ALBANY –– Homer’s Hunter Lines and Southern Hills’ Logan Sheriff both went 1-2 on Day 2 of the New York State Division II Boys Wrestling Championships Saturday at MVP Arena, with Lines taking fifth place at 138 pounds and Sheriff finishing eighth at 152.
Lines faced a brutal strength of schedule Saturday, taking on top-seeded Gavin Mangano, from Shoreham-Wading River, and No. 3 Jayden Duncanson, from Tioga. Lines dropped the match to Mangano, the eventual state champion, by 21-2 tech fall, then fell by 16-3 decision to Duncanson. Homer head coach Jason Reynolds felt his star senior did well despite the lopsided results.
“The kid he wrestled in the semis, in my opinion, was the second-best kid in the tournament, any division, any weight,” Reynolds said. “That’s after having a great Day 1 getting to the semis, wrestling Mangano better than anyone in the tournament so far. Then in the consi semis, he gets the three seed who’s taken third at this tournament two times and second once, and still put his best foot forward.”
Lines finished his career with a bang, beating Randolph’s Domanik Clark 4-0 with a near fall with 20 seconds left to take fifth.
“Honestly, it was my last tournament as a high school wrestler at Homer, so I wanted to go out with a good match,” Lines said. “I didn’t want to go out on a loss.”
“I could’ve wrestled better in my semis match, but it doesn’t matter now,” Lines added. “I wrestled my hardest. I left it all and I tried what I could and got fifth.”
The Homer senior’s final season ends with a 42-4 record and a 149-33 mark over four seasons as a Trojan.
“I’ve been wanting to do this since I was a freshman,” Lines said. “This year, my goals at the beginning of the year were to win sectionals and place in the state tournament. I accomplished both of them. It’s huge because every year my goals had been just to place top three at sectionals and make it to states, but this year I wanted to win sectionals and place at states and I accomplished both, so it really meant a lot.”
Reynolds was happy to see Lines reach his goals and have a way to remember how far he’s come in his four varsity seasons.
“He’s a special young man and a special wrestler,” Reynolds said. “He holds a special place in my heart. To see his maturation as a young man, it’s not anything you’re going to read about, nothing that can be put on a wall, it’s a result you can follow. To me, that’s the most dynamic thing about him. He’s grown so much as a young man, as a leader, and yes, as a wrestler too.”
Sheriff, a Tully sophomore, had to rattle off three consecutive wins to reach the podium after dropping his opening match Friday. He topped Gouverneur’s JD Minckler by 4-1 decision in the first sudden victory period to start his Saturday. Sheriff hit his signature roll to a pin and picked up three near fall points after deliberation by the officials and protest from the Gouverneur coaches.
He then dropped a 12-8 decision to Waverly’s Cooper Robinson, but put on a valiant comeback in the final minute.
“There wasn’t a whole lot I could do,” Sheriff said. “He’s older than me and a lot stronger. I went out there and wrestled and tried my best.”
Sheriff’s placement match was against Unatego/Unadilla Valley’s Abdeen Zaggout, the pair’s third match of the season. Sheriff won on Jan. 11, then lost to Zaggout in the first round of the state tournament Friday.
Sheriff led 1-0 late in the third period and held top control. Zaggout seemed to be down and out, with his coaches’ pleas for offense on the bottom going unanswered. Out of nowhere, Zaggout exploded and reversed the Southern Hills sophomore to take a 2-1 lead. Sheriff went out of bounds with two seconds left and couldn’t successfully switch to even up the match.
“I thought I had him,” Sheriff said. “There was 20 seconds left and I was feeling it. I was happy and thought I had him done, then I just got out of position and he caught me.”
Southern Hills head coach Leo Burke saw Sheriff take a step up this season and feels he’s going to be an excellent leader going forward.
“It’s in great hands,” Burke said. “I made a decision with my coaching staff to hold off on making Logan a captain until this year. I think that really drove him. He really has stepped into a leadership role this year and he’s done a great job with it.”
