South likes third at Pete Rao Memorial Tournament

Luke Falzone, Mike Walter, and Elliot Frank each took third place in their weight classes at last weekend's Pete Rao Memorial Tournament held at Lewiston Porter High School.

At 103, Falzone improved his record to 23-11 by beating top-seed Ivan Cruz of Lockport, 6-3. Falzone also pinned Joe Amsdill of Grand Island in 3:56 and Andrew Dieckman from Williamsville East in 4:22.

Walter, at 171, was making his return after a sprained anterior cruciate ligament in his shoulder put him on the injured list for about a week. Walter defeated Mike Hosey from Medina in the first round by pinfall in 4:49 but fell to the No. 1 seed Shaun Reynolds of Lockport, 16-0, in the semifinals.

From there, it was a battle to place third. Walter had to defeat Nick Hernandez from Amherst, 3-1, to make it to the consolation finals and had to face Hosey in the consolation finals.

Walter had a tougher time with him in this match as it went to overtime tied 3-3.

For the first 20 seconds, Walter and Hosey were battling for position to get a takedown.

All of a sudden, Hosey took a sloppy shot and Walter capitalized by sprawling his legs back and spinning for the two. The referee awarded him the takedown and the win. Walter improved his record to 17-10.

Frank had his eyes set on the finals after winning his first match against fifth-seed Sam Clark from Grand Island by pin in 1:04. But after falling to Brad Eichelberger from Fredonia by pin in 2:47, Frank had to reevaluate his goal.

His first consolation match was against Ethan Stack from Lew-Port in which Frank won 14-6.

As luck would have it, Frank had to face Clark again for third place.

Deadlocked 0-0 after the first period, neither wrestler got a takedown. In the second period, Frank noticed an opportunity and put Clark on his back and pinned him at 2:58. Frank improved his record to 20-13.

The Billies took ninth with 46 points.

South's JV team wrestled in two tournaments this past weekend. On Friday, they wrestled at Lew-Port in the JV portion of the Pete Rao Memorial and Saturday, went to Kenmore East for a round robin tournament.

Joe Robinson took third place at Lew-Port. Nick Green took fourth at Kenmore East.

"Green is really putting things together on the mat," said South coach John Szymendera. "He is becoming a better all-around wrestler with every match."

Jake Eckenrode also at 125, took fourth at Kenmore East.

The other South wrestlers who went to the tournament but didn't place still wrestled tough. Evan Knoer, Andrew Mohr, James Monroe, Spencer Biondo, Anthony Libatore and Tariq Zahran will have the opportunity to redeem themselves at the upcoming ECIC JV tournament on Saturday at Amherst High School.

Leaderstorf said each of them has a legitimate shot at placing with little improvements on their skills and performance.

"Overall, I'm pleased with their progression thus far," said Leaderstorf.