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Fredonia heads to Class B wrestling meets today

OBSERVER File Photo Fredonia’s Alex Christy, pictured during a match earlier this season, will head to Cheektowaga today with the rest of the Fredonia Hillbillies for the Class B Section VI Championship.

CHEEKTOWAGA — The snow will not keep away these wrestlers any longer.

After having the Section VI dual meets canceled last weekend due to the winter weather, Section VI executive director Timm Slade confirmed that the Section VI Class B tournament will be on today as planned at Cheektowaga High School as well as the Class C/D tournaments at Eden High School.

Even though the winter weather and a water main break have kept the Fredonia students at home for the last half of the week, the wrestlers will be ready to go once they step on mat this morning through the afternoon.

“I see some upside in getting those days off,” said Fredonia head coach Joe Santilli. “What I had planned for practice was low-key and loose anyways, but the main thing is that — at this point in the season — you aren’t going to improve your conditioning. It’s about feeling good and fresh. Those days off can freshen the mind and refocus some of them.”

This weekend is a big one for all the area’s wrestlers, as the top five finishers in each weight class for Class B and C/D will advance to the Section VI state qualifier tournament next weekend.

Fredonia will be just one of the 15 teams competing in the Class B tournament and with it, they’ll have a lot of wrestlers looking to make some noise.

One wrestler who has already made a ton of noise in his career, will be Fredonia’s junior Dalton Gardner.

Gardner, who has taken the mantel from his older brothers Jude, and Dakota Gardner, has been here before, including in 2016 when he was an eight grader and won the state qualifier tournament at 99 pounds.

Now at 138 and three years more of experience, Gardner knows he’s not the eighth grade underdog anymore, but rather the experienced favorite, being tabbed a No. 2 seed for the tournament.

Also no stranger to postseason wrestling for Fredonia is senior captain Giovanni Russo, who qualified for the state tournament last season after finishing as the sectional runner-up and receiving an at-large bid into the tournament.

This season at 132, Russo is looking to make his last season on the mats his best, and his run will start today. Russo will have a No. 1 seed.

“They just need to continue to take it one match at a time,” said Santilli about his wrestlers. “They need to trust their training and believe in themselves and the rest will take care of itself. The goal now is to move on.”

Other wrestlers to watch for Fredonia to make postseason runs are Ceric Kristan (170, No. 1 seed), Jake Skinner (220, No. 2 seed), Cole Golembieski (152, No. 3 seed), Brandon Wallace (126, No. 3 seed) and Alex Christy (195, No. 3 seed).

“First time up in Class B for us so it’s going to be highly competitive,” added Santilli. “There’s a lot of full brackets so we’ll see how it shakes out. It should be a fun day.”

In Class C, Falconer/Cassadaga will have a number of wrestlers to watch, most notably Robbie Penhollow at 182, who has been dominating the competition all season long.

In Class D, Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Panama will return a fine roster after winning the Class title as a team a season ago.

Weigh-in is scheduled for 7:30 a.m., preliminary rounds start at 9 a.m. and the championship matches are slated for 5:30 p.m. for each class.

Follow along @TheObserverNY on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

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