Section V wrestlers out to prove they are the class of holiday tournaments

While there is plenty of scoring and scrambling to do on wrestling mats in Monroe County league matches, some teams have decided to test themselves even more before the end of the calendar year.

The Penfield Patriots have an invitation to the Powerade Wrestling Tournament in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, this Friday and Saturday. The Hilton Cadets are headed east, to wrestle in the Mountain Duals in Dolgeville. Brockport and Webster Schroeder also are going to the tournament on Friday and Saturday in Herkimer County.

Spencerport and Rush-Henrietta are staying closer to home, eyeing the team championship at the 52nd Teike Bernabi Wrestling Tournament underway Thursday and wrapping up Friday. The semifinals in Spencerport on are 1 p.m. Friday with the finalists ceremony scheduled for 4:45 p.m.

Penfield samples Powerade

Powerade Tournament organizers said that wrestlingreport.com calls their event the second-toughest high school wrestling tournament in the nation.

Penfield coach John Leone is certain this event is a good one for the Patriots. 

“They want the best kids in the country," Leone said.

Most of those lists, whoever put them together, include Penfield senior Frankie Gissendanner, a national cadet freestyle champion with three first-place finishes at the high school state tournament.

Gissendanner, whose record is 12-0 and who became the first six-time Monroe County league tournament champion, is the No. 1 seed of the Powerade Tournament's 145-pound weight class. He lost during last year's event to Jarod Verkleeren, now a freshman at Penn State University.

Joe Cocoza at 170 (seventh) and Ryan Long at 220 (eighth) also have top-eight seeds. Cooper Kropman carries a 14-1 record into the 152-pound weight class at the Powerade Tournament, while Max Barker at 126 is 15-0.

“It’s never a negative (to go)," Leone said. "That Pittsburgh area, pound-for-pound and per square mile, is one of the best in the country" as far as wrestling teams, many of whom are invited to the Powerade Tournament.

"It really is a meat-grinder. I can't tell you how many texts I got because Frankie was in the final."

Cadets go to the Mountain

The Hilton Cadets, the top Division I scoring team at four state championships, chose the Mountain Duals over the U-E Duals this season.

The U-E duals in Endicott, Broome County, traditionally have shaped end-of-season state rankings, but that could change this year. There is a state dual meet championship Jan. 27 at Onondaga County Community College in Syracuse.

"I like the idea," Hilton coach Craig Gross said. "It sort of takes out, 'Well, we didn't go to U-E and we have a good team.' 

"It's official (run by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association)."

Hilton (15-1) is in one of two pools of teams at the Mountain Duals, while Webster Schroeder and Brockport are in the other. Each team is guaranteed seven matches, with top-three finishers in each pool earning an additional matchup. 

A 37-35 loss for Hilton to Webster Thomas in the final of the Pal-Mac Duals and a runner-up finish at the Monroe County Championships drew some attention to the Cadets. Hilton is still considered one of the top teams in a section that has decent depth.

"(Webster Thomas) has a nice team. We both had full teams," Gross said. "We might get another shot at them. 

"I knew (Spencerport's rise) was coming a couple of years ago. They had a young team you could see getting better."

Rangers rise

The Spencerport Rangers may have serious thoughts about reclaiming the team championship at their Teike Bernabi Tournament. 

Spencerport defeated Webster Thomas, which edged Hilton earlier this month. The Rangers are Monroe County tournament team champions for the first time in five years, after 14 wrestlers placed in the top eight of their weight class, seven in the top three.  

They were short in a tight battle with Rush-Henrietta for the 2016 Teike Bernabi team title, extending Spencerport's wait for another first-place finish in the tournament to six years.

"The history of the tournament is powerful, pulling in so many state championship teams," Spencerport coach Dan Glover said. "Teams want to be there to test the waters.

"With those state champion teams (at Spencerport), it's hard to say we're back, because we haven't done that. It's a big shadow. We're on a good road, I think." 

JAMESJ@Gannett.com