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Displaying items by tag: wrestling

Thursday, 06 January 2022 14:08

Wrestling News Recent Tournament Results and Rankings

The Blue Streaks have six wrestlers who are currently ranked in the top five in their weight class for Section 2. Photos by Kim Delgado.

Queensbury Holiday Tournament

Queensbury held their annual Holiday Tournament on Dec. 30, in which 16 schools across New York and Vermont competed. This year’s winner was Saranac (170.5) followed closely by Coxsackie Athens (170.0) in second place. Taking third and fourth were Shaker (146.5) and Queensbury (144.0), respectively. Rounding out the top five was Guilderland (115.0). Other local school placed as follows: 7th – Hudson Falls; 8th – Hadley Luzerne-Lake George; 10th – Glens Falls; 13th – Schuylerville; 14th – Corinth, 16th – South Glens Falls.

The results of the Championship Finals in each weight class are listed below:

102: Riley Bernash (Corinth) dec. Neil Murphy (Coxsackie-Athens), 7-6

110: Avi Berg (Glens Falls) maj. dec. Ryker Cox (Coxsackie-Athens), 14-2

118: Michael Santore (Shaker) dec. Ryan Devins (Saranac), 4-0

126: Ashton Seymour (Saranac) pin Alan Frost-Jones (Beekmantown), 1:34

132: Ashton Thompson (Rome Free Academy) pin Sameer Abbaszadeh (Shaker), 3:22

138: Sawyer Bell (Beekmantown) pin Cayden Bouvia (Saranac), 3:25

145: Collin Clancy (Saranac) pin Antonio Rezek (Shaker), 1:04

152: Hunter Davis (Saranac) dec. Lucas Shell (Queensbury), 7-2

160: Dylan Smith (Queensbury) dec. Aidan Jones (Schuylerville), 5-1 (OT)

172: Dylan Schell (Queensbury) maj. dec. Jordan Koenig (Holland Patent), 11-2

189: Dillon Blanchard (Guilderland) dec. Ahmad Farzad (Shaker), 8-2

215: Logan Marissal (HL/LG) pin Vincent Morizio (Guilderland), 0:36

285: Connor Bushey (Beekmantown) pin Andrew Morris (Holland Patent), 5:31

Section 2, Division 1 Rankings

Team Rankings: Per cnywrestling.com, the Burnt Hills Spartans are at the top of the leaderboard. The Shenendehowa Plainsmen are ranked second, the Shaker Bison are third, and the Averill Park Warriors are fourth. Rounding out the current top five rankings for the 2021-22 season are the Ballston Spa Scotties.

Several local athletes are also ranked within the current top five in their weight class:

102: #2 – Danny Dacey (8th Grade, Saratoga Springs)

110: #3 – Tyler Whiteley (Freshman, Burnt Hills); #4 – Ralph Keeney (Sophomore, Ballston Spa)

118: #2 – Tristan Hinchcliff (Junior, Ballston Spa); #3 – Ben Taylor (Sophomore, Burnt Hills)

126: #1 – Gabriel Goss (Junior, Burnt Hills); #2 – Liam Carlin (Freshman, Burnt Hills); #4 – Cameron Hinchcliff (Junior, Ballston Spa)

132: #3 – Taylor Beaury (Freshman, Saratoga Springs)

138: #2 – Tyler Rossini (Senior, Burnt Hills); #3 – Colin Carlin (Junior, Burnt Hills); #5 – Kyle Griskowitz (Senior, Saratoga Springs)

145: #1 – Joshua Warland (Junior, Burnt Hills)

152: #1 – Connor Gregory (Junior, Ballston Spa); #4 – Gordon Murray (Junior, Saratoga Springs); Thomas Pawlinga (Junior, Burnt Hills)

160: #3 – Sachiel Chuckrow (Junior, Saratoga Springs)

172: #1 – Ryan Buthfer (Senior, Burnt Hills)

189: #3 – Lorenzo Paleschi (Junior, Saratoga Springs); #5 Danny Casey (Senior, Burnt Hills)

215: #1 – Darrien Insogna (Junior, Ballston Spa); #4 – Trevor Ismail (Senior, Burnt Hills)

Published in Sports

Thursday, 14 March 2019 12:39

Vincent Santilli: Athlete of the Week

Photos provided.

SOUTH GLENS FALLS — Section 2 Champion wrestler Vincent Santilli demonstrates how values taught through sports transfer into everyday life.

Santilli, 17, is a senior three-season athlete at South Glens Falls High School. While he plays both soccer and lacrosse, this year he excelled in wrestling as he took home the gold at the Section 2 Division I tournament 1st.

Stacked against two previous competitors from Queensbury and Niskayuna, going into this match Santilli expressed, “I knew I had to do well, and that I had to wrestle my best ever."

Wrestle to his best he did as he won sectionals and progressed to state. Unfortunately, he did not make the top six at the podium.

This past season Santilli used his role as a team captain not only to help motivate his teammates but to instill a sense of team camaraderie in a sport that is heavily focused on the solo performance on the mat. Though a team player, Santilli's favorite aspect of wrestling is going solo to the mat, for the sense of accountability he embodies.

“When playing a team sport you have other people to rely on in a game and if you make a mistake, it might be made up for somewhere else, but in wrestling, it's all you,” said Santilli. “If I mess up it's only me and I have to make up for myself. It kind of helps me with my everyday life. Like in school or a job - I’ve got to be responsible.”

For most student athletes, being responsible means keeping your grades up and showing up to practice, but for a wrestler, making and keeping to your weight class is an additional task to take on.

