HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING: HORSEHEADS TOPS CORNING IN FINAL, ELMIRA IN SEMIS TO CLAIM THRID STRAIGHT SECTION 4 DUALS TITLE (24 PHOTOS) (2023-01-18)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
HORSEHEADS — The Horseheads Blue Raiders faced some familiar foes in the Section IV Duals on Tuesday, and they came away with a dominant performance to win their third straight sectional crown.

Horseheads topped Elmira 51-23 in the semifinals and then defeated Corning 60-3 in the final to claim the title. .

“I’m smiling ear to ear with these guys,” Horseheads coach Brett Owen said. “It’s a team, it wasn’t just one individual, we had some guys make sacrifices, change weights for us this week.

“It was a whole team effort. Even the guys who were not in the lineup. I told my backups you are part of the reason we are here. It’s not just the guys getting their names in the paper, not he websites, on the news, it’s you guys coming in each day, challenging us.”

The Blue Raiders have faced some adversity, with standout senior Cael Owen out of the lineup with an injury, but others have stepped up.

“We talked about our lineup a lot, next man up,” Owen said. “Next year we have so many good kids sitting that people don’t even realize. It’s nice to be able to go out and know we have a third stringer in the lineup, second teamer in the lineup, and we are still beating the teams we are facing.”

This group means a lot to Owen and they have had a lot of success this year, and over the past few years.

“It’s bitter sweet,” Owen said. “It’s my son’s (Cael’s) senior year. I’ve coached him, Ryan (Massengale), Ryan since he was eight years old or something. A to of these guys are guys I’ve had connections with either with Inferno or with my family when we came here to Horseheads and started working with the youth. Just to see these guys have believed in the system I’ve created over the past, I think seven years Ii’ve been involved with the Horseheads program, five as varsity coach. But, they are all buying into it, they believe in it. They are great kids, it’s easy to please me when they go out and perform the way they did.”

In the final Horseheads started things at 118 as Zack Bennett pinned Tommy Pierson in 3:30 and Cody Dale pinned Ethan Scotchmer in 45 seconds at 126.

At 132 Coleton Owen won 6-5 over Riley Walker and Massengale won 12-7 over Tyler Farrand at 138.

Lucas Mosher won 12-6 over Logan Bruce at 145 and at 152 Corning got their win as Clayton Smith won 2-1 over William Lotocky.

Liam Levantovich won 10-8 over Brody Wolfe at 160 and at 172 Shawn LaBar won by fall in 1:28 over Mike Lutton.

Hunter Lavigne (189) and Jacob Bennett (215) got forfeit wins for the Blue Raiders and at 285 Seamus Carroll pinned Logan Wheeler in 3:22.

Horseheads’ Joel Scibek pinned Caden Bennett in 34 seconds at 102 and at 110 Gavin Hornsby pinned Dalton Webb in 3:44.

Corning reached the final with a hard-fought 39-36 win over Union-Endicott in the semifinals.

At 110 Webb pinned Kam Kelly in 1:40 and at 118 Pierson got a forfeit win.

Dylan Mollo of Union-Endicott pinned Scotchmer in 1:41 at 126 and Walker pinned Cole Milks of Union-Endicott at 132.

Farrand pinned John Volpe of Union-Endicott at 138 and at 145 Bruce pinned Josh Bronabend in 3:37, while Smith won 9-4 over Logan Barnes at 152.

Wolfe pinned Chad Eldridge in 1:34 at 160 and at 172 Michael Moody of U-E pinned Horton in 1:28, while Lucas Broder of U-E pinned Lutton in 47 seconds at 189.

UE’s Julian Monastra (215) and Sabrina Strauss (102) got forfeit wins, while Qymani Viera-Powell pinned Wheeler in 1:12 at 285.

“U-E is always tough, we always wrestle them close,” Corning coach Brian Guilfoyle said. “It was nice to be able to pull out that win. In the finals match Horseheads has been tough all year and they were real tough tonight.”

Getting to the finals is special for the Hawks.

“The lineup isn’t the most usual looking lineup, we have had to get clever with some things and use that throughout the year,” Guilfoyle said. “To get to second place is definitely something to be proud of.”

The Hawks hope to build off this as they head into the rest of the season and the individual postseason.

“This time of year is a grind and it’s tough to stay focused,” Guilfoyle said. “This is when you want to be at your prime, we are right where went to be, hitting our prime and get through the next couple of weeks, and hopefully be in a spot to go to the state tournament.”

Horseheads reached the final with a 51-23 win over Elmira in the semifinals.

Hornsby got a forfeit win at 110 to start things and Elmira’s Liam Ogden pinned Zack Bennett in 1:12 at 118, while Dale pinned J.T. Guyette of Elmira in 1:33 at 126.

At 132 Coleton Owen won 6-2 over Joey Mastrantonio and at 138 Zachary Schrage won by forfeit, and at 145 Massengale pinned Scott Fairbanks in 47 seconds.

