SOURCE: www.eveningtribune.com

February 06, 2005

WARSAW ― The Hornell wrestling team is back on top of the Livingston County Athletic Association following its county tournament victory in Warsaw Friday and Saturday.

The Raiders finished the regular season in second place in Division I, but have been wrestling better during the second half of the season after starting the dual meet season 0-2.

"It was kind of redemption for us," said Hornell Coach Matt Sheldon. "The kids really wrestled great this weekend. We had 12 out of 14 place and we really started wretling well. It was nice to see how much improvement we've made from the beginning of the year until now."

Hornell and Le Roy trailed by 1 points heading into the semifinals, but took a 9-point lead following due to its success and Le Roy's failure during the round. Hornell finished with 221 points, 19.5 ahead of the Oatkan Knights total of 201.5. Warsaw finished third with 180 followed by Bath-Haverling in fourth (163) and Letchworth in fifth (144).

"In the consi semis, we won three matches in a row," said Sheldon. "At that point we were neck-and-neck with Le Roy and they lost five in a row. When that happened I thought we had a good shot."

Wayland-Cohocton took sixth place with 112 points, Dansvlle was 10th with 59, and Keshequa took 15th with 32.

The Raiders had six wrestlers make the finals with three coming home Livingston County champions. Josiah Gardner defeated Bath's Brent Nadjadi 12-0 at 125 pounds, Aaton Parks won 6-4 over Letchworth's Matt Hendrickson at 135, and Tyler Sick defeated Caledonia-Mumford's Nate Scheidel 7-4 at 152.

At 130 pounds, Andy Drake lost a 7-2 decision to Letchworth's Joe Hendrickson and Dan Rosemeir fell 3-1 to Haverling's Tony Viselli at 171. Bill Drake, who advanced to the New York State competition last season, was pinned in 4:23 at 215 pounds.

Other Raiders placing include Ryan Dieter (145) and Ryan Harrison (160) in third place, Kevin McAllister (103) and Scott Ray (140) in fourth place, and Joe Sirianni (96) and Jim Ray (112) in fifth place.

Hornell will host Canisteo-Greenwood in the annual matchup between the Canisteo Valley schools on Wednesday in preparation for sectionals in Bath on Saturday, Feb. 19.

"We are really on the roght track and are starting to peak at the right time," said Sheldon. "I think it's going to be us Pal-Mac and Attica."