SHEN CLAIMS DUALS TITLE
Plainsmen avenge loss to Ballston Spa, beat Columbia in finals
The Shenendehowa and Ballston Spa wrestling squads faced off once again in less than a week and again provided a dramatic finish to their dual match while on an adjacent mat Columbia and Averill Park reunited for the first time since late December to see who would challenge for the first-ever Section II Division I Dual Meet Tournament champion and represent the Capital Region at the state event next weekend.
On Tuesday night, the Plainsmen were able to avenge last week’s loss to the Scotties in the opening bout and avoid another tie-breaking decision and the Blue Devils handled the Warriors once again to set up the Columbia/ Shenendehowa finale.
A steady, calm and confident Shenendehowa squad became the Section II representatives with its own quick start to capture the inaugural Section II dual crown, 4429 over Columbia.
“We had good energy going into the match, we had good energy to start the match, a good win at 113 with a first-year wrestler first time in the line-up,” Co-
lumbia Coach Anthony Servidone said. “We felt good about that match, we really did and it’s hard to come back and try to break down their line-up even though we did our homework prior to this and try to get your kids back up again.
“Shen really had a good start and kind of took the life out of us in the beginning before we could start making a run.”
Starting at 170 pounds in the final Shenendehowa’s Louis Donatelli and Parker Brooks both started out with first period pins before Columbia’s Pierce Hurd answered with his own pin in the second period.
Plainsmen wrestler Izsiah Vyent then supplied five points with his technical pin fall at 220-pounds with Columbia’s Robert Cleghorn coming though with a three-point decision to cut into Shenendehowa’s lead, 17-9.
Then the Plainsmen’s lightweights went on a tear.
Eastern State champion Stevo Poulin earned a firstperiod pin at 99-pounds and Brice Anderson followed with the same at 106. Brandon Baranowski earned a 5-2 decision at 113-pounds and Mike Dimonda followed with his own first-period pin at 120 to spark a Shenendehowa 21-point run and a 38-9 lead.
Columbia rallied with Michael Altomer’s major decision at 126 pounds and Michael Gonyea again delivered a pin at 132 before Darius Sheldon at 138 and T.J. Scaccia at 145 earned wins, three-point decisions but the point damage was already done by Shenendehowa to advance to the New York State Dual meet championships in Syracuse.
The opening set of matches provided its own excitement which saw two headlining matches that outshined the drama in the finale.
Last week Ballston Spa earned a dramatic 37-35 dual meet when Ballston Spa’s Chris Grace avoided a pin at the hands of Shenendehowa’s Dimonda to negate a potential tie. A tie that would have gone in the Scotties favor with eight wins versus the Plainsmen’s seven in the match.
On Tuesday the two teams were locked into another match-by-match battle, knotted at 31 apiece with only two matches to go.
Shenendehowa’s other Eastern State Champion Kiernan Shanahan delivered a first-period pin at 145 to give the Plainsmen a 3731 lead and it came down to this week’s 152-pound match between Ballston Spa’s Andrew Reynolds and Shenendehowa’s Matthew Timpanaro.
Timpanaro was able to hold off Reynolds through all six minutes of competition, losing the close bout, 3-2, but only giving up three points and securing the team title for the Plainsmen, 37-34.
“It was the same finale, tied 7-7 (wins) going into the last match, flip a coin,” Shenendehowa Coach Rob Weeks said. “It was a better scenario for us where they had to pin to make the deciding factor where we had to not get pinned.
“I think it’s arguably easier to be in a position where you are not getting pinned than pin, minus a big mismatch, that’s a pretty good scenario.”
The Blue Devils won four of the first five matches against Averill Park Tuesday for a 21-6 lead before the Warriors rallied to tie the match at 21 points apiece on Noah Smith’s dramatic 14-11 victory over Columbia’s Charlie Welcome.