Elmira’s Donavan smith pinned Mosher in 1:49 at 152 and at 160 Lotocky pinned Matthew Brown in 1:09.

At 172 Levantovich pinned Alex Lopez in 1:48 and Elmira’s Zahkye Jenkins pinned Jacob Bennett in 5:26 at 189. Lavigne pinned Ethan Hernandez in 40 seconds at 215 and at 285 Alex McKerrow got a forfeit win for Elmira.

Joel Scibek of Horseheads pinned Ryder DePadua-Reese in 2:00 at 102.

Now it’s back to the state duals for the Blue Raiders.

“I heard them talking in the room after weigh-ins, saying this is a great experience, we get to go to a hotel, we get to leave on a Friday,” Owen said. “They are stoked, they are excited, we just have to keep that enthusiasm going.”

After an 0-2 finish last year in the hardest bracket at the tournament the Blue Raiders are hoping for more this season.

“We went 1-1 my first two years there, last year we got in the bracket with Minisink and it made it about an impossible task,” Owen said. “We were 0-2 and that didn’t settle well with me. We want to go back and at least go 1-1, hopefully go 2-0 in that first round and make it to the semis.”
——
PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES.

SEMIFINALS
Corning 39, UE 36
110: Dalton Webb (C) fall over Kam Kelly (UE), 1:40
118: Tommy Pierson (C) Fft.
126: Dylan Mollo (UE) fall over Ethan Scotchmer (C), 1:41
132: Riley Walker (C) fall over Cole Milks (UE), 1:14
138: Tyler Farrand (C) fall over John Volpe (UE), 4:56
145: Logan Bruce fall over Josh Bronabend (UE), 3:37
152: Clayton Smith (C) dec. Logan Barnes (UE), 9-4
160: Brody Wolfe (C) fall over Chad Eldridge (UE), 1:34
172: Michael Moody (UE) fall over Mason Horton (C), 1:28
189: Lucas Broder (UE) fall over Mile Lutton (C), :47
215 Julian Monastra (UE) Fft.
285: Qymani Viera-Powell (UE) fall over Logan Wheeler (C), 1:12
102: Sabrina Strauss (UE) Fft.

Horseheads Sr HS (HSH) 51.0 Elmira HS (ELHS) 23.0
110: Gavin Hornsby (HSH) over   (ELHS) (For.)
118: Liam  Ogden (ELHS) over Zack Bennett (HSH) (Fall 1:12)
126: Cody Dale (HSH) over Jonathan Guyette (ELHS) (Fall 1:33)
132: Coleton Owen (HSH) over Joey Mastrantonio (ELHS) (Dec 6-2)
138: Zachary Schrage (HSH) over   (ELHS) (For.)
145: Ryan Massengale (HSH) over Scott Fairbanks (ELHS) (Fall 0:47)
152: Donavan Smith (ELHS) over Lucas Mosher (HSH) (Fall 1:49)
160: William Lotocky (HSH) over Mathew  Brown (ELHS) (Fall 1:09)
172: Liam Levantovich (HSH) over Alex Lopez (ELHS) (Fall 1:48)
189: Zahkye Jenkins (ELHS) over Jacob Bennett (HSH) (Fall 5:26)
215: Hunter Lavigne (HSH) over Ethan Hernandez (ELHS) (Fall 0:40)
285: Alex Mckerrow (ELHS) over   (HSH) (For.)
102: Joel Scibek (HSH) over Ryder DePadua-Reese (ELHS) (Fall 2:00)
—— (ELHS unsportsmans -1.0)

FINAL
Horseheads Sr HS (HSH) 60.0 Corning City Schools (CCS) 3.0
118: Zack Bennett (HSH) over Tommy Pierson (CCS) (Fall 3:30)
126: Cody Dale (HSH) over Ethan Scotchmer (CCS) (Fall 0:45)
132: Coleton Owen (HSH) over Riley Walker (CCS) (Dec 6-5)
138: Ryan Massengale (HSH) over Tyler  Farrand (CCS) (Dec 12-7)
145: Lucas Mosher (HSH) over Logan Bruce (CCS) (Dec 12-6)
152: Clayton Smith (CCS) over William Lotocky (HSH) (Dec 2-1)
160: Liam Levantovich (HSH) over Brody Wolfe (CCS) (Dec 10-8)
172: Shawn LaBar (HSH) over Mike  Lutton (CCS) (Fall 1:28)
189: Hunter Lavigne (HSH) over   (CCS) (For.)
215: Jacob Bennett (HSH) over   (CCS) (For.)
285: Seamus Carroll (HSH) over Logan Wheeler (CCS) (Fall 3:22)
102: Joel Scibek (HSH) over Caden Barrett (CCS) (Fall 0:34)
110: Gavin Hornsby (HSH) over Dalton Webb (CCS) (Fall 3:44)



Print Friendly Version