Section V Class A Wrestling Championships

Varsity Wrestling Tournament
@ Fairport High School (Fairport, NY)
Friday & Saturday, February 18-19, 2000

Final Results

Kay relies on fundamentals
The Canandaigua wrestler wins the 189-pound Class A title by sticking to the basic moves
BY JAMES JOHNSON, Staff Writer

Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY
Sunday, February 21, 2000

Full Text: Copyright © 2000 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Company Inc.

Andrew Kay takes a simple approach to winning wrestling matches.

"I'm not one of these guys who have a lot of fancy moves," the Canandaigua senior said. "I take the basic moves and learn them like the back of my hand.

"Eventually you have five or six moves that work on everyone."

Double-leg takedown.

Armbar.

Those elementary moves made a Section V Class A champion out of Kay, who pinned Gates Chili's Dan Glover in 1 minute, 12 seconds in the 189-pound final last night at Fairport High School.

Kay stunned Glover, the Monroe County League champion, with his takedown and didn't need long to put his opponent on his back.

A starting offensive and defensive lineman on Canandaigua's state championship football team, Kay improved his record to 23-2. Both of his losses have been to opponents outside of Section V.

"I worked hard this week and my coach (Rich Romeo) showered me with attention," Kay said. "Those two factors paid off."

Kay and seven of his teammates earned berths into this weekend's SuperSectionals, the state tournament qualifier at the ESL Centre. The top four finishers from each weight class compete in the SuperSectionals.

The Braves finished second in team scoring with 159 points, behind, Spencerport, which piled up 193 points to win its 12th straight title.

Canandaigua eighth-grader Greg Gelinas also came home a sectional champion, as he defeated Pittsford's Chris Forte 4-2 in the 96-pound final.

Both wrestlers seemed tentative in the first period, as neither aggressively looked for takedowns.

"It really doesn't matter who or when, it depends on how you wrestle," Gelinas said. "I wanted to keep him off of his game.

"He likes to keep the match close and take points anyway he can. I wasn't going to give him any cheap ones."

Forte tried twice to hit headlocks, but Gelinas was ready for him. Then, the Canandaigua 96-pounder immediately hit two headlocks of his own two score.

"I guess it's a new thing he was doing," Gelinas said. "Before when I wrestled him, he didn't try them."

Monroe County League champions Shawn Hibbs, last year's state champ at 103 pounds, Pittsford's Troy Forte (119), plus Rush-Henrietta middleweights Geoff Selleck (152) and Dan Chase (160) each won their divisions.

Gates Chili's Jason Macartney was knocked out of championship contention in the 171-pound weight class by a 6-2 loss to Brighton's Zach Lehmann in the semifinals.

Macartney won his first wrestleback, clinching a spot in the SuperSectionals, but was pinned in the third-place match.

Spencerport's Jared Moreland nearly lost an 10-1 lead but held off Greece Olympia's Joe Veltre in overtime to win the 112 final 17-15.

Veltre worked his way back into the match by methodically taking Moreland down and then letting his opponent up. He finally caught up as the final seconds ticked off in regulation, taking Moreland down and nearly putting the Spencerport wrestler on his back.

Veltre was tired at that point and it showed on his next takedown attempt, which he called "poor". Moreland snapped toward the mat and after a brief struggle, manuevered behind Veltre to win the match.