PLATTSBURGH — Saranac’s Landen Gadway and AuSable Valley’s Warren Pray turned in strong performances for Section VII over the weekend at the NYSPHSAA Individual Wrestling Championships at the MVP Arena in Albany.
Both wrestlers ended up placing in Division II, with Gadway finishing with a 5-2 record to take seventh at 170 pounds and Pray going 3-3 in finishing eighth at 215 pounds.
Gadway begin his seven-match journey with a 22-8 major decision win over Southampton’s Hudson Fox-Bathon. Gadway was then pinned by Sackets Harbor’s Kaleb Martin in 1:58 and sent to the wrestle-backs. Martin ended up finishing first in the 170 weight class.
Gadway followed that up with three close wins by decision — 1-0 over Schuylerville-Greenwich’s Levi Michaud, 1-0 over Dalton School’s Carlos Rohm and 6-4 over Maine-Endwell’s Kazio Jellick.
Gadway suffered his second loss when he was pinned in 2:52 by Windsor’s Matthew Boice, but the Saranac wrestler then rebounded for a 12-10 decision over Granville-Whitehall’s Jaxon Torres in the seventh/eighth place match.
Pray, meanwhile, got his tournament going on the right track with a win by fall in 1:08 over Canton’s Lyndon Weng.
But Pray ran into Cold Spring Harbor’s Greyson Meak in the second round and dropped a 15-0 technical fall in 1:51. Meak then went on to win the 215 weight class.
In the wrestle-backs, Pray recorded a 12-0 major decision over Trinity School’s Finn Sheridan and a 2-1 decision over Southern Hills’ David Frazee.
But Maine-Endwell’s Griffin McQuade edged out a 3-2 decision over Pray, who then dropped an 8-4 decision to John Glenn’s Carmine Gerbino in the match for seventh/eighth.
It didn’t go well for the remainder of Section VII’s 13-wrestler contingent as Gadway and Pray accounted for eight of the 12 match wins for the local group.
Beekmantown’s Jacob Magiera was next best as he finished 2-2 at 145 pounds and Jack Brown, following a first-round bye, went 1-2 at 190.
Northern Adirondack’s Gabe McDonald won his first match at 101, but lost his next two to finish 1-2.
NAC’s Jackson LaBarge (108), Hayden Bartlemus (138), Kyle Reif (152) and Parker Manor (160), Beekmantown’s Mason Facteau (116), Peru’s Jeremiah King (124) and Caleb Starke (131) and AuSable Valley’s Nate Rondeau (285) all went 0-2 in the tournament.
SECTION VII GIRLS COMPETE
Section VII sent six wrestlers to the inaugural NYSPHSAA Girls Individual Wrestling Championships held a day earlier than the boys’ event.
Competing for Section VII were Beekmantown’s Lily Blazina (114 pounds), Grace Blazina (126) and Gracelynn Aubin (152).
From Northern Adirondack were Kelsey Trowbridge (107), Clara Parsons (138) and Haley LeClair (145).
Grace Blazina, Trowbridge and LeClair all picked up a victory while finishing 1-2 in their respective weight classes.
Lily Blazina, Aubin and Parsons were not able to get a match victory while ending up with 0-2 records.