SAMMON WRESTLING TOURNAMENT ENTERS 38TH YEAR-MHTS HITS THE MATS

• By Fred Miller
• High School Wrestling
• 140 days ago

RFA’s Antonio DeLuco works against Indian River’s Nick Toutant during their 126 Lb. semifinal bout.  

Jeff Pexton-MHTS-PGI Photo

My Hometown Sports visited the Leo J. Sammon High School Wrestling Tournament on the campus of Ilion High School on Saturday. Yesterday’s event was the 38th consecutive edition of one of the most popular wrestling tournaments of the winter and is held in the memory of Leo J. Sammon, Jr., the former principal of Ilion High School whose tenure ran from 1960 to 1974, the year he passed away.

Sammon was such an avid fan of Golden Bombers Athletics and the young people who play them that the Ilion Central School Board decided in 1975 to hold this annual event in his honor.

All proceeds from the tournament go to the Leo J. Sammon Memorial scholarship fund

Ilion’s Bryan Bennett (top) gains a reversal against Copenhagen’s Wyatt Lyndaker.

This season, sixteen (16) schools from across Upstate New York converged upon Ilion High School for individual and team tournament honors.

The combatants this year were as follows: Beaver River,Berne Knox Westerlo,Copenhagen, Fayetteville- Manlius,Ilion, Indian River, Little Falls, Lowville, Mohawk, Mount Markham, New Hartford, Norwich, Rome Free Academy, South Lewis, Watervliet and Whitesboro.

Wrestling fans from all across Section III waited with great anticipation for the great matches that were set to come.

Wrestling began bright and early at 9:30 a.m. and once again the outstanding hosts from Ilion made sure every single facet of the facilities were ready to go, and go they did. Like precision clockwork, each of the three mats in the main gymnasium were humming with bouts one after the other.

Numerous wrestlers ranked in the top 5 in Section III did battle on the mats, including:  99 Lbs.  #1 Tucker Amato (Indian River) and #2 Kelan McKenna (New Hartford) – Large Schools,99 Lbs.  #2 Tanner Cook (Small Schools),106 Lbs. #2 Stephan Colbert (Indian River) – Large Schools,113 Lbs. #2 Dempsey King (New Hartford) – Large Schools , #3 Dandre Norman (Rome Free Academy) Large Schools,120 Lbs. #4 Michael Mullins (Indian River) Large Schools, #5 Breven Jacobs (Copenhagen) Small Schools.

126 Lbs. #1 Antonio DeLuco (Rome Free Academy) Large Schools, #2 Patrick Quinlan (F-M) Large Schools, #3 NIcholas Toutant (Indian River) Large Schools and #4 Dan Fancett (New Hartford) Large Schools,126 Lbs. #1 Laken Cook (Ilion) Small Schools,132 Lbs. #2 John Mazza (Mohawk)  Small Schools,138 Lbs. #1  Derrick Gray (Indian River) Large Schools, #2 Sean McKenna (New Hartford) Large Schools , Tristan Broddus (F-M) Large Schools,145 Lbs. #4 Dylan Crowder (Indian River) Large Schools,152 Lbs. #1 Thomas Quinlan (F-M) Large Schools,160 Lbs. #3 Tim Byrnes (F-M) Large Schools,170 Lbs. #2 Sonny McPerson (Indian River) Large Schools,182 Lbs. #2 Thomas Gitlin (Indian River) Large Schools,220 Lbs. #5 Scott Hamblin (Copenhagen) Large Schools,285 Lbs. #2 Alex Avery (Indian River) Large Schools,285 Lbs. #1 Brandon Fayle (Lowville) Small Schools, #5 Mackenzie Dorre (Mt. Markham) Small Schools.

Also, entering yesterday’s action, Indian River was ranked 27th in New York State among large schools.

Ilion 99 pounder Tanner Cook (right) drives Indian River’s Tucker Amato into the mat during a quarterfinal match.

When the dust settled and the long day was done these local wrestlers had their stars shine brightest.

Ilion’s Laken Cook, was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler after winning the featured match of the night in the 126-pound, weight-class, final.

In a battle two undefeated stars, Cook broke a 2-2 tie with a great escape move with five seconds left in the first overtime and then held on for dear life in the second extra session to edge DeLuco 3-2.

Indian River took home team honors outscoring 15 other teams to finish with a 188-150.5 advantage over runner-up Lowville. Ilion , the host school,finished third with 150 points and New Hartford was fourth with 144.5..

The New Hartford’s Spartans were led by weight-class champions Kelan McKenna (99 pounds), Dempsey King (106), Dan Fancett (120) and Jimmy Laurenzo (195); Rome Free Academy had two champions – Dandre Norman (113) and Josh Knapp (152) – and Whitesboro’s Landon Slawson won the 160-pound title.

New Hartford’s Kelan McKenna (right) has Mohawk’s CJ Walz all wrapped up during their 99 pound quarterfinal match.

LEO J. SAMMON TOURNAMENT-(Final results courtesy CNY Wrestling.com)

At Ilion High School

Team scoring: Indian River 188, Lowville 150.5, Ilion 150, New Hartford 144.5, Copenhagen 116.5, Mohawk 115, Rome Free Academy  102.5, Watervliet 101, Norwich 98.5, Whitesboro 95, Berne-Knox-Westerlo 91, South Lewis 55, Mount Markham 36.5, Beaver River 30, Little Falls 29, Fayetteville-Manlius 14.

Championship Round

New Hartford’s Austin Benoit tries to take control.

New Hartford’s Sean McKenna upends his opponent early in their 138 Lb. match.