Raiders wrap up second place in LCAA
By DERRICK BALINSKY, Tribune Sports Editor
The Evening Tribune, Hornell, NY
January 28, 2005

HORNELL - The Hornell varsity wrestling team wrapped up second place in the Livingston County Athletic Association regular-season standings with a landslide victory over visiting Dansville, 57-15, Thursday night.

The Red Raiders were coming off of a second-place finish to Letchworth in the State Farm Classic, which is hosted by HHS and was formerly known as the Dave Stewart Memorial Spectator Classic.

"The kids were kind of raring to go," HHS Coach Matt Sheldon said. "They've had tests all week and tomorrow they don't have school. Most of them wrestled pretty well.

"Overall, I was pleased with the win. Although, I wasn't pleased with the behavior of some of my wrestlers. We'll deal with that tomorrow in practice."

"It was a nice win coming off the weekend," Ryan Dieter, who posted a 19-2 victory over Matt DellaVilla in the second bout of the evening, said. "I think we wrestled fairly decent, especially considering practice has been kinda tough this week. And, I'm sure we'll probably be running tomorrow, too."

The Red Raiders took an early 6-0 lead on Aaron Parks' forfeit victory at 140 and Dieter's technical fall 3:476 into the match made it 11-0. Tyler Sick cruised to a 17-2 technical fall over Travis Lana at 152 and Ryan Harrison handled Scott Sliker in 1:42 - the quickest pin of the evening - leaving HHS with a sizable advantage. Doug Drew (171) then recorded a pinfall in 2:21 over Shad Stone and the Red Raiders had basically wrapped up the win following three straight forfeits (189, 215, 103) in a row.

"We're a young team and we're progressing. In a year, or two, I think you'll see a lot closer matches between us and Hornell and between us and LeRoy," Dick Close, first-year coach at Dansville, said. "Hornell has an excellent athletics program and an excellent wrestling team - they're tough every year."

"It's discouraging right now because of some of the scores we've lost by, but I'm proud of my boys. They came out here and made them wrestle and made them work. I couldn't be more proud of them."

At 112, Jim Ray pinned James Rollerson in 1:58. Justin Walker earned the Mustangs' first true points of the evening with a forfeit victory at 119 before Joe Murray put the Raiders back in the win column with a pinfall over Jerry Pilkenton (125) in 2:11. Andy Drake then took center stage at 130 and wrestled his way to a 16-0 shutout over Cal Close. Drake's technical fall came in 4:21.

Dansville's Darcy Vanderwerken doubled up Scott Ray, 14-7, in the 135-pound contest to finish out the evening. The win was a rare bright spot in Dansville's lopsided loss.

"I knew it was going to be a tough match," Close said. "I thought Darcy wrestled aggressively. He kept his mistakes to a minimum and did a really good job. I think he really surprised Scott. He's progressed so much from the beginning of the year to get where he is now and his win tonight was a big highlight for me."

Dansville falls to 1-6 overall and 1-5 in Livingston County league matches. The Mustangs have two dual meets remaining, beginning with an LCAA crossover on Tuesday followed by a non-league matchup with Alfred-Almond two days later. Both are home events for the Mustangs.

"I think we have a good chance of winning both matches next week," Close said. "I don't know who we're wrestling in the crossover, but I think we have a good chance regardless. Alfred-Almond has a young team comparable with us and I think we match up well. That should be a good match for us to find out where we are heading into the postseason."

"I'm probably going to take six, possibly seven, wrestlers to the county championships," Close added. "I expect to score in the middle of the pack with those wrestlers. Last weekend, here in Hornell, I had six guys wrestling and five of them came home with trophies and awards and we placed seventh out of the 14 teams which participated. It's a slow process, but we're coming along. The future is looking brighter."

Hornell, now 7-1 overall and 6-1 in the LCAA, also has a crossover match remaining with Pavilion on Tuesday before squaring off against non-league rival Canisteo-Greenwood Thursday.

"The first half of our season is a bear," Sheldon said. "The Attica Tournament, the Canandaigua Tournament, even Geneseo - we've seen a lot of tough kids. I think after that, beginning with our own tournament, we're working on building some confidence. I'm starting to see it and I'm hoping that it carries over against Pavilion. I haven't seen too much of them, although they were in a tournament with us.

"I'm really not sure how we'll match up. If the kids stay aggressive and keep wrestling up to their potential we should be okay. A huge amount of wrestling, especially in counties and sectionals, is confidence. If you feel like you can win, then you're going to do it. That's what I'm trying to instill in many of these kids. With such tough tournaments early in the season it's easy for them to get down on themselves."

The LCAA Championships are scheduled to be held Friday, Feb. 4 and Saturday, Feb. 5 in Warsaw. Letchworth, Hornell, LeRoy, Bath, Warsaw and Wayland are among the favorites.

"I think we could have beaten Letchworth if our 215 pounder was available," Dieter said. "But he didn't make weight and we had some other wrestlers still out of shape. With a pin (at 215) we would've gotten six points and ended up beating them by two and we'd be undefeated right now. It happens. We've just got to pick our heads up, move forward and hope for a better outcome this time around."