By TIM TAYLORValley Sports Report
BINGHAMTON — Occasionally, you don’t have to be the best to be the best. That’s the story line as Waverly captured the team title at the STAC Girls Wrestling Championships at Chenango Forks High School Saturday — without crowning an individual champion.
The Wolverines sent 10 of their 12 wrestlers to the podium with Abi Reedy being the only winner in the placement rounds, however, Waverly had built up 160.5 points during bracket wrestling throughout the day, enough to hold off Chenango Forks and Union-Endicott, which tied for second with 156.5.
Although it wasn’t a perfect day for the Wolverines, they did make a statement that should grab the attention of those who follow the sport.
“Like everybody else, still young, but to come into STAC and show them that you mean business,” said coach Devan Witman. “I think to get this championship is tremendous. Any tournament that you win shows all the dedication that these girls put into the sport, so to come in here and win the league, that's a title that everyone's chasing. This was our year to go ahead and get it and I see nothing but good things coming up.”
Reedy went 4-2 on the day with four falls, three of which came in the first period. She wasn’t even the team’s top competitor at 165 pounds, a distinction belonging to Elona Holmes.
Holmes would finish second, falling to Forks’ Jansen Derzanovich by fall in 2:10 in the finals. Derzanovich is ranked ninth in the state at 185 by New York Wrestling News. Holmes went 3-1 with a trio of falls, two coming in the first period.
Also grabbing runner-up honors was Emma Vanderhoof at 132. She made quick work of her first two opponents in 12 and 18 seconds. In the finals, she was leading Horseheads’ Lily Vesek when Vesek took her down to her back for a fall in 1:52.
Fourth-place finishers were Aniyah Rought (100), Gianna Rylott (107), Amelia Wright (138) and Gianna Zieniuk (152).
Wright won four of her six bouts, each coming by fall in the first period. Rylott and Zieniuk both went 2-2. Zieniuk scored two pins, one coming while trailing Forks’ Emily Sullivan, 10-6. Rylott had a first-period fall and a 12-0 tech fall in the opening period. Rought was 0-2.
The Wolverines also had a trio of sixth-place performers in Gabbi Sinsabaugh (126), Faith Hyjek (132) and Natasha Lane (138).
Sinsabaugh posted a 4-3 mark with a second-period pin and two first-period tech falls to her credit in which the scores were 11-0 and 12-2. Hyjek went 2-3 with a first-period pin and a win by injury default. Lane was also 2-3, scoring a 14-4 tech fall in the second-period and a 39-second pin.
Stephanie Furlong and Jillianna Presher just missed the podium, both bowing out in the “blood” round. Presher went 2-2 with a 47-second pin and an 11-0 tech fall in the second period while Furlong was 1-2, scoring a first-period pin.
The Wolverines brought a pretty young lineup with just three upperclassmen, and four 7th- and 8th-graders, so Witman won’t dwell on the results, but will focus on ensuring the team continues to progress..
“We did not have a good placement rounds,” he said. “We did well enough in the early tournament, collected enough points in the early side of the tournament to win the championship. And then a bit of a meltdown, honestly, and so we're just going to continue to progress.
“We're going to review film. We're going to fix mistakes that we've been fixing, and then we're going to continue to preach the mentality of wrestling because some of these girls are so new to the sport. The sport's not like any other and there's a certain mentality that you have to have that we're just not quite there yet.
“Our physical abilities, they're going to continue to progress and we're not far behind with our physicality and our physical skills, but the mentality of wrestling, I think, is the biggest thing that we're going to have to fix going forward.”
Waverly heads to the Frosty Freestyle Festival at Midlakes on Dec. 27.
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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
