North surprises at own tournament
Spartans crown four champions, win overall for first time in school history
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville North's Phil Constantinou pins Grand Island's Dustin Langer at 152 pounds during the Spartans' own tournament on Saturday. Constantinou finished third. As a team, North finished first overall for the first time in school history. Photo by John Rusac

Williamsville North wrestling coach Brian Swatland was hoping for a top-five finish at his team's own tournament on Saturday and got more than he asked for.

The Spartans crowned four champions and placed first. North had 153½ points, 5½ more than second-place Pioneer.

"From the first round to the last, we led the tournament the whole day," said a surprised Swatland. "The kids were excited, needless to say, and so was I."

It's the first time North had won its own tournament. They placed third in 2001 when it was held at Williamsville South, finished third in 2002 when it was moved to North and were third in 2005.

The Spartans' tournament win was not against cream puff competition. Fifth-ranked Western New York Small School Eden and tenth-ranked Lackawanna were among the schools who competed. North also accomplished the first place feat with only 12 wrestlers. There were 15 weight classes at the tournament.

Although Williamsville East's Will Kelly, front, was pinned by Kenmore East's Carl DeSalvo at 171 pounds, the Flames managed to finish sixth overall at the Williamsville North Tournament. Photo by John Rusac

"Going in with only 12 wrestlers, I didn't expect to do as well as we did," said Swatland. "We had some great individual performances."

Tommy Kellner, Jake Caprow, Nate Carbrey and P.J. Abbarno all won their weight classes. Ben DesSoye placed second at 275.

Kellner went 4-0 at 119 but his toughest match was his 6-5 semifinal win over Williamsville East's Jacob Beichner. Swatland said Kellner gave up a point for an illegal move and Beichner allowed two points for illegal moves. Beichner was ahead 3-1 with 33 seconds left.

Kellner went on to defeat Gowanda's Joe Stearns, 9-3, in the finals.

"Tommy controlled most of the action and was very aggressive the whole match," said Swatland. "Stearns was trying to defend a lot of stuff that he was doing."

In earlier matches, Kellner pinned Springville's Dave Butzar in 1:28 and Grand Island's Joe Giambelluca in 3:14.

Caprow dominated the competition at 130. The senior recorded a 17-2 technical pin over Lake Shore's Brett Colling in the first round then pinned East's Matt Calleri in 1:45 and Eden's Eddie Sarcione in 1:58 in the semifinals and finals, respectively.

At 135, Carbrey pinned Pioneer's Ryan Johnson in 1:18 and Hamburg's Brett Phillips in 2:36 before beating Maryvale's Nick Smith, 14-0, in the finals. Smith only had one loss going into the tournament, Swatland said.

Carbrey was most valuable wrestler at 130 at the tournament last year.

At 160, Abbarno, seeded third, knocked off Lake Shore's Pat Mahan, 5-1, Springville's Eric Zielan-Ersing and Williamsville South's Logan Struebing, each by technical fall, 16-0 and 16-1, and top-seed Eden's Tom Caldwell, 6-1, in the finals for his first varsity championship.

"He's one of those kids who goes to tournaments all summer," said Swatland. "He even went to a tournament in the fall... He works very hard to get where he is."

DesSoye pinned second-seed Williamsville East's Ryan Tideswell in 34 seconds in the first round and third-seed Dom Fraterrigo from Kenmore East in 5:25 in the semifinals but was pinned by Pioneer's Randy Colling in 1:45. Colling is ranked No. 1 at 275 in Section VI.

Many other Spartans contributed to the victory. Phil Constantinou took third at 152 and Matt Aloisio and Matt Proven were one win away from placing at 171 and 145, respectively.

Constantinou pinned Grand Island's Dustin Langer in 3:57 and was pinned by Gowanda's Dave Richter in 3:49. He later pinned Springville's Matt Zielan-Ersing in 3:39 then beat Kenmore East's Steve Jenison, 4-1, for third.

Aloisio lost to Grand Island's Alex Webb, 3-1, pinned Eden's Zach Braunscheidel in 2:36, beat South's Mike Walter in 1:27 but fell to eventual third place finisher, James Maybee of Gowanda, 6-1.

Proven pinned Gowanda's Mike Eshole and East's Garrett Roetzer but was pinned by Pioneer's Joe Gottstine in the semifinals . In wrestlebacks, Proven was pinned by Grand Island's Anthony Gugion in 4:47.

Eighth grader Steven Liebler picked up points for the Spartans with a pin over Kenmore East's Sam Coho in 36 seconds and a 7-0 victory over Springville's Josh Zielan-Ersing. Liebler finished 2-2.

Swatland thanks all parents who volunteered their time for the tournament.

Prior to the tournament, North defeated Frontier, 54-15, at home on Friday to improve to 5-3 in dual matches.

Kellner (119), Caprow (130), Carbey (140), Proven (145), Desmond Little (152), Constantinou (160), Abbarno (171), Aloisio (189) and Brad Adkins (215) all won by pinfall.

North also took 16th out of 38 teams at the Niagara Frontier Wrestling Officials Association Tournament at Niagara County Community College on Jan. 5-6. Caprow went 6-1 to place third. DesSoye was sixth at 275. Carbrey was 2-2 at 135.

North wrestles at Sweet Home at 6 p.m. on Wednesday before travelling to ECICs at East Aurora High School on Friday and Saturday.

"The kids are working extremely hard and it's starting to finally show for a lot of them," said Swatland.

Williamsville East

The Flames have excelled at the North Tournament and the trend continued this year.

East, winners of the tournament in 2004 and 2005 and third in 2006, took sixth this year with 104½ points.

The Flames had six place winners. Freshman Ben Mikac and junior Max Cohen lost in the 96 and 125 finals, respectively. Mikac lost 5-2 to Grand Island's Joe Amsdill; Cohen was taken down at the buzzer to fall to Lackawanna's Kaled Abdulla, 9-8, at 125. Each were 2-1 on the day.

Junior Sean Trabert, freshman Zach Horton and sophomore Matt Calleri each finished third. Trabert went 4-1 at 135. Horton was 4-1 at 103. Calleri was 3-1 at 130.

Freshman M.P. Joseph was 2-2 at 189. Ryan Cravatta went 2-2 at 112.

One of East's better wrestlers, Jason Deickman, currently 9-2, did not compete.

"To have have six place winners out of 13 kids and one of our starters weren't there, I was very pleased," said East coach Henry Fumerelle. "I see so much development. There is a bright future for Williamsville East wrestling."

Prior to the tournament, East dropped a 35-24 home meet last Wednesday with Iroquois. Overtime losses at 119 (Biechner, 6-4) and 140 (Trabert, 15-14) along with Ernest Jacobs bowing out at 171 with an injury default, hurt the Flames' chances of winning overall.

Horton (103, 7-4), Cohen (125, 6-3), Calleri (130, pin), Joseph (189, pin) and Paul Morales (215, forfeit) picked up victories.

East (2-3) wrestles at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Williamsville South before competing at ECICs.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com