Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012: Four schools crown two wrestling champs

   Leading off today: Somers, John Glenn, Lyndonville and Phoenix all sent two competitors apiece to the top of the awards podium Saturday at the NYSPHSAA wrestling championships in Albany.

   In Division II, Tony Recco (99) and Sam Recco (120) won championships for Lyndonville, and Nick Tighe (126) and Tyler Button triumphed in the finals for Phoenix at the Times Union Center.

   In Division I, Somers' Dylan Realbuto (113 pounds) and Brian Realbuto (152) scored decisions in their finals. John Glenn teammates James Dekrone (138) and Nick Bellanza (182) also won by decision.

   Dylan Realbuto went right down to the wire for his title. Realbuto took down Hilton's Vincent DePrez from Hilton with three second left to pull out an 8-7 decision. Officials conferred for several minutes before upholding the takedown ruling.

   Brian Realbuto, heading to Cornell in the fall, became Section 1's first three-time champion.

   Long Island scored big in Division I with nine championships -- five by Suffolk County reps, three from Nassau and one from the CHSAA. Section 5 hauled in five championships in Division II.

   One of the better stories in the whole tournament was the Division II 195-pound title earned by senior Zach Diekel of Whitehall. One of the schools assistant coaches is Diekel's father, Paul, who in 1981 became the school's first of four state champions.

   “It’s really a lot of fun when you can wrestle your dad,” Zach Diekel told The Post-Star. “He has a lot more power on me, but I’m a little bit quicker and I can catch him sometimes. My dad has taught me 95 percent of everything I know about wrestling.”

   Besides winning 234 career matches -- avenging three losses to Austyn Hayes of Phoenix with a 7-5 decision in the semis -- and placing at state four times, Diekel (whose uncle Bob is the head coach) is in line to be valedictorian of his class and will attend Lehigh in the fall.

   Two other small-school championships were particularly noteworthy. Holley 138-pounder Quinton Murphy, competing in his fifth state final, won his fourth NYSPHSAA championship and extended his state record to 302 career wins with a 7-3 decision of Anthony Finnocchiaro from Canastota. At 160, Letchworth's Chris Nevinger pushed his win streak to 143 matches and three straight NYSPHSAA crowns by posting an 8-3 decision of four-team meet participant Aaron Dudley of Hudson Falls winner of 243 career matches.

   Attendance was 13,077 for three sessions over two days. The meet record of 17,755 was set in 2006 when the tournament was held on Long Island. The tournament will be held at Times Union Center through 2016.

   View the complete Division I and Division II results in the reference section of our site.

   West Genny keeps rolling: Known for a stifling defense all season long, West Genesee saved its most smothering effort for the Section 3 Division I final, limiting Rome Free Academy to five shots on goal while posting a 1-0 victory.

   "That was the best we've played all year," coach Frank Colabufo told the Eagle Newspapers. "We're not the most talented team, but we won't get outworked."

   Ranked No. 1 in the state all season, West Genesee improved to 22-0 with its 13th shutout of the season.

   Player punched in girls game: Dunkirk routed Buffalo East 57-29 in a Section 6 Class B-1 girls basketball quarterfinal Saturday at City Honors, but it came at a price.

   An unidentified East player picked up three quick fouls in succession and then punched Dunkirk senior forward Alayna Carlson in the face, and then jumped on her in what The Buffalo News reported was an unprovoked attack at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

   "I've never seen anything remotely like it. It was awful," first-year Dunkirk coach Sarah Bogardus told the paper. "It was a scary position to be in. The girls were really rattled."

   The East player was ejected and Carlson was treated by the trainer on site and then taken to a hospital to be checked.

   Chaotic ending: Eighth-ranked Albany CBA edged Shenendehowa 52-49 in a Section 2 Class AA boys quarterfinal that ended with a very intense sequence of action -- followed by a brawl at the final buzzer, The Saratogian reported.

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   With Shen leading for the first time since in the first half, the Brothers' Drew Brundige was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made the first two free throws to tie with :04.4 to go before the Plainsmen called a timeout. The 6-foot-3 junior missed the third foul shot, but Chaz Lott pulled down the offensive rebound and banked home the go-ahead bucket with :01 remaining, also getting a foul call.

   Brandon Miller was called for the foul as well as a technical, and Brundige made one of the resulting three free throws for the 52-49 final margin. As the Brothers safely inbounded the ball to run off the final second, however, Shen's Robert Hughes and CBA’s Joe Krong got tangled up near midcourt.

   Officials separated the two players and both teams were escorted to their locker rooms. There were two comparatively minor skirmishes in the second quarter.

   “It was a hard-fought contest between two teams who seem to meet each other a lot in sectionals and we battled until the end," Shenendehowa coach Tony Dzikas told the paper. "Obviously it got a little crazy at the end. But everyone is composed now and we’re ready to move on.”

Scroll to the comments on Eric Medved's basketball blog for The Times Union and you'll see emotions are still running high a day after the drama.

   What's the name of this meet? One of my pet peeves reared its head as I glanced at the recap of Section 9's indoor track state qualifier meet at West Point.

   The Times Herald-Record reported that Warwick's Ray Farinella won the boys 1,000 meters and teammate Grant Parelli placed first in the 1,600 -- but both runners have opted out of those events for next week's NYSPHSAA championships at Cornell University because they want to focus on the 3,200-meter relay.

   My intent here is not to pick on Warwick, since I'm sure any number of other winners from around the state will also drop out of events in which they qualified. However, I hate that athletes are taking up spots in "state qualifier" meets, earning trips to Cornell and then dropping out. It kind of defeats the purpose of participating in the "state qualifier" to begin with.

   It's a safe bet that -- barring injury -- the Warwick runners would have accepted entry into the individual races at Cornell had their top-notch relay somehow not qualified, and I understand that. And I realize that it's possible for athletes placing behind dropouts to move into the state meet as replacements.

   But I'm distressed by the fact that other runners may have altered plans at West Point based on who was running. Were there any guys who qualified in both the 600 and 1,000 but opted to concentrate on the shorter distance because they thought that was their better shot? Was there a 1,600/3,200 qualifier who scratched from the mile because he thought the longer race was an easier path to states?