Wrestling: Horseheads takes title at Dave Buck tourney, host Elmira places second
Five individual champions helped add up to a team title for Horseheads on Saturday at the Dave Buck Memorial Wrestling Tournament at Elmira High School.
Second place went to the host Express, which put three wrestlers atop the podium. Horseheads registered 130 points, followed by Elmira with 113 and Unatego with 69 in third place.
Chenango Forks junior Tyler Ferrara captured his second tournament title in as many weekends and earned Most Outstanding Wrestling honors with his first-place finish at 126 pounds.
The tournament ended up with nine teams after some withdrew. It featured a round-robin format without finals, though closing matches in some weight classes pitted top wrestlers against each other.
It is named for a former wrestling coach for Southside High School and Elmira's combined program. Buck died of cancer in 2017 at age 58.
Horseheads takes advantage of opportunity
Horseheads entered the week planning to compete at a tournament in Penfield, but the Blue Raiders shifted their plans after it was canceled. Horseheads coach Brett Owen was thankful Elmira coach Dave Guyette found a spot for the Blue Raiders in this event.
Champions for Horseheads were Ryan Massengale at 118 pounds, Cael Owen at 138, Ben Massengale at 172, Hunter Lavigne at 189 and Gannon Johnston at 285.
Horseheads was coming off its own Mark Stephens Classic dual-meet tournament last weekend. The Raiders won four of six meets there.
"Overall it was a great team effort," Brett Owen said of Saturday's showing. "Five champs and three of them it was first time winning. It was Cael's first time, Hunter’s first time and Ben’s first time winning a tournament, so that’s awesome.
During the most recent Section 4 tournaments that followed the 2019-20 season, Ryan Massengale won the 99-pound Division I title while Owen and Johnston were sectional runners-up. The 2020-21 wrestling season was abbreviated and did not include postseason competition.
"You expect this stuff from Gannon, Cael, Ryan, they’ve been around," Brett Owen said. "They’ve been with me since I first started at Horseheads. Gannon’s a senior, Cael and Ryan are juniors.
"The biggest surprise was Hunter Lavigne as a freshman coming in and winning 189 pounds. Ben Massengale, Hunter Lavigne, those guys had great tournaments winning their weight classes."
More: Section 4 high school wrestling results: Daily scores, top performers
Three champs for Elmira
Champs for the Express were Drew Arnold at 132, Sam Brennan Buseck at 160 and CJ Brink at 215.
"I think it’s the first individual titles for both CJ and Sam," Guyette said. "I thought they were very strong in scoring position when they needed to."
Arnold closed with a 6-1 win over Horseheads' Lucas Mosher.
"I thought Drew Arnold was almost flawless all day," Guyette said. "He didn’t make mistakes, he attacked when he needed to attack and scored a ton of points and was just a hammer on top."
Guyette said his team is improving on a daily basis and Saturday marked another step forward.
"We’re looking to get better and better and better," he said. "The kids are working hard. We’re still pretty inexperienced, but they’re competing and they’re really listening in the practice room and working on what we need to work on."
Dominance from Ferrara
Ferrara was a 13-3 winner over Shenendehowa's Vincent Grembocki in the 132-pound final at Oxford's Clyde Cole Invitational on Dec. 3. The title Saturday in Elmira at 126 pounds came down to Ferrara and Horseheads' Cody Dale and Ferrara won by technical fall, 17-2.
"I feel good. I feel like my stuff’s really versatile, my stuff’s flowing, so I feel good," Ferrara said. "And wrestling some solid guys. Cody’s good, so it’s good to get some good wins like that."
Forks' lineup was more robust than last week with some additions from the football team, which beat Schuylerville, 21-0, last weekend in Syracuse in the Class C state championship game. Forks' wrestlers placed sixth Saturday with 49 points.
"It was good to get a lot of guys back," Ferrara said. "We had like only three guys go to Clyde Cole, so we’re just building in the numbers, bringing in the football guys, so it’s a lot of fun to get the team back."
Three champs from Ithaca
Ithaca matched Elmira with three individual champions on its way to a fourth-place finish.
Titlists for the Little Red were Quentin Getzin at 102, George Oroudjov at 145 and Daniel Parker at 152.
The other weight-class winner was Unatego's Caleb Cole at 110.
Results
Team scores: Horseheads 130, Elmira 113, Unatego 69, Ithaca 65, Cortland 57, Chenango Forks 49, Moravia 38, Newark Valley 25, Whitney Point 16.
Top finishers:
102: 1-Quentin Getzin (Ith), 2-Gavin Nordberg (Ith), 3-Logan Woodin (NV), 4-Trevor Thayer (Una), 5-Trevor Middendorf (NV).
110: 1-Caleb Cole (Una), 2-Liam Ogden (Elm), 3-Max Collins (Elm), 4-Adrian Bacon (Hors), 5-Brian Park (Hors).
118: 1-Ryan Massengale (Hors), 2-Wyatt Meade (Una), 3-JT Guyette (Elm), 4-Devlin Riotto (Cor), 5-Hunter Boynton (Mor).
126: 1-Tyler Ferrara (CF), 2-Cody Dale (Hors), 3-Caden Creeley (NV), 4-Caleb Ostrander (Elm), 5-Coleton Owen (Hors).
132: 1-Drew Arnold (Elm), 2-Lucas Mosher (Hors), 3-Isaiah Blakemore (Hors), 4-Dylan Iverson (NV), 5-Avery Canzano (Cort).
138: 1-Cael Owen (Hors), 2-Zac Evans (Hors), 3-Blake Force (Elm), 4-Karter Bush (Cor), 5-Jesse Conklin (WP).
145: 1-George Oroudjov (Ith), 2-Josh Meade (Una), 3-Zach Hibbard (CF), 4-Devin McCall (Mor), 5-DaeSean West (Cor).
152: 1-Daniel Parker (Ith), 2-Liam Levantovich (Hors), 3-Wyatt Tinker (Cort), 4-Casen Cyr (Elm), 5-Matt Brown (Elm).
160: 1-Sam Brennan Buseck (Elm), 2-Luca Canzano (Cort), 3-Nate Conklin (Mor), 4-Nick Talbot (Ith), 5-Noah Cole (Una).
172: 1-Ben Massengale (Hors), 2-AJ Lawton (Mor), 3-Tyler Keefe (Elm), 4-Grant Smith (WP), 5-Landon Griffith (WP).
189: 1-Hunter Lavigne (Hors), 2-Nate Ackerley (Una), 3-Vincenzo Menard (Hors), 4-Seth Parker (Mor), 5-Jacob Bennett (Hors).
215: 1-CJ Brink (Elm), 2-Luke Darling (Cor), 3-Skyler Harvey (CF), 4-Dylan Chalk (Hors), 5-KR Dye (Cor).
285: 1-Gannon Johnston (Hors), 2-Alex McKerrow (Elm), 3-Bennett Howell (CF), 4-Donald Garrow (Mor), 5-Jordan Garner (Ith).
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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Horseheads won team title at Elmira's Dave Buck Memorial Tournament
