Attica edges Holley in GR meet; Clerical error proves costly for the Hawks

By Brian Hillabush and David Hibbard
Batavia Daily News
Monday February 9, 2004

Full Text: Copyright © 2004 The Daily News.
Reproduced with the permission of The Daily News.

ATTICA - The Attica wrestling team ended Holley's three-year run as Genesee Region League champions Saturday, picking up a win in the final match to get the title.

The Blue Devils, who hosted the event scored 211 points, compared to the Hawks' 201.5 in the 42nd annual Genesee Region League Wrestling Tournament.

"It was nice. We had 12 out of 14 wrestlers place, " Attica coach Eric Romessor said. "It was a definitely a nice tune-up going into sectionals. Hopefully, if we can wrestle as a team next weekend, we can bring home a sectional title."

a clerical error at the head table made the results different, but the error was discovered too late, putting a contoversial end to an exciting tournament.

In the consolation finals at 135, Nick Ornt of Holley pinned Attica's Tom Raines. But in the official results, Raines was credited with a pinfall victory. The error was discovered Sunday morning.

"According to the rule book, an error has to be reported within 30 minutes after the tournament," said Kendall coach Jim Sauberan, the league chairman. "(The window) used to be 48 hours; now it's 30 minutes. Tha's just the way the rules are."

If the error had been caught prior to the 30-minute window, Holley would have finished with 206.5 points to 206 for Attica.

Had the error been caught before the finals, Holley would have had the lead, and wrestlers at higher weight classes would have had to wrestle differently.

"We could have had our kids score more points, instead of sitting on the lead," Romessor said.

Without knowledge of the error, Lucas Doty needed a pin over J.R. Carter at 275 pounds for Holley to win the team title. But Carter jumped out to a 7-0 lead and cruised to the 7-3 win.

"J.R. was looking not to get pinned," Romessor said. "When he got up 7-0, he went conservative so he wouldn't give up any big numbers."

Five Blue Devil grapplers got wins in the finals.

At 119 pounds, Billy Hulme decisioned Kendall's Geoff Chippendale 6-4 and at 125, Pat Hagerty won a 22-7 technical fall over Byron-Bergen's Steve McInally.

John Wassink won a 12-2 major decision over Kendall's Wes Snyder at 189 pounds and Dylan Rusiniak won an 8-1 decision over Holley's Key McPherson at 130 pounds.

"Obviously, when you are matching up with the team you are battling in the finals, you have to win those matches," Romessor said of Rusiniak's win.

The Hawks had three winners in the finals.

Andrew Grillo - who won Most Outstanding Wrestler in the 96-140 pound groups - pinned Pembroke's Chad Dillimone in 1:26. Grillo is a four-time GR champion.

Randy Davis pinned Lyndonville's Mike Manicki in 2:53 at 145 pounds and Ron Ryan pinned the Tigers' Tom Kepner in 1:50 at 215 pounds.

Pembroke took third with 135 points, followed by Kendall (104 points), Byron-Bergen (103), Lyndonville (57.2), Notre Dame (26), Alexander (24), Oakfield-Alabama (20), and Elba.

Pembroke captured wins over Attica wrestlers at 96, 103, and 171 pounds as Jeff Hathaway won 15-4 major decision over Jaime Carpenter at 96 and Nick Price decisioned Dylan Dabolt 5-1 at 103. Clay Johnson beat Jim Beitz 4-2 at 171.

Kendall had two finals winners. At 152, Most Outstanding Wrestler (145-275) and four-time GR champion Donald Williams pinned Holley's Sam Miller in 2:57. Torry Tooley won a 4-2 overtime dicision over Attica's Brandon Comstock at 160 pounds.

B-B had two wins in the finals. Mike McInally pinned O-A's Cory Kumpf in 1:45 at 112 pounds and Jeff Taylor won a 2-0 decision over Pembroke's Ryan Graham at 135 pounds.