SOURCE: www.syracuse.com

February 27, 2004

NEW CATEGORIES AND A NEW VENUE ADD INTRIGUE TO THE 42ND ANNUAL EVENT
By Neil Kerr, Staff writer
The Post-Standard
February 27, 2004

Led by returning competitors Taylor Malone of Lowville, Chris Davis of Mohawk, Don Cummings of Onondaga and Treavor LeBlanc of Morrisville-Eaton, Section 3 will seek to win its first team title in Division Two when the 42nd annual state wrestling tournament starts today at the University at Buffalo's Alumni Arena.

This weekend marks the first time since 1973 that the state wrestling tourney hasn't been hosted by Syracuse's Onondaga County War Memorial. It's the second time the state's top wrestlers have visited Western New York. In 1967, the event was held at Niagara University.

Champions will be crowned in two categories, Division One and Division Two, for a total of 30 state champions. Only one set of champions were decided in past years.

On paper, Section 3's powerful Division Two team looks capable of making a strong bid for first place in the newly established small schools category. As two-time sectional champion Cummings (35-1) of Onondaga observed earlier this week, "Our Division Two team (in Section 3) is pretty close in ability to the champions of Division One. Since the states are divided into two groups for the first time, it would be a nice honor to win the first-ever-team title in the new category. I think we've got a good shot at doing that."

Cummings, also a two-way all-state football player who helped Onondaga win three consecutive state titles, will bid for the 140-pound title in Division Two this weekend. Sporting a career record of 163-12, Cummings competed at 135 pounds at last winter's state meet, but did not place among the top six finishers.

Lowville's Malone (42-3), with a career record of 241-33, is making his third trip to the state tournament after finishing fourth at 125 pounds last year. Again vying at 125 pounds, Malone has two goals this weekend - to win an elusive state crown and also to break the state career-wins record of 243, set by Matt Herrington of Troy LaSalle two years ago.

Two more repeating Section 3 champions with legitimate title hopes in Buffalo are 135-pound Davis (41-2) of Mohawk and 160-pound LeBlanc (33-2) of Morrisville-Eaton. Davis finished fourth at 130 pounds last year while LeBlanc did not place at 145. Both athletes own more than 200 career wins.

Section 3 hasn't boasted a state wrestling champion since 1998, when 130-pound Packy Burke of Cooperstown and 171-pound Dan Perry of New Hartford captured state titles in the Onondaga County War Memorial.

Also highly-regarded in the Division Two portion of the tourney from Section 3 are: 96-pound freshman Jordan Lister (33-3) of South Jefferson, teammates Joe Widrick (38-3 at 112) and Shane Roggie (38-2 at 119) of Beaver River, Toby Reese (37-2 at 130) of Homer, Sam Sirota (28-2 at 152) of Tully, Canastota teammates Dan Gaglianese (39-4 at 171) and Travis Chase (40-3 at 189) plus 275-pound Tim LaRose (17-4) of Cato-Meridian. Tully junior Sirota was voted "Most Outstanding Wrestler" of the Division Two finals last Sunday.

Leading Section 3 into the Division One competition will be two-time sectional champions Martino Barletta (35-4) of Fowler at 140 pounds and undefeated Ryan Fleming (47-0) of Mexico at 152. Barletta finished fourth at last winter's state finals while Fleming was unable to place.

Fleming, among the last three unbeaten wrestlers in Section 3, last Sunday was named "Most Outstanding Wrestler" (in Division One) at the Section 3 finals for the second straight year. Fleming's chances of placing among the top six wrestlers in his weight at Buffalo are considered very good by his coach, Bill Kays.

The other two undefeated wrestlers on the Section 3 team - Derrick Smith (49-0) of Mexico at 135 pounds and 215-pound Eric Jones (33-0) of East Syracuse-Minoa at heavyweight - are also considered solid contenders for state Division One titles.

Locally, other sectional Division One champions who will bid to finish somewhere among the top six placewinners at are: Shawn Farnham (32-1) of Baldwinsville at 103 pounds, Kevin Smith (45-3) of Mexico at 112, Jay Nicholas (39-1) of Cortland at 119, Anwar Goeres (44-1) of Phoenix at 125, Charley Taylor (32-2) of ES-M at 189, Dave Sanders (25-1) of Liverpool at 275, the Cicero-North Syracuse duo of Dan Pauley (34-5) at 130 and Joe Dolson (29-11) at 145, plus the Fulton trio of Derrick Bartlett (35-4) at 96 pounds, Zach Bogardus (37-3) at 160 and Mike Vant (34-4) at 171.