NY STATE WRESTLING: NEWARK VALLEY’S CREELEY GUARANTEED PODIUM SPOT AT CHAMPIONSHIPS; CALLAHAN ALIVE IN WRESTLEBACKS (February 27, 2026)
By TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
ALBANY — Newark Valley’s Cadin Creeley guaranteed himself a podium spot at the 2026 NYSPHSAA Division II Wrestling Championships with a pair of wins Friday while teammate Titus Callahan remains alive in the wrestlebacks.
Creeley, seeded sixth, recorded his first of two victories in the Round of 16, racking up a 15-0 tech. fall over Mount Sinai’s Connor Fabian in 1:36.
His next win was a fall over third-seeded Peter Thompson of Dansville/Wayland Cohocton in 2:47.
Creeley was pleased with his Day 1 effort.
“I've been wrestling amazing,” he said. “Get a good hard workout in before a match, and you go out and get it done.”
“I think he's wrestling great,” coach Larry Kasmarcik said. “He's been working real hard all year. The last couple weeks, we've cleaned up some things, and we've practiced real hard.
“He's really starting to open up on his feet, which is one thing we talked about coming into this tournament. You’ve got to be confident on your feet. If you get scored on, it's okay, right? These guys are here to win also. They're good wrestlers. Just got to come back out and rebound. Push the pace.”
Creeley, now 34-3 on the season, takes on Alexander's Brody Heckman (42-1), the No. 2 seed in Saturday’s semifinals.
He knows it’s going to take more of the same intensity to finish strong.
“Same mentality,” he said. “Just keeping it locked, and have that goal set of getting (to the) podium and the finals.”
When Callahan qualified for states in 2024, he weighed in the low 160s. This season, he’s still giving up a lot of weight, but has been able to handle it.
“He's up to like 178,” Kasmarcik said. “He started the season a little heavier. We talked about possibly going to 75, and he said he wanted to stay at 190. I left that decision up to him, and it's paying off.”
Callahan overcame a 9-3 loss to Aiden Brito of Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, a Public Schools Athletic League team out of the Bronx, in the Round of 16 to win a pair of wrestleback bouts and advance to the blood round.
“First match today, I was like, ‘Hey, that kid was strong and it's gonna suck to lose like that, but you just have to keep fighting. Green Lantern, powered by will. I'm powered by faith. You’ve got to keep moving,” Callahan said.
He pinned Hackley’s Josh Gandelman in 1:39, then edged out Fonda/Johnstown’s Colin Pickering in a 2-1 battle.
“First match, I knew I had it,” he said. “I spent the first period kind of messing around, unintentionally, of course. I wasn't being a bad sport. That kid's a good kid, made it to state, everybody here is, but it felt nice to get a pin in the state tournament.
“Second match, I was expecting this. I was expecting it to come down, really close, really down to the wire. I trusted my coaches, my coaching staff, who spent the first half of the year doing straight conditioning. That's all we did. We did straight conditioning, and I stayed in it. He couldn't, and I got away with the win. Great competitor, great guy.”
“I knew he'd be all right,” Kasmarcik said. “He had a rough first round. It happens, the jitters in a big tournament. I do think the kid he wrestled is beatable, in the first round, but it is what it is.
“We just told him to come back strong and he did. He's one of the hardest working kids we have in our room, and it shows.”
When Callahan qualified for states at 190 in 2024, he weighed in the low 160s. This seasons, he was in the high 170s.
Callahan will carry a 38-5 record into Saturday’s match with seventh-seeded Maximus Dyckman (36-9) from Island Trees.
Saturday’s wrestling starts at 9:30 a.m. The consolation finals will begin at 2:15 p.m. The championship finals opening ceremony starts at 5:50 p.m., followed by the championship finals at 6:05 p.m.
The tournament will be streamed live on www.nfhsnetwork.com/associations/nysphsaa/wrestling. Subscriptions are offered for $13.99 per month or you can purchase an annual pass for $79.99. Both subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel them.
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PHOTOS BY MIRANDA SZYMANSKI, TIM BIRNEY & TIM TAYLOR.
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