Fredonia gave Olean all it could handle and more in a CCAA Division 1 wrestling win Wednesday at Fredonia Central School.
The Hillbillies earned the first 34 points of the match en route to a 56-19 win.
"They have some state-caliber wrestlers," Olean coach Mike O'Connor said of Fredonia. "We knew that coming in. I thought they wrestled very well tonight. They're a well-coached team."
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OBSERVER?Photo by Stefan?Gestwicki
Fredonia’s Pat McCarthy, right, and Olean’s Drew Mara fight for positioning during their 120-pound match of Wednesday’s CCAA?Division 1 high school wrestling contest.
After an Olean forfeit at 113 pounds, Fredonia's Pat McCarthy narrowly escaped Olean's Drew Mara at 120. McCarthy built a 4-1 lead before holding on for a 4-3 decision in the closest contest of the evening.
"Drew Mara is a tough kid," Fredonia coach Alex Conti said. "I thought Patrick had a fantastic match. His shots, re-shots, counters - they were all extremely good. He keeps a positive attitude and he works as hard as anyone I've ever had. When you have great conditioning, that third period becomes yours."
Dakota Gardner kept Fredonia rolling with his pin of Quincy Gayton at the 3:00 mark. Julius Woma followed with a hard-fought 5-2 decision over Hunter WhiteEagle.
"There's a couple matches that we'd like to have back," O'Connor admitted. "We didn't give up too many pins, but we're not exactly where we'd like to be yet."
Tyler Cassidy wasn't able to earn a pin at 138 pounds, but handled Olean's Tom Weis fairly easily in an 11-2 decision. He was followed by an impressive performance from Jude Gardner, who after jumping out to a 15-1 lead, landed the pin he needed before he earned a technical fall.
"That's big," Conti raved. "If you learn how to pin, you can beat anyone. You can beat the best wrestlers if you know how to pin."
After Damien DeGolier's win via forfeit at 152 put Fredonia up 34-0, Olean's Andy Rodman got the Huskies on the board with an 8-2 decision over Sean Sluberski.
Zach Buckley made sure Olean's momentum was short-lived. After battling back and forth with Quentin Ellis for the better part of a minute-and-a-half at 170 pounds, Buckley turned an aggressive move into a lightning-fast pin.
"Zach Buckley is as quality a wrestler as I have," Conti added. "I think he's good in all three positions. He can score in all three positions. I can't say enough good things about Zach. He has that gift. He has that feel. He's a quality young man and a fantastic athlete."
Olean's Jaylen Roulo followed with the Huskies' most dominant performance of the contest. After nearly recording a pin in the first 10 seconds of the match, Roulo finally got the pin of Paul Przybycien at :58.
"Jaylen is one of our freshman," O'Connor said of Roulo. "He's a football player and that was kind of a football tackle. We're trying to get him to be more aggressive and that was an aggressive move. I like what I see so far."
Nick Nocek took care of business with a major decision at 195 pounds, before Christian Saden turned in a 13-second pin of Olean's Jaquaves Ulmer at 220.
The Huskies scored some points at the end of the meet with Dustin Provorse's pin and Shane Pancio's major decision sandwiched around another forfeit. With the three forfeits aside, the score of the meet was only 38-19.
"I have to give props to Olean," Conti concluded." I thought they wrestled us real tough. They did a nice job."
Fredonia continues a busy week before winter break with a round robin tournament at Niagara Community College this weekend.
Westfield-Ripley-Chautauqua Lake 51, Dunkirk 25
RIPLEY - The Westfield-Ripley-Chautauqua Lake wrestling team used seven pins to down the Dunkirk Marauders, 51-25.
At 220-pounds, Trevor Enterline pinned Alex Jones in :41 while at 285, Andrew Pezzulo pinned Nick Jones in 1:43.
WRCL's Roger Williams earned a pin of his own at 120 as he put Troy Smith on his back at the 4:29 mark. Nolan Hunt aided in the win with a pine at 132 as he downed Lucas Julian in 2:24. At 145, Jeremy Gilbert pinned Phil Jones at 1:59 while at 170, Caleb Lawson needed 5:40 to pin Tyler Aitcheson. At 182, Tyler Furlow pinned Marquis Buchanan at 5:35.
For the Marauders, Adrian Alvarado pinned Cody Bird at 4:40. Also for Dunkirk, Hector Colom pinned Noah Dorman at 1:54 and Tito Colom won with a 13-3 major decision over Nick Hudson.