"An hour before I had to wrestle at the state tournament, I had to lose two pounds...things like that are really tough. But It helps me stay disciplined not only at practice but at home."

In life, many things that are unexacting happen, and it’s an important value to take the obstacles and grow from them. Santilli thanks a minor injury for being a contributing factor in him winning sectionals.

"If I didn't hurt my pinky, I wouldn't have learned to wrestle intelligently and strategically. I don't think I would've won sectionals. I wouldn't have been as focused."

Focusing may be something that Santilli thinks he developed over the course of this season, but his condensed academic and extracurricular schedule shows that this is a skill he’s established through his high school career.

What many may not know is that during the week of states, Santilli was also one of eight student chairpersons for the South High Dance Marathon, which raised $837,859.97 for varying charities.

Santilli hopes to continue his development on and off the mat as he ventures to college.

Published in Sports

Wednesday, 20 February 2019 19:00

Blue Streaks Head to the Mat for State Championships

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Two wrestlers from Saratoga Springs High will compete in the state championships in Albany this weekend.

This 2018-19 Season has been rewarding for the Saratoga Blue Streaks wrestling team, with an overall standing score of 0.826.

Each season a coach is presented with a new team, and not only is it their job to get each wrestler to compete at their best ability, but to utilize each member of the team to help each other achieve their personal best.

“This year coming in I knew we had a good group of seniors that were gonna lead our team. They held up their end of the bargain,” said Coach Kris West.

The key to success for this team was the coaches’ focus on maintaining their intensity throughout the season despite the mental and physical grind of the sport. Finding a balance to avoid burn out tends to revolve around the team’s tournament schedules.

“During the middle of the year, we have some tough individual tournaments that we gear up for… We kind of ramp up the intensity and then we kind of dial back and let the kids recover a little bit,” said West.

Two of the team’s leading wrestlers this season include senior Brant Robinson, weight class 195 and junior Eric Griskowitz, weight class 138 will take to the mat this Friday, Feb 23. Should the two place they will compete the following day.

In order to prepare his athletes for championships, Coach West sought out notably tough competition for the meets preceding states. This past year Robinson has wrestled at least five sectional champions, and Griskowitz went to the mat against multiple state qualifiers.

Bart Robinson (right). Photo provided.

“I think they’re (Griskowitz and Robinson) in good shape and I think they’re ready to have a good tournament,” said Coach West. “They each are in good positions where if they wrestle good, and wrestle to their abilities they can have a good tournament.”

The 2019 New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) Wrestling Championships will be held at the Times Union Center in Albany (Section 2) on Friday, Feb. 22, and Saturday, Feb. 23.

Published in Sports

Friday, 03 March 2017 10:08

State Champs: Tyler Barnes and Orion Anderson Claim State Titles

SARATOGA COUNTY – Victory was earned for two local high school wrestlers this past weekend. Competing in the NYSPHSAA wrestling championships, which ran from Feb. 24-25, Ballston Spa junior Tyler Barnes and Schuylerville junior Orion Anderson fought through four rounds of competition across two days to claim state championship titles. Barnes won in the Division I, 170-pound weight class, while Anderson won in the Section II, 120-pound class. With this win, Barnes becomes the first ever state champion to come out of Ballston Spa. Anderson, meanwhile, fought through illness and injury to not only win the title, but also be voted one of the Most Outstanding Wrestlers out of the whole competition.

“He’s a very focused young man,” said Coach Harold Staulters of Barnes. “He has goals, he always has goals, and he sticks to them.”

After finishing in 5^th place at last year’s championship, Barnes, supported by in Staulters’s estimation 40 or more Ballston Spa residence in attendance, went all the way this year to become the town’s first ever state wrestling champion. Winning his first match by pin on Friday, Barnes made it to the finals on Saturday, where he bested John Glenn High School’s Mike Ancewicz 5-2. Well aware of the import of his potential victory, Barnes wore a singlet with Ballston Spa’s school colors, purple and gold.

Staulters said that consistency was important during Barnes’s training leading up to the event. He stuck to his usual practice routines, and stuck with his longtime friend and practice partner, Jake Cook, who also competed over the weekend.

“They know each other pretty well,” said Staulters of Barnes and Cook. “They’ve been friends since they were six… Probably been workout partner since the same time.”

For Anderson, the run-up to the championship was fraught with hindrances. At the Section II state qualifying event two weeks prior at the Glens Falls Civic Center where Anderson secured his spot in the state finals, he suffered a cut to his forehead that required stitches. For the month prior to the state finals, Anderson had also been suffering through bouts of mononucleosis and upper respiratory infection, the latter of which sometimes made it difficult for him to breathe.

“I don’t think he even realizes what a big deal it is,” said Buck Anderson, Orion’s coach and father.

For each champion, wrestling is a family affair. Barnes’s father, Terry, wrestled in the 1995 state championships and was runner-up that year. Anderson, meanwhile, has seen many members of his family in the state finals, with his older brother and sister each having competed in the finals in years prior, and he himself has been wrestling since the age of two.

Barnes’s is currently planning to compete in the Cadet Greco Nationals in Fargo, ND, where he also competed last year, making it all the way through the semifinals. This year, he’s aiming to win it all. Anderson, conversely, will be taking things slower to let his body heal and to recover from his illnesses. Once he feels better, he intends to get back to practicing and compete in off-season matches.

Published in Sports

Thursday, 23 May 2013 13:50

Missing 91-Year-Old Located

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A 91-year-old man who had complained to police that he did not feel safe in his home and disappeared last week, was found three days later and returned to his family.

Published in News