“He’s been the best wrestler on my team since he was in eighth grade, or one of the best wrestlers,” Burke added. “Having that caliber of wrestling in the program has only made it better. He is going to be a great leader for the team and I think he’ll be a lot higher on that podium next year.”
Sheriff had channelled disappointment with the outcome Saturday and feels that will help him.
“It was a really cool experience to be here as a sophomore,” Sheriff said. “It’s all I’ve ever dreamed of. It felt really, really good to be here. I fell just short last year. It’s great competition and it’s definitely something I needed.”
Homer’s Jack Brown and Southern Hills’ David Frazee both made it to Saturday also, but bowed out before placing.
Brown couldn’t bounce back from his tough defeat to Waverly’s Troy Beeman Friday, losing 4-1 to Cobleskill-Richmondville’s Jake Lesage. Both wrestlers escaped once, but a Lesage throw in the second period proved to be the difference.
“It wasn’t what I wanted, exactly, but I’m not disappointed,” Brown said.
Brown, a sophomore heavyweight, finishes his season with a 39-7 record. He ripped off 23 wins in his final 25 matches before the state tournament to reach the final meet of the year.
“I was just working hard in the room,” Brown said. “My partner Chris Slade and coaches helped me along the way going through positions, it really helped me out.”
“He didn’t let the event be bigger than what it was,” Reynolds said. “He’s wrestling the returning state champion in the quarterfinals and it’s the best match I’ve seen him wrestle all year. That’s character. That’s somebody who’s willing to put it all on the line to do something special, because every match is an opportunity to do something special. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Frazee went up 2-0 in the second period of his Saturday match, but gave up the next 11 points to Ausable Valley’s Warren Pray. Frazee reversed Pray early in the second, but was reversed back a minute later and nearly pinned, then had to start the third on bottom and never got going.
Frazee, a Fabius-Pompey senior, finishes his final season at 26-10.
Burke was still pleased with his senior 215-pounder’s effort Saturday and throughout the season.
“Dave, he’s always been a quiet leader,” Burke said. “He’s not one of those kids that will get up in the middle of a match and start hooting and hollering. Dave won one match his freshman year, and it was a forfeit. He won eight matches his sophomore year and most of them came in the postseason. That shows his leadership because when the going gets tough, the tough get going. When it’s time to put on, Dave has always been known to put on a show.”
“It really sets a great example, especially for the younger kids,” Burke added. “He’s really someone to look up to and aspire to be. If Dave can work from winning one match his freshman year, by forfeit, to being a state qualifier and winning a match at states, it’s possible.”
Reynolds was proud of Lines and Brown, but felt the team’s overall success helped with their breakthrough. Lucas Barbieri, Owen Burhans, Garrett Carr, Anthony Cicioni, Patrick Maslin and Slade all won at least 25 matches for Homer as well, something the head coach is happy about.
“It’s a testament not just to these guys but to the program,” Reynolds said. “I’m talking from the ground up. There’s a lot that goes into building a program and building a successful program. We had eight guys with over 25 wins this year. I don’t want two people’s performance to overshadow that, because we really had some strong team success this year.”
This was Burke’s first trip to the state tournament as an athlete or coach. He heads a program with athletes from Tully, Fabius-Pompey and LaFayette and enjoyed having coaching his athletes on the state’s biggest stage.
“This was by far the coolest experience of my wrestling career,” Burke said. “It was the little things of being in the hotel with Section III, seeing the coaches and everyone is congratulating me and my boys. My high school coach (from Rocky Point) is here and he’s incredibly proud of what I’ve been able to do with the program. That’s really cool to see. I just have an immense sense of pride with what these boys have done.”
Burke feels Sheriff’s and Frazee’s success at the state tournament will help the program continue to grow, especially given how difficult it can be to execute the day-to-day operations.
“I’m just incredibly proud,” Burke said. “These guys have had to deal with so much adversity being a combined team. Logan has to get bused to practice every day. He’s always going out of his way with us practicing at Fabius. A lot of these schools have wrestling rooms and we have to roll out mats every day. We’re in a cafeteria over at Fabius-Pompey. Even those little things, it’s just adversity.”
