Another Section V title for Trent Sibble. Before the senior sets his sights on a state championship, a little fun with his dad, Shane, brother Trae and sister, Teagan. Char Stone photo.
By CHRIS BROOKS, managing editor, wellsvillesports.com, photos by CHAR STONE
LYNDONVILLE — The hunt for some of wrestling’s finest glory had officially arrived, Saturday afternoon.
All three of Allegany County’s squads hopped on the bus to begin their quest towards Sectional eminence, with Wellsville and Fillmore/Keshequa making the trip across the way to Canisteo-Greenwood for the Class B2 Finals, while Bolivar-Richburg went north to Lyndonville for the Class B3 Finals.
Many matches would come and go across both venues all throughout the afternoon. In the end, many qualifiers for next weekend’s Super Sectional Tournament would arise, including five Bolivar-Richburg champions from within their third place, 172-point finish behind eventual champion Lyndonville (215 points) and South Seneca (180.5 points) in the B3 Championships.
All five wins came by two major decisions and three pin-fall triumphs, with Gary McDowell starting the day off with the team’s first at 110 pounds, taking complete advantage in his bout against Lyndonville’s Christian Garver to capture the 11-0 major decision win. A pair of matches later, Trey Buchholz then garnered some hardware of his own, defeating Red Jacket’s Hasen Weatherbee with a 9-0 major decision victory of his own at 126 pounds.
Bolivar-Richburg’s next champion would come until halfway through at the 160 pound weight class, from Tavyn MacDonell, as he hung tough up against local rival Kanye Cumberbatch of Alfred-Almond to deliver a pin-fall win at the 3:19 mark during the second period.
In the heavyweight division, Caden Allen and Trent Sibble both followed with Championship-clinching victories themselves, with Allen warding off a tough fight at 215 pounds from Warsaw’s Patrick Grover with a second period pin-fall at 3:05, while Sibble took care of business at 285 pounds with a pin-fall win over Sam Doolan of Lyndonville with just 17 seconds left in the opening period.
“They all wrestled tough, and they did exactly what we asked of them,” Wolverines coach Andrew Taylor said. “We wanted to grab some bonus points, but we didn’t have enough horsepower down the stretch to send us over the top. All the kids wrestled hard, and it was a strong showing. You can’t really ask for much more than that. To put five guys in the Finals and have five champions coming out of it, that’s a pretty big feat in itself.”
The Wolverines also grabbed three additional qualifiers for next week’s Super Sectional Tournament, with James Gleason (fifth place, 102 pounds), Teegan Sibble (third place, 118 pounds) and Zack Mitchell (fifth place, 172 pounds) all making the cut.
Next weekend, the Super Sectional Tournament will officially get underway with a chance to lock in a bid for the New York State Tournament on the line. The action will begin next Saturday, February 11 at SUNY Brockport.
