By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
BINGHAMTON — Newark Valley seniors Trevor Middendorf and Austin DeBolt will end their high school careers at the state tournament after grabbing top-three honors at the Section IV Division II Wrestling Championships held at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena Sunday.
Middendorf was the runner-up at 124 pounds and DeBolt took third at 285.
Middendorf defeated a pair of Deposit/Hancock foes to get a shot at Maverick Beckwith, a returning state champion from Norwich. Beckwith won with a 20-4 technical fall on the way to being named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler.
Against the D/H competitors, Middendorf posted a 21-5 tech fall against Evan Johnson and a 9-0 major decision over Jason Canedo.
Qualifying for states was big for Middendorf, who placed fourth and fifth the past two years.
“It means a lot, because the past couple years it's been a goal that I've wanted to achieve, but I fell short, so to finally get it done this year is nice,” he said.
Arguably one of the most improved wrestlers in the section this season, he credited his commitment to the sport.
“I trained three days a week down at United Training Facility every single week. I didn't take a break, so it was like nonstop. Didn't take much time off.”
He also credited his consistency.
DeBolt punched his ticket to states with his fourth straight victory this season over Windsor’s Luke Beattie. Beattie held a 1-0 edge after one period, then put DeBolt on his feet to start the second. DeBolt picked up a takedown to take the lead, then added another in the third period to win, 7-2.
The tournament did not start off the way DeBolt had hoped as he missed a headlock attempt against Tioga’s Mark McCane in overtime in the quarterfinals. McCane turned that into a 4-1 sudden victory.
In between those bouts, DeBolt registered a trio of falls. He decked Caleb Wildenstein of Unatego/Unadilla Valley/Franklin in 2:05, made quick work of Susquehanna Valley’s Trey Parker in 48 seconds and dispatched Ryan Stoss from Deposit/Hancock in 4:41.
“It feels great,” DeBolt said. “I lost my first match and lost a little confidence, but wrestled back hard.”
He credited the mental aspect of the sport for helping him grab a spot in the state tournament.
“It was all the mindset,” he said. “Last year, I felt sorry for myself after losses instead of trying to grow from them. This year, you use everything as a learning opportunity and you make little mistakes. You fix them in practice and you believe in yourself.”
The Cardinals’ Cadin Creeley (160) and Titus Callahan (190) were seeking return trips to states, but just missed, placing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Creeley dropped a 16-11 heartbreaker to Lucas Barnes of Deposit/Hancock in the quarterfinals. After fighting back to grab the lead late in the match, he was reversed to his back by Barnes with three seconds left.
He came back with a 10-0 major decision over Kade Bailey from Susquehanna Valley, then edged teammate Logan Woodin, 1-0, and decisioned Greg Golden of Edison, 4-1, to advance to the consolation finals. Creeley ran out to a 10-0 advantage against Maine-Endwell’s Albert Smith early in the second period, but Smith managed to score a reversal and fall at 2:24.
Callahan pinned Oxford/Greene’s Isaiah Sexton in 3:58, then lost to Dikota Hamilton of Trumansburg by fall in 1:06. He then dropped an 11-6 decision to Caden Southard of Edison and finished his tourney with a pin of Lucas Boccasini from Owego in 2:38.
Kenny Slater (101) finished the day 2-2 with a 15-0 tech fall over Whitney Point’s Gabriel Smith and a 53-second pin of Colton Hurlburt from Bainbridge-Guilford/Afton/Harpursville.
Marcos Escalante went 1-2 at 145, with a 5-2 decision over Owego’s Jonathon Gilliland to his credit.
Logan Woodin (160) was 1-2 also. He pinned Johnathan McCall of Whitney Point in 4:22.
Jacob Shipman (108), Leland Houston (131) and Gabe Merrill (170) also competed, each going 0-2.
NV took seventh in the 26-team event with 73 points. Windsor won the team title with 171.5.
Coach Eric D’Arcy noted there were some good matches and some bad matches for his group.
“The kids wrestled hard,” he said. “It's the way sectionals always goes. The hardest part with sectionals for a lot of kids it's the end of the season; for some kids, it's the end of their career, and you always want them to end on a positive note. I think that's the biggest thing. It's been a good year overall for our team and we've had that conversation the other day.
“I saw something recently where (Cornell wrestler) Vito Arujau said we have to stop always focusing on just one tournament, the end of the season tournament. We should look at all of the compiled work that the kids have done throughout the season and really judge it based on that. If you do that, it's been a phenomenal year and we're very happy with what they did.”
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IN PHOTO 1: NV’s Austin DeBolt. ... IN TOP PHOTO: NV’s Trevor Middendorf. ... PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY & TIM TAYLOR.
