Cazenovia Republican

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Saturdays in winter mean many things to many people. For high school wrestlers, their coaches, their parents and everyone else involved with the sport, it means going to a gym early in the morning and staying until nightfall for the results.

So it is during those big regular-season meets in December and January. And it doesn't change in February, either. The stakes just get bigger.

After a long stint in Utica Auditorium, the Section III championships returned to the Syracuse area, setting up camp inside OCC's new gem, the SRC Arena. The stands were filled, everyone got a great view of the action on eight mats...okay, the concession stands were long, but we can fix that, right?

This meet typifies the Saturday wrestling experience - warm up before 9 a.m., start around 10 a.m., go through three elimination rounds, three rounds of consolation matches, finals and awards ceremonies and all of it not stopping until after 10 p.m. Takedowns, reverses, escapes, falls, near-falls, injury time-outs, blood time-outs, decisions...it can all get too much. Unless you love it, which they do, every last one of them.

Out of it...you get some great stories. There's Canastota's Zach Zupan, finally getting a sectional title after some near-misses and becoming a third-generation sectional champ - that's right, his father and grandfather both went to the top of the podium before. Zupan and the Raiders toppled favorite Phoenix for the Division II (small school) team title.

There's Indian RIver's Derrick Gray (120 pounds), the first at his school to earn four sectional titles as he earned MOW honors in Division I and led the Warriors past Fulton to the top spot. Add to it Phoenix's Nick Tighe (also at 120) earning another title and reaching 200 career wins on the same day as Chittenango's Wes Blanding took MOW on the small-school side.

Blanding, who goes at 132 pounds, is unbeaten heading into the state meet in Albany Feb. 24-25. So is Liverpool heavyweight Pat Carroll-Marsh, who had to be shocked he went to the third period of his quarterfinal match, so he promptly took 1:01 to win his semifinal and 19 seconds to claim the final.

Topping them in all, in terms of career feats going to the state meet, is the incredible Derek Pfluger, who hails from Sandy Creek and wrestles at 152 pounds.

Plfuger won the school's first-ever state title in any sport in 2010 and finished second in 2011. Now, as a senior, he goes back 37-0 with a ridiculous total of 231 career wins. Four more would give him a perfect ending to his high school career.

The finals had plenty of excitement, from CBA/J-D's Aaron Benedict (138 pounds) erasing a five-point deficit in the final seconds to beat Fulton's Adam Wallace in overtime to Baldwinsville's Pat Nasoni trailing APW's Dana Palmer in the 192-pound title match, only to pin him at the end of the second period. There was even an uncontested final, as an injury to Canastota's Nate Walker kept him from a 119-pound final against Ilion's Laken Cook.

The champs are, in Division I: Carroll-Marsh, Benedict, Gray, Nasoni, Dempsey King (New Hartford), Kevin Paul (Baldwinsville), Thomas Hill (Fulton), Antonio DeLuco (Rome Free Academy), Connor Grome (West Genesee), J.T. Romagnoli (J-D/CBA), Tony Torrese (Fulton), Mitch Woodworth (Fulton), Shayne Brady (Carthage), Garrick Cook and Derrick Dalton (both from Indian RIver).

In Division II: Pfluger, Tighe, Blanding, Cook, Alex Herringshaw (Holland Patent), Ryan Snow (General Brown), Pat Webster (Adirondack), Anthony Finocchiaro (Canastota), Nate Silverthorn (General Brown), Jared Soule (Sandy Creek), William Koelmel (Watertown IHC), Austyn Hayes (Phoenix), Travis Conklyn (Canastota) and Brandon Fayle (Lowville).

No doubt, a strong group of wild-card wrestlers will join these stars in Albany, since the bracket in recent years expanded to 16 per weight class. If they're really good...well, two more long days remain inside the Times Union Center, and they'll love every minute of it.