STAC Wrestling Tournament: Titlists, award winners and takeaways from the meet

Horseheads doubled up on team championships for the week while Chenango Forks senior Tyler Ferrara secured a fourth conference title Saturday at the Southern Tier Athletic Conference Wrestling Tournament at Owego Free Academy.

The Blue Raiders' second consecutive STAC championship came four days after they dominated at their home gym in capturing a third straight Section 4 Division I Dual Meet Tournament crown, which secured a berth in the Jan. 28 state tournament at the SRC Arena and Events Center at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse.

"It feels amazing," Horseheads senior Ryan Massengale said of a week of celebrations.

Ferrara was voted by coaches as Frank "Sarge" Sorochinsky Most Outstanding Wrestler, continuing a 26-0 season he hopes ends with back-to-back state titles.

The two-day tournament showcased the growing presence of girls wrestling in Section 4. While there were no team standings, nine girls finals were held simultaneously with the boys. Owego Free Academy 114-pound champ RaeAnn Craft was voted Sorochinsky Most Outstanding Wrestler for the girls, who had 13 weight-class champs.

Raiders' depth shines through

Horseheads' lone boys champion was repeat winner Massengale at 138 pounds, but the Blue Raiders had three other finalists and 10 place-winners to pile up 194 points. Windsor took second out of 16 teams with 167.

"It talks about the depth of our team," Horseheads head coach Brett Owen said. "We had guys third, fourth string wrestling against some of the varsity starters of other programs and we came back. A lot of our guys didn't have the performance they wanted, didn't make the finals, and they came back to place top four, top six. That's really good to see."

On Tuesday, Horseheads won the sectional title with a 51-23 win over Elmira and 60-3 victory over Corning. When asked about the team's success, Massengale pointed to the effort and intensity in practice, along with coaches he called "amazing."

"We're just going to leave everything on the mat," Massengale said. "Throw the kitchen sink at it, as coaches say."

Owen said his team didn't wrestle to the best of its ability, but a demanding week likely played a role.

"You're coming off Tuesday, where we had two good wins, and you end up having to cover two days off and wrestle here two days," Owen said. "Overall I'm satisfied with how the guys performed and where we are at this point in time."

Massengale's tournament included three first-period pins, capped by a fall in 1 minute, 16 seconds against Windsor's Mathew Boyce in the 138-pound final.

Three Horseheads girls won titles: Narayani Wiehe, Hailey Berry and MayAnna Sindlinger.

Ferrara's STAC farewell leaves impression

Ferrara was expectedly dominant at 132 pounds. He opened with a 1-minute pin before taking his final two matches by technical fall, 19-3 and 19-4. His finals opponent, Tim Boyce of Windsor, smiled after shaking hands with Ferrara, a nod to the status of his opponent, ranked 10th nationally.

The only season in which Ferrara didn't win a STAC title was his seventh-grade campaign in 2018. There was no STAC Tournament in 2021 because of the pandemic.

"Last year, senior year, it's just exciting to go out here and compete in my last league tournament and get it done," said Ferrara, who has committed to Cornell's national powerhouse program. "(The STAC title) means a lot. I think it shows I've been dominant throughout my high school career and I've trained hard for that. It's special for sure."

Ferrara's season included the 126-pound title at the Beast of the East Tournament in Newark, Delaware, in December. On the horizon is sectional competition before Ferrara hopes to make his Forks wrestling farewell by completing a second straight unbeaten state championship season the weekend of Feb. 24-25 at Albany's MVP Arena.

"I feel like my training’s ramping up, I feel like I’m wrestling better, I feel like I’m going to peak for states right where I need to and hopefully win that state title," Ferrara said.

His younger brother, Ryan, became a two-time STAC champion a bit earlier Saturday with a 7-0 win in the 110-pound finals.

Parker, Bidwell repeat champions

Ithaca's Daniel Parker and Windsor's Garrett Bidwell joined the Ferrara brothers and Massengale as repeat STAC champions.

Parker took the 145-pound title with a pin in 2:23 against Vestal's Braden McMahon. That followed two technical falls for Parker in the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Bidwell faced teammate Gabe Soundararaj in the 215-pound final and won by fall in 4:31.

Windsor strong at upper weights

Windsor's dominance in the upper weights in recent years was on display again during Saturday's finals. Along with Bidwell's title in the all-Windsor 215-pound final, the Black Knights' Mason McCombs took the 160-pound title with quickest match of the finals, an 18-second pin. He won his other two matches by fall.

Windsor's Dominick Weaver was 172-pound champ with a pin and two major decisions.

Steven Paugh finished third for Windsor at 189. As a team, Windsor had six finalists.

"We were real happy getting seven athletes into the semifinals today. Then to get six through to the finals was a great round for us," coach Jeff Nolan said. "We saw a lot of young kids take good steps. My 32-pounder, my 38-pounder – ninth- and 10^th-graders – beating good opponents to get to the finals of STAC tournament at a young age is pretty great.

"And then Mason and Dom and Garrett Bidwell went out and did hopefully what champions are going to do moving forward, get the job done when it counts."

When asked about the wrestling room with those quality kids at upper weights, Nolan responded, "They're partners, they're buddies and of course they're rivals in the room as well and push each other to be as good as they possibly can be."

Odds and Ends

• Elmira High's Donavan Smith was a third-place STAC finisher as a seventh-grader and runner-up to Tyler Ferrara by a 3-2 score in 2019 for the Express before spending the last three school years at Tioga Central, where he was last year's Division II state runner-up at 145. Smith's return to Elmira this school year enabled him to earn his first STAC title, doing so with two pins and a technical fall to improve to 27-1 this season.

