By Eric Mack
Contributing Writer

South Jefferson head coach Pat Connors had a lot of things on his mind during the Section Three wrestling championships Saturday. His team winning its first-ever team title was just one them.

The favored Spartans won the team championship, while coach Connors kept a split ear on a nearby cell phone waiting to hear from his pregnant - and ready to deliver - wife.

Connors heard the phone ring during Gary Cooper's opening round match, but it was a false alarm. The bell rang for Cooper, however, in the 160-pound final as he earned his second straight trip to the state finals with a 10-3 victory over Fulton's Nick Vieni.

"You have to treat this like it's our only chance," Connors said. "I don't know if I'll have a group of kids with more talent."

South Jefferson clinched the championship in the consolation round, where three Spartans placed third. It was a gutsy performance for kids who just lost their chance to go to states, Connors said.

"I thought we would win, but I didn't think we would wrestle this well," he added. "The last thing a kid who just lost wants to do is wrestle for third and fourth.

"They wrestled with a lot of pride."

The Spartans won two-of-three of their finals matches.

"It's a lot more fun to wrestle in the finals when the pressure is off," Connors said.

The Spartans' first champion came at 119 pounds, where Steve Porter won a 3-0 decision over Lowville's Jason Englehart. Englehart knocked off defending champion John Heffernan of Marcellus in the semifinals, but Porter had confidence from a 7-2 decision over Englehart in the Frontier League final.

"I knew it would be a dog fight," Porter said. "It was nice to wrestle a league opponent in the finals.

"I had no idea it would come down to us."

Dan Perry (171), Packy Burke (130), Aaron Hludzenski (112) and Justin Lohr (103) each won their second championship. Brice Kelley (140) of Camden earned the Most Outstanding Wrestler award and his third straight trip to the state tournament next Friday and Saturday at the Onondaga War Memorial.

The 15 champions of Saturday's Section Three meet advance to the state finals.

Burke defeated Mexico's JoeLon Williams 14-13 in a heated final match of the 130-pound weight class. Both Burke and Williams were undefeated and previous champions of Section Three.

Williams jumped out to a 10-2 lead before getting caught in a headlock and losing the lead. Burke was animated, motioning to the crowd, after he grabbed a 14-11 lead midway through the third period.

"I started to doubt myself," Burke said. "It's so important to have the fans into the match; it gives me motivation."

Beaver River eighth grader Dane LaPlante pulled off one of the surprises of the tournament, winning the 96-pound weight class as the fourth seed. LaPlante won a 4-3 decision over Baldwinsville's Chris Horning in the title match.

"I dreamed of a shot in states," LaPlante said. "But I didn't think I'd get it this early."

Lohr of Vernon-Verona-Sherrill returned to states with a 2-1 win over Whitesboro's Grant Roser in the 103-pound final. Lohr and Roser split their two previous matches this season.

A second-period reversal was all the scoring Lohr needed to win the rubber match.

"This is the best victory in my life," Lohr (35-3) said. "I don't care if I go two and out next week.

"No one respected me. They said I would never make it back."

Watertown's Hludzenski won Section Three again with a 9-0 victory at 112 pounds.

Phoenix's Dave Moore continued his year-end hot streak with a 10-5 championship victory over Nick Campbell of Canastota. He wrestled with the flu.

"He wrestled really well down the stretch," head coach Dick Brown said. "He has a lot of confidence."

Moore lost to Campbell twice earlier this season. He is Phoenix's first Section Three champion since 1978.

Beaver River sent a section-high three wrestlers to states. The Beavers' D.J. Farney defeated Phoenix's Dan Logee 3-2 for the 125-pound title. Farney got an escape in the final seconds.

"I didn't know there was only 10 seconds left," Logee said. "It still hurts, but I got to look forward to next year to win it."

Kelley won the aggregate pin with three pins in his first three matches. He was on the mat only 2 minutes and 58 seconds before going the distance in a 13-5 final win.

"It wasn't even in his mind to lose," Camden head coach Wayne Edkin said. "The preparation for him this week was all the way through to states."

Baldwinsville got a champion at 145 pounds, where Dan Horning defeated Fulton's Brett Kimball in a rematch of last week's Class A final. Horning won 10-0 last week and held on for a 4-3 win Saturday.

"He studied me a lot," Horning said.

The section's 15-man team for states features five past sectional champions, 11 seniors, two juniors, a sophomore and an eighth grader.