Sunday, February 24, 2002

By Neil Kerr

It was a bittersweet Section 3 wrestling tournament for coach Mike Conners and his defending team champion Fulton High squad at the Onondaga County War Memorial on Saturday night.

Even though Fulton defended its 2001 team crown with 134.5 points, four of the five Raiders who advanced to the title bouts suffered surprising defeats, leaving Conners understandably upset.

"This is probably the low point of my coaching career," said Conners, whose No. 5 state-ranked team finished a 25-2 dual meet season. "I just feel horrible for my kids who lost. It's like I just watched four of my owns sons get beat."

The lone bright spot for Fulton and its many fans was the 119-pound title achieved by top-seeded senior Chris Ely, who turned in a 4-1 win over unseeded finalist David Paradis of South Jefferson.

Ely, who had been the 2000 champion at 112 pounds, upped his record to 38-1 this season. He also pushed his school-record wins total to 149 (149-21) with his victory.

Despite Ely's victory, Fulton's faithful watched in disbelief as its remaining quartet of No. 1-seeded finalists all lost. That foursome consisted of 112-pound Josh LeVea, 152-pound Matthias Keib, 189-pound Keith Wise and 215-pound Matt Pollock.

Of those four losses, Keib's 4-3 upset loss to Baldwinsville junior Gene Lang was the most stunning because Keib had defeated Lang three times earlier this winter. At the final buzzer, Keib was desperately bidding for a takedown at mat's edge, but time expired with no points being awarded.

Fulton's Conners was visibly upset that no stalling or takedown points were awarded prior to the final buzzer.

LeVea was blanked 2-0 at 112, by Whitesboro junior Ryan Roser, Wise was a 5-3 victim of second-seeded Wayne Foster of Carthage, while Pollock fell behind third-seeded junior Mike Hadley (37-1) of Carthage. Pollock was then pinned at 1:39 of the first period.

Later, Hadley was voted Most Outstanding Wrestler for his performance against the favored Pollock.

Of the nine defending sectional champions competing, only four repeated - 125-pound Joe Jewett (39-1, 179-16 career) of Indian River, 135-pound Josh Herzig (41-2) of Lowville 145-pound Chris Horning (42-0, 166-16 career) of Baldwinsville and 275-pound Chris Cowen (26-0) of Mexico.

At 125, Jewett stunned the War Memorial audience by posting a 60-second pin victory over defending sectional 119-pound champion Taylor Malone of Lowville, a sophomore. Herzig edged Chittenango's second-seeded Sean McGee 2-1.

Horning earned a technical fall win at 5:28 of his match with Steve Berkey of Chittenango and Cowen needed overtime to achieve a referee's criteria win over Baldwinsville's Brett Barrie.

It was the fourth straight sectional title for Jewett, and the third consecutive crown for Horning. Both wrestlers placed third at last year's state tournament. That pair will lead Section 3's team into the 40th annual state meet which starts at 3 p.m. Friday at the War Memorial.

The 2001 champion at 96 pounds, Paul LeBlanc of Morrisville-Eaton, failed to make weight and never competed at 103.

Defending 215-pound king Chris Doran of East Syracuse-Minoa lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Hadley of Carthage and settled for third.

Defending 135-pound champion Dane LaPlante of Beaver River dropped a 2-1 title match decision to Morrisville-Eaton's Treavor LaBlanc at 140 pounds.

Another champion from 2000 - Corey Farnham of Baldwinsville - won the 103-pound crown, 4-3, over Jay Nicholas of Cortland. Farnham had won at 96 pounds two years ago. Farnham, Horning and Lang led coach Nick Porillo's Bees to a second-place finish, with 116.5 points.