• Chenango Valley put wrestlers into the finals of the first four weight classes. Connor Mika (118) and Trevor Cortright (126) won titles to give CV a split of those matches on the way to third place in the team count. Cortright is 33-1 this season.

• The growing status of girls wrestling will continue Jan. 27 with the first New York State Public High School Athletic Association Girls Wrestling Individual Tournament at SRC Arena and Events Center. Said Owen of the STAC's girls finals: "It was great to see all the girls working together and showing how much our sport is growing and how we're improving throughout the section."

• In perhaps the match of the finals, Kiera Devantier of Vestal secured a 5-3 win over Union-Endicott's Candence Trinidad in sudden victory, 5-3, at 185.

Quotable

Said Nolan of Tyler Ferrara, whom he has known since Ferrara was a boy: "It’s been a pleasure because he’s a great kid, comes from a great family. I think he represents the best of what this sport is and he does it the right way. On top of that he’s a pretty good wrestler and he’s fun to watch. He’s done some amazing things in a career where he’s lost a year of participation."

Boys results

Team scores: Horseheads 194, Windsor 167, Chenango Valley 132, Norwich 119.5, Elmira 109.5, Maine-Endwell 102, Vestal 90, Chenango Forks 84, Oneonta 74, Union-Endicott 68.5, Ithaca 66.5, Corning 63, Owego Free Academy 50, Susquehanna Valley 41, Binghamton 21, Johnson City 19.

Championship Finals

102: Maverick Beckwith (Nor) tech. fall Travis White (CV) 23-5; 110: Ryan Ferrara (CF) dec. Anthony Valls (CV) 7-0; 118: Connor Mika (CV) dec. Dylan Mollo (U-E) 5-3; 126: Trevor Cortright (CV) tech. fall Cody Dale (Hors) 20-2; 132: Tyler Ferrara (CF) tech. fall Tim Boyce (Win) 19-4; 138: Ryan Massengale (Hors) pinned Mathew Boyce (Win) 1:16; 145: Daniel Parker (Ith) pinned Braden McMahon (Ves) 2:23; 152: Donavan Smith (Elm) tech. fall Lucas Mosher (Hors) 17-2; 160: Mason McCombs (Win) pinned Bobby Struble (OFA) 0:18; 172: Dominick Weaver (Win) major dec. Mason Edwards (Nor) 10-0; 189: Mateo Goodhue (One) pinned Hunter Lavigne (Hors) 1:34; 215: Garrett Bidwell (Win) pinned Gabe Soundararaj (Win) 4:31; 285: Qymani Viera-Powell (U-E) pinned Ean Conti (Ves) 0:48.

Third-place matches

102: Peyton Hubbard (CF) dec. Joel Scibek (Hors) 4-1; 110: Quentin Getzin (Ith) major dec. Collin Monell (OFA) 12-3; 118: Carl Harold (SV) dec. JT Guyette (Elm) 1-0; 126: William Ackley (JC) dec. Kaeden Hubbard (CV) 7-2; 132: Regan Roach (Nor) dec. Mark Moelder (SV) 10-8; 138: Coleton Owen (Hors) dec. Albert Smith (M-E) 7-3; 145: Zach Hibbard (CF) dec. Logan Bruce (Corn) 5-4; 152: Yanni Drapaniotis (Nor) dec. Clayton Smith (Corn) 8-6; 160: Liam Levantovich (Hors) major dec. Logan McGuire (M-E) 9-1; 172: Dakota Hamilton (Ith) dec. Kazio Jellick (M-E) 6-0; 189: Steven Paugh (Win) dec. TJ Serkiz (M-E) 3-0; 215: Jayden Zakala (One) pinned Joe Maraski (M-E) 0:26; 285: Robert McIntyre (Nor) pinned Sammy Stanton (M-E) 1:27.

Girls Results

Championship Finals

94 pounds: 1-Jay Karns (Oneonta); 100: 1-Sabrina Strauss (Union-Endicott); 107: Alaina Gumble (CF) pinned Serenity Pearson (Union-Endicott) 3:05; 114: RaeAnn Craft (Owego) pinned Kaegan Rhodes (Corning) 0:30; 120: Kathryn White (CF) dec. Kaitlin Wheeler (Horseheads) 5-0; 126: Narayani Wiehe (Horseheads) pinned Jenna Comer (Corning) 2:34; 132: Hailey Berry (Horseheads) by default (illness) over Chloe Owen (Horseheads); 138: Emily Sullivan (Chenango Forks) pinned Kiara Davidson (Johnson City) 1:58; 145: Maia Woertendyke (Oneonta) pinned Karen Marie Rivera (Corning) 0:43; 152: 1-MayAnna Sindlinger (Horseheads); 165: Jade Cook (Corning) pinned Lani Witshire (Oneonta) 3:53; 185: Kiera Devantier (Ves) dec. Candence Trinidad (U-E) 5-3 (OT); 235: Alexis Durdon (Win) pinned Ellisa Bly (Horseheads) 0:54.

Third-place finishers: 107: Elisabeth Epps (Corning); 114: Jaden Clune (U-E); 120: Bella Silvestri (CF); 126: Corine Defilippo (Horseheads); 132: Val Carotenuto (Oneonta); 138: Aubrey Dixon (Windsor); 145: Kalyani Wiehe (Horseheads); 165: Naleyra Bryant (Binghamton); 185: Aleesha Marshall (U-E).

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Horseheads repeated as team champion at STAC Wrestling Tournament