Spartans take sixth at Depew tourney, Kellner crowned champion
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

With four regulars out of the starting lineup, Williamsville North's wrestling team took sixth out of 12 teams at the Depew Wildcat Invitational last Saturday at Depew High School.

The Spartans had five wrestlers place and crowned one champion. Tommy Kellner won at 130 pounds. Matt Aloisio placed second at 171. Austin Berube, Matt Proven and PJ Abbarno each took third at 125, 145 and 160, respectively.

Kellner, who took second at the North Tournament, third at ECICs and fifth at the Niagara Frontier Wrestling Officials Tournament, went 3-0 en route to his first championship of the season.

Kellner pounded Frontier's Nick Bannister, 21-4, by technical fall, pinned Clarence's Lucas McKay in 58 seconds in the semifinals and beat Kenmore West's Dominic Chimera, 13-2, by major decision, in the finals. Kellner improved to 27-4 on the season. He needs six more wins this season to reach 100 for his career. The school record is 102 set by Hyder Syed in 2002.

Aloisio pinned Depew's Jason Brossard in 1:19, defeated Clarence's Jake Winnie, 10-5, and in the finals, was pinned in 3:05 by Pembroke's Mike McKenrick. Aloisio is 27-5.

Aloisio was beating McKenrick, 7-0, going into the second period, chose bottom, and was turned over and pinned.

Berube pinned Clarence's JT Merganhagen in 3:02 to place in a tournament for the first time.

Berube beat Merganhagen, 13-4, in the first round and lost to eventual champion, Don Heppner of Frontier, 11-6, in the semifinals. Berube beat Holland's Jose Mendes, 9-5, in the consolation semifinals.

"He works hard every day so it's nice to see things start to come together," said North coach Brian Swatland. "He's starting to peak at the right time of the season."

Proven edged Joe Evans of Holland, 9-8, to place third. Proven reversed Evans to his back and rode him out to win by a point.

Proven finished 4-1 for the tournament. He pinned Canisius' Zach Crawford in 1:01 and St. Mary's of Lancaster's Josh Malkowski in 1:54 and lost to Clarence's Matt Cowan, 8-2.

Proven also beat Holland's Phil Collins, 6-2, in wrestlebacks.

Abbarno beat Kenmore West's Tim Gervais, 8-1, and fell to Roy-Hart's Matt Johnston, 1-0, in the semifinals. Johnston is ranked second in Section VI. In wrestlebacks, Abbarno downed Depew's Dave Rudroff, 2-1, and edged Pembroke's Joe Hill, 2-0, for third. Abbarno is 25-5.

Mike Pitz, Abbas Rizvi and Scott Herberger each finished 2-2 and lost in the consolation round before the third-fourth match.

Pitz went 2-2 at 103. After losing his first round match, Pitz beat Alden's Nick Jurek, 7-5, and pinned Depew's Pat Mahony in 4:37 but he was pinned in 2:11 by Rush Henrietta's Matt McCauley in the consolation semifinals.

Rizvi finished 2-2 at 135. Rizvi dropped his first match and won two matches in wrestlebacks before falling to St. Mary's of Lancaster's Bobby Hamilton, 2-1. Rizvi pinned Alden's Nick Darrow in 1:14 and beat Holland's Josh Sharples, 7-4.

Herberger lost his first match and in wrestlebacks, defeated Kenmore West's Alex Fumerelle, 5-1, and Depew's Andrew Jaskowiak, 3-1, and fell to Clarence's Zach Ward, 3-1. Herberger is 21-12.

Dave Marple went 1-2 at 112. Mark Brooks (140), Tim Beck (152) and Mohamad Abidi (215) each went 0-2. Beck lost both matches by a combined three points.

North dropped a 48-12 decision to Clarence last Friday at home. Kellner beat McCabe, 15-0, at 130. Aloisio downed Winnie, 7-2, at 171. Berube beat Merganhagen, 16-4, at 125.

North was in a lot of close matches but didn't win any of them. Swatland said it looked like Abbarno had a takedown on Chris Budzinski at 160 but it wasn't called and the match went to overtime where Abbarno was pinned.

At 119, Alex Booth was winning 7-6 with 10 seconds to go and got taken down to his back and fell 11-7. Herberger lost to Ward, 8-3. Rizvi fell to Jimmy Morana, 4-2, at 135.

North (11-4, 3-3) hosts Orchard Park at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The Spartans' final regular season match is at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at West Seneca West.