Kenmore West wins sectional title

KENMORE - Two young men stood on the first place section of the pedestal.

But it was the efforts of the entire team that helped get them there.

Seniors Brandon Lathrop (285 pounds) and Dylan Caruana (126) were both crowned Section VI wrestling champions during the Division I Large School championships that were held at Lake Shore High School.

A two-time defending Section VI champion, Caruana will be headed for his third state title tournament at Albany’s Times Union Center Feb.24 and 25. Lathrop will be making his first trip to states.

But as exciting as Caruana and Lathrop’s title wins are, the bigger thrill for the Blue Devils was scoring 148.5 points for a first place finish and the Section VI team championship.

Beating out NFL rival Lockport (140.5) and top-ranked large school Clarence (134), Ken-West got second place finishes from Ron Duguay (113), Nico Burgos (220) and Zach Skiba (152).

Varsity coach Kevin Day said seeing so much success across the board on this day made it the kind of win everyone felt they had a part in.

“That’s what made the day different,” Day said. “Usually you go to that tournament and you have one, maybe two kids that are performing at a high level and they’re dominating their weight class. And the other guys are beat up a little bit, you talk to them about work hard in the off season and you can be one of those (dominating) guys next year.”

Explaining the day had a good feel to it, Day said that every time one of his grapplers stepped onto the mat there was this sense that everyone would advance.

Caruana beat Brad Feeney of Lockport for the 126 title, while Lathrop beat Luke Catalano of Lake Shore.

Caruana, Lathrop and Duguay all came in as the top-ranked wrestler in their class.

Zach Skiba went toe-to-toe with Williamsville South Luke Falzone, who was the top-ranked wrestler at 152.

Zkiba was No.3.

“It was awesome,” Caruana said. “All week we knew we wanted to repeat being a Section VI championship team. I’m very proud of all of their work. Skiba wrestled like never before to pull an amazing win in semis. Five kids in the finals, I’ve never been happier. I’m hoping everyone can work hard and repeat the same success next year.”

Kellen Devlin of Amherst beat Ron Duguay 3-0 in the 113 pound title match. It was the second year in a row Duguay finished as a runner-up at sectional finals.

Nico Burgos waged an intense battle with Niagara-Wheatfield’s Max Antone, but fell at the 5:06 mark.

“All year the whole team was training at a level that was just a step higher then we have been in the years past,” Day said of his crew. “The big talk was wow, we had five guys in the sectional finals. It’s very rare to see that.”

Day added that this was indeed a team-wide effort from day one of the season. Whether you were in the finals or someone who helped push his trainer partner to get better. Everyone was a vital part of this win.