson finished the match with a 8-3 decision, sending Oleksak to the wrestle back rounds as well.
Purple Tornado Mikey Squires saw his first time on the mat this season in the 126 pound weight class of the tournament. Squires faced Dylan Wilmot of BGAH one round prior to the semifinals. Squires took a 12-4 decision over Wilmot to land his spot in the finals, Norwich’s second wrestler to reach in the early Friday matches.
Wilmot’s loss sent him to wrestle backs in hopes of placing in the tournament.
In the 132 pound weight class, Chenango County had two wrestlers on separate sides of the semifinal bracket. Eli Rodriguez of Norwich and Cody Ferrara of BGAH were on the mat at the same time for their bouts, and what could have possibly set up a county finals. Rodriguez defeated Deposit/Hancock’s Cooper Hall with a 5-2 decision.
Ferrara’s match ended with a close 1-0 decision in favor of Horseheads Jacob Scibek. A much anticipated match between the two of Rodriguez and Ferrara would have to wait until later in the season. Ferrara finished sixth for the tournament.
BGAH’s Ben Bivar dropped a weight class from his Clyde Cole title weight of 145 as he wrestled in the 138 pound bracket. Bivar faced Ben Howe of Elmira in what ended up being a very physical match between the two. But Bivar came out the winner and secured his spot in the finals with a 12-6 decision.
Another BGAH wrestler had a shot to reach the finals early Friday morning for the 152 pound weight class. Austin Eggleston reached the semifinals by winning with a pin and a decision. Eggleston faced Cooper Mosier of Towanda. Mosier got the better outcome of the two as he wrestled to a 9-3 decision over Eggleston. Eggleston ultimately finished third, winning by a pin at 3:34 in the match.
BGAH Bears’ Shane Hoover had reached the semifinals in the 160 pound weight class by way of two quick pins. Hoover was tested in his semis match when he wrestled Tanner Kennedy of Panther Valley. He prevailed, taking a 3-0 decision to give the Bears a second wrestler in the finals.
Norwich’s Ty Rifanburg faced BGAH’s Mike Wilmot on Thursday. It was Rifanburg’s third match of the first day a he took down two other wrestlers before taking on Wilmot, one of the two being Greene’s Justin Carmen. Carmen put up a fight taking Rifanburg into the second round before he was pinned in a time of 3:17. Wilmot reached the match against Rifanburg by a technical decision of 15-0.
Wilmot and Rifanburg went the distance of three full periods but Rifanburg was crowned the winner with a 6-0 decision win over Wilmot. Wilmot wrestled his way through the wrestle back rounds of Friday to finish in sixth for the tournament, adding to the Bears team point total.
Rifanburg topped a tough Chris Eames of Horseheads in a close 7-5 decision, a decision that was fought for every second for both wrestlers.
Purple Tornado wrestler Brennan Slater also dropped a weight class from his Clyde Cole championship weight earlier this season. Taking on the 182 pound weight class, Slater started Friday’s long day in the semifinals.
He pinned Brandon Butler of Windsor in 3:17, landing him a spot in another finals this season.
Keegan Wright of Norwich faced a long day on Friday of wrestle backs, losing to Brant Robinson by a pin in 3:07. After receiving a first round forfeit in the wrestle back rounds, Kyler Martin of Indian River took a 10-4 decision Friday, ending Wright’s chances at placing.
In the last weight class that featured county wrestlers, Chenango County was represented by BGAH’s Brock Weist and Norwich’s Tyler Rice. Weist barely missed wrestling Rice in the semifinals, losing in a 5-3 decision. Weist wrestled hard through the rounds to the third place match where he faced the Chenango Forks wrestler that sent him to wrestle backs Thursday evening.
Lucas Scott of the Blue Devils lost to Rice in the semifinals by a 3-0 decision, sending Rice to the finals and Scott one match away from the rematch between him and Weist. Scott won a 7-2 decision while Weist won with a 7-1 decision.
Scott unfortunately got the best of Weist again, taking the down the Bears wrestler by a 8-3 decision. Weist finished forth for the tournament.
Going into the finals, Chenango County represented nine of the 15 weight classes, six being Purple Tornando wrestlers, two representing the Bears and Cooper Rice being the lone Blackhawk from Oxford.
Starting the finals at 126, Mikey Squires was immediately put in the limelight for Chenango County. His opponent was Matt Campo from Mount Sinai. A close match throughout, Campo took down Squires by a 2-0 decision.
Rodriguez followed Squires on the mat, facing Scibek. Another good match, lasting all three rounds, Rodriguez made some moves late to land him his first Windsor tournament title of his young career, a 5-1 decision over Scibek.
Bivar followed next in the 138 finals match. Landing a late reversal on Mount Sinai’s Michael Zaria, Bivar was crowned the weight class champ by a 3-2 decision.
His teammate, Hoover, was the next wrestler for Chenango County. Hoover faced Dylan Harrington from Phoenix and took him down quickly, landing a pin in 1:11 for the 160 pound title.
Phoenix was represented in the next weight class by Ross McFarland as he faced Rifanburg. McFarland took a controlling lead early over Rifanburg. Rifanburg, wrestling hard until the very end against McFarland, took home a second place finish by a 12-3 decision.
Slater immediately took to the mat, facing Canandaigua’s Aric Lyon. Going the distance of all three periods, Slater took a late 3-0 lead and would hold on with that same score for the decision win over Lyon, becoming Norwich’s second champion of the tournament.
Rice faced Seth Johnson of Towanda in the 220 pound final. Nearly going the full length of the match, Rice found a way to get Johnson down to the mat, in a position to pin. At 4:30, the ref tapped the mat and crowned Rice the winner for the weight class.
Circling back around the lower weight classes after the 295 pound match, Norwich’s Dante Geislinger took to the mat, wrestling Walton/Delhi’s Cody Merwin. Geislinger ended with a 9-1 major decision win, giving Norwich their fourth and final champion of the tournament.
The last Chenango County wrestler to wrestle in the finals was Oxford’s Cooper Rice. Rice had the exciting win in the semis to get to the match but was pinned in 1:14 in the finals, landing him a second place finish – an accomplishment that is still one to boast about as Rice’s weight class was a field of 16 wrestlers.
With Norwich’s six finalists and four being crowned champions of the tournament; The Purple Tornado wrestlers were crowned the team champions of the Windsor Christmas Tournament.
BGAH jumped from a Thursday’s fourth position to second with their two title winners and many contributing to the team points in the efforts during wrestle backs, landing places on the podium.
“Obviously, I am pretty pleased with the outcome,” said Norwich’s head coach Bob Hagenbuch. “The Windsor Christmas Tournament is the oldest wrestling tournament in NY State. The guys really impressed me all tournament. They competed with heart, intensity and with a will to win.
“We never stopped wrestling and cranked the throttle. Like said before this team is going to fun to watch. From a coaching perspective you really do not get to see what the fans see. It must be great for the parents and fans to see these young men do what they do.”
Norwich wrestles again on Wednesday against Chenango Forks for their senior night match. BGAH is in action again on Thursday as they travel to Walton/Delhi. Both matches will start at 6 p.m.