Five county wrestlers place in state tournament

ALBANY – While Norwich was looking for a trio of state titles, Purple Tornado senior wrestler Dante Geislinger capped off his high school by capturing his third straight New York State Championship with a 3-2 win in the 113 pound Division-II final.
Geislinger was a perfect 12-for-12 at the New York State tournament for the last three years after and became the program’s second wrestler to have three state championships on his resume.
When asked what he was feeling after his finals win, the Norwich senior said, “The first one was a great feeling. You never think that this dream you have as a little kid is going to come true then it does. Then after you win one, you work harder to make sure you stay on top.
“It takes six days a week and at least two hours a day if not more,” continued Geislinger in his post-match interview. “The time in effort you put in is what you get out.”
Teammate’s Mikey Squires and Tyler Rice were attempting to join their fellow senior at the top of the podium. Squires reached the finals against a familiar foe – Matt Campo of Mount Sinai – while Rice fell in the semifinals bout to Canastota’s Mike Leibl in an overtime pin.
Rice, who reached the semifinals bout with back-to-back pins (on in just 50 seconds and a 2:21 fall), placed fourth overall in the 285 pound bracket with a 2-0 decision win in the consolation semifinals but was slammed onto his back in the first period of the third/fourth place match and was pinned.
Returning to the tournament after a heartbreaking loss in the final a season ago, top-seeded Squires immediately starting his tournament off with a first-period pin.
The Princeton-bound senior for the Tornado squeaked out a 6-5 win against Onteora’s Nate Ross in the quarterfinals to once again reach the semifinals for the second straight year. In the semifinals, Squires controlled Kaul Rufola for the match, coming away with a 5-1 decision win to move into Saturday night.
On the other side of the bracket was Owego’s Cam Bundy and Campo in the semifinals. Squires, who has faced both this season, has defeated both in different tournaments throughout the year. Campo came out on top of the 7-1 decision, setting up a rematch of the Windsor Christmas Tournament finals from December.
The 170 pound Division-II finals bout started with the two wrestlers sizing each other up and neither attempting to take shots as the first period ended with 0-0 score. Squires took bottom to start the second and his decision quickly paid off as he scored the escape and the 1-0 lead.
The one point difference was carried over into the start of the third period as Campo started down. Trying to ride out the final two minutes of the match on top was the Norwich senior but Campo was able to reverse positions to go ahead 2-1 with 1:18 left in the match.
10 seconds later, Squires escaped to tie the match at 2-2. That is how regulation ended for the two, sending it to a sudden victory – or first one to score wins – ending. With 39 seconds left in the extra period of wrestling, Campo scored the takedown to win the 170 pound title and ending Squires high school career in heartbreak.
After earning a fall and two technical falls in his first three matches of the weekend, Geislinger reached his third straight finals match.
The Purple Tornado senior quickly took down Max Gallagher of Bayport-Blue Point for the 2-0 lead and looking to roll over yet another opponent on his way to the 113 pound title. However, late in the first period, Gallagher escaped Geislinger’s grasp to cut the margin down to one point.
Gallagher took bottom to start the second and once again was able to get away from the Tornado wrestler to tie the match at 2-2 with 1:36 left in the period. With it being Geislinger’s chance in the final two minutes, the senior took down. 30 seconds into the third, Geislinger scored the escape for the one point advantage.
Despite the shots taken by Gallagher in the closing minute of the match, the Bayport-Blue Point wrestler was unable to score and Norwich’s Geislinger joined the ranks of Tristan Rifanburg as the second Tornado wrestler with three state championship.
“All of the hard work, all the time and effort I have put into this sport has really paid off,” said Geislinger. “It is pretty cool to have a third title. It has only been done by one other person in Norwich and he [Tristan Rifanburg] was my role model growing up.”
Chenango County also had Darren Florance, Joey Florance and Brody Oleksak from the Bainbridge-Guilford-Afton-Harpursville, Noah Kennedy of the Greene/Oxford Blackhawks and Sherburne-Earlville’s duo Ethen Eldred and Alex Thompson represent at the state championship tournament.
99 pound BGAH wrestler Darren Florance placed sixth at this first states appearance while older brother Joey finished seventh at 106 pounds. Both lost their first round matches but battled back through the field to make it to day two and the placing rounds.
Oleksak had an unfortunate early exit from the tournament with an arm injury in his first match of the weekend. Oleksak was up big before having to injury default as he was unable to continue with his arm.
Kennedy ended up on the eighth place spot on the podium for the 195 pound division, fighting his was back through the wrestle back rounds to place after falling in his first match of the day.
Eldred of the Marauders lost a close 8-7 decision in the first round and looked to make his way back through the field to place. However, the S-E senior was injured in the early part of the first period of his next match and was unable to continue.
Thompson of Sherburne-Earlville ended up 1-2 on the weekend, falling in first mat by a pin. The Marauders 220 pound senior captured his win in the next round with a 17-1 tech fall. Unfortunately for Thompson, his tournament came to an end after an early third period pin in his next bout.
The New York State tournament brought the wrestling season to and end for the 2019-2020 season. Both of the Florance brothers, Oleksak, and Rice will look to return to the championship setting next season.