ALBANY –– Homer senior Hunter Lines is two wins from the mountain top, after going 2-0 in the 138-pound bracket at the Division II New York State Boys Wrestling Championships at MVP Arena.
Lines, the No. 5 seed, beat Coxsackie-Athens’ Neil Murphy by 15-0 tech fall with 15 seconds left in the match. He then topped Island Trees’ Joseph Filocamo by 8-3 decision in the quarterfinals.
Both matches were tied 0-0 through a period, then Lines started getting to his offense from top position. Murphy fared worse than Filocamo, both both met the same fate.
“I didn’t want to come in (Friday) and wait,” Lines said. “That’s why I didn’t make states last year. I waited. I came in (Friday) knowing that I can score on top, especially with my tilts and turns. Nobody’s going to take me down on my feet.”
The Homer senior will take on top-seeded Gavin Mangano, from Shoreham-Wading River, in the semifinals today. Mangano is unbeaten on the season at 48-0 and won by first-period pin and first-period tech fall to make reach the semis.
“I’m hoping to upset the one seed,” Lines said. “He’s pretty good and undefeated, but everyone can lose. If not, I’ll battle back and hopefully get third.”
Jack Brown, a Homer 285-pounder, went 1-1 after beating John Glenn’s Elijah Porpora by 7-3 decision and a 4-0 loss to Waverly’s Troy Beeman, the defending state champion and top seed.
Brown and Beeman were in a scoreless tie through two periods after Brown survived the second on the bottom. The Homer sophomore was slippery on bottom and made Beeman work to retain position. The Waverly junior was also dealing with a bloody nose that drew the match to a halt in the late second and third.
“I think he was definitely getting gassed and didn’t have as good endurance as me,” Brown said. “I was ready to take him down.”
Beeman escaped from bottom almost immediately to start the third period and took a 1-0 lead. Between all the start and stop to deal with the blood, Brown took a shot from neutral that forced Beeman to retreat. Brown popped his head out and got to the back, but the two wrestlers were ruled out of bounds right before the points were scored.
Beeman then secured three more points in the final 15 seconds after taking a desperation shot to take the lead.
“I think he’s one of the tougher guys in the bracket and now that I’ve already basically lost by one point, I know I can go against anybody,” Brown said.
Brown will take on Cobleskill-Richmondville’s Jake Lesage, with a win guaranteeing him placement.
Southern Hills’ David Frazee, a Fabius-Pompey student on a team with athletes from Tully and LaFayette, also went 1-1 and is a win away from guaranteeing placement. Frazee won his first match at 215 pounds over Wayne’s Aidan Lestrange by pin in 3:13, then lost by 14-6 decision to Pioneer’s Chris Howatt.
Frazee was very aggressive against Lestrange, but Howatt stifled all of that from the jump. Frazee was trailing 12-0 through two periods, but a near reversal with a minute left and a near fall for the Fabius-Pompey senior with 24 ticks remaining. He let Howatt up to try and get another takedown, but couldn’t get inside.
“I feel better because I got back a little bit in that second match,” Frazee said. “I didn’t give up and kept going. I put him on his back, it just wasn’t enough.”
Frazee and teammate Logan Sherriff are the first Southern Hills wrestlers to make the state tournament since Tully, Fabius-Pompey and LaFayette combined to form the program. The pair have tried to make the most of the opportunity to represent their respective schools.
“It’s a cool experience and knowing me and my cousin Will (Frazee) are the only ones from Fabius to go, it’s nice to know,” Frazee said.
Sherriff, a 152-pounder from Tully, faced the most adversity of all the local wrestlers. He dropped his first match to Unatego/Unadilla Valley’s Abdeen Zaggout by 10-6 decision in the first tiebreaker period, then beat Northern Adirondack’s Kyle Reif by 13-0 decision and topped Shoreham-Wading River’s Jacob Conti by 16-0 tech fall with 22 seconds left in the match.
The sophomore was a bit blinded by the bright lights early before settling in.
“I was really nervous and I froze up and didn’t wrestle like I normally would,” Sherriff said. “After I got that first match out of the way I was on a roll. I did good my second and third match.”
Sherriff got very offensive once he settled in, often rolling into his pins to pick up near fall points.
“I usually look for it and if it’s there I’ll hit it,” Sherriff said. “It presented itself a lot in that match, so I was going for it a lot.”
Sherriff also has one more match to win before guaranteed placement, which is against Gouverneur’s JD Minckler.
