Huntington Crowns Two at 51^st Windsor Wrestling Tournament

The Huntington wrestling team turned in a strong performance at the 51^st Windsor Christmas Tournament held outside of Binghamton as the Blue Devils crowned two champions and placed 11 wrestlers among the top six in the 15 weight classes.

Huntington finished third out of 17 teams, five points behind team champion Chenango Forks and two points in back of Waverly.  The rest of the field trailed far behind. “We lost a ton of points in the first round because we had so many byes,” assistant coach Travis Smith said.  “But, overall, the kids wrestled great.  It was a very tough tournament.”

Damon McQueen captured the 96 lb. title, defeating Windsor’s Colton Perry in the finals, 7-2.  He earlier turned back Norwich’s Tanner Cummings in the semifinals, 9-2.

Jose Vasquez looked invincible in taking the 103 lb. championship, pinning Waverly’s Trevor Nocchi in the finals in 1:14.  The senior earned a technical fall over Union Endicott’s Kevin Pembridge in 3:15 in the semifinals.

In consolation round matches for third place, Nigel McNeil (112 lbs.) edged A.J. Rue of Saratoga Springs, 8-2, Francisco Pereira (119) nipped Jason Chudzinski of Colonie, 4-3 and Dashaun Thomas (215) pinned Noah Sibley of Windsor in 2:12. 

Fourth place finishers included Omar Santiago (130) who dropped a 4-2 decision to Justin Hyde of Union-Endicott, Anthony Lupi (160) who fell by technical fall to Jesse Villella of Chenango Forks and Chris Sandoval (189) who fell to Joe Canini of Susquehanna Valley, 9-2.

The tournament marked a noticeable improvement for the Blue Devils from last year when the team finished fifth with 138.5 points.  “Everyone is working hard and we are starting to see the fruits of that labor,” Smith said.

Final team scores: Chenango Forks 183, Waverly 180, Huntington 178, Union-Endicott 129, Bainbridge-Guilford/Afton 120 1/2, Colonie 119 1/2, Windsor 88 1/2, Saratoga Springs 86 1/2, Harpursville 86, Unadilla Valley 65, Chenango Valley 62, Wallkill 59 1/2, Susquehanna Valley 58 1/2, Canandaigua 36, Norwich 27, Ithaca 26, Homer 14.