Leading off today: Minisink Valley justified its No. 1 large-school ranking in the state Sunday by defeating ninth-ranked Monroe-Woodbury 35-26 for the Union-Endicott Duals wrestling championship.
Minisink Valley began the day by beating No. 4 Rocky Point 49-20 in the semifinals. Ninth-ranked Monroe-Woodbury downed No. 6 John Glenn 38-27 to reach the championship, which was a replay of Minisink Valley's 43-21 triumph vs. M-W last month in the final of the Section 9 Duals.
"There were a few different matchups that we knew could be interesting," Minisink Valley coach Kevin Gallagher told New York Wrestling News. "We thought there would be a lot of close matches. I believe in our guys -- I thought we'd win a lot of the close ones and we did. We knew there were some places where we needed to get some bonus points and we came through there too."
The match started with defending champion M-W winning a heavyweight decision, and the Crusaders' last lead was at 14-12 on an Evan Barczak major decision at 132 pounds.
From there, Minisink Valley rattled off six straight victories beginning with major decisions from Chris Truglio (138) and Mike Raccioppi (145) and highlighted by a pin from A.J. Aeberli at 160 pounds.
"I'll tell you what, it was awesome to have two Section 9 teams in the finals," Gallagher said. "Monroe is obviously very, very good. It means a lot -- we're a small section but we're tough. People think a lot of Long Island and they absolutely should because Long Island is loaded. But dual meet team-wise, we're obviously pretty good right now in Section 9."
John Glenn won the consolation match by a 51-26 score over Rocky Point.
Athena beats Fairport: Well, that was quite a week for Greece Athena. In the span of mere days, the Trojans defeated Iona Prep (ranked 11th in the state in Class AA) and Spring Valley (No. 2 in A) and then completed their hat trick with a 73-45 rout Saturday of Fairport, ranked 15th in Class AA.
Zac DiSalvo finished with a game-high 23 points for Athena, which returned four starters from the team that reached the NYSPHSAA quarterfinals in Class AA last winter and is ranked fifth in Class A this week. Junior forward Anthony Lamb added 20 points.
"I think it really helped coming off a big tournament win in Westchester," DiSalvo told the Democrat and Chronicle. "It really boosted our confidence, and this team, we're just hungry to play. Every time in practice, we have two squads. Whichever squad you are on, both go extremely hard. I think that's why we're so good."
More boys basketball: Peyton McLaurin scored 31 points, including 8-for-8 work at the free-throw line, to lead Carthage to a 61-51 win vs. Potsdam in a non-league matchup of undefeated teams Saturday. Jake Redmore added 11 points for the Comets (9-0), who rallied from an 18-9 deficit after one quarter.
Jake Mitchell scored 19 points for the Sandstoners (7-1), ranked eighth in Class C.
