McQueen Tops Two-Time State Champ
Huntington’s Damon McQueen topped two-time North Carolina state champion Dominic Parisi at the buzzer in overtime to help the Blue Devil wrestling team finish second in the 21-team Windsor Christmas Tournament last week.
McQueen was joined in the winner’s circle by teammates Nigel McNeil (112 lbs.) and Louis Puca (160) who both claimed weight class titles. Corey Jamison (96) finished second, Ryan Fox (171) was third, Nick Lupi (215) placed fourth and Greg Corbly was sixth (285) in the two-day competition held near Binghamton.
Chenango Forks won the tournament with 213.5 points with Huntington (160), Penfield (145), Union-Endicott (138.5) and Greene (125) rounding out the top five.
McQueen advanced to the finals after pinning Maine Endwell’s Anthony Benacquisto in 3:16 and Greene’s Jacob Shearer in 49 seconds and earning a semi-final round decision over Windsor’s Cotton Perry.
Parisi, a senior from Jay M. Robinson High School who went 59-0 last year and who had owned one of the longest active win streaks in the nation, presented McQueen with a formidable challenge. The bout wasn’t decided until the final buzzer when the Blue Devil star notched the match-winning takedown. Opposing coaches voted him the Most Outstanding Wrestler Award.
McNeil easily bested Penfield’s Brandon Ling in the finals, with an impressive 15-0 technical fall in 5:16. He earlier took a tech fall (15-0, 3:49) over Norwich’s Tanner Cummings and moved past Jay M. Robinson’s Garrison White in the semi-finals, 11-4.
Puca was also unstoppable as he pinned Jesse Barnett of Chenango Forks in the finals in 3:30. In three earlier matches he pinned Unadilla Valley’s Cody Marcinko in 1:05, stormed to a 19-1 technical fall of Penfield’s Andrew Dietrich in 6:00 and pinned Greene’s Keegan Cerwinski in the semi-finals in 3:52.
One of the best surprises of the tournament for Huntington was Jamison’s tough wrestling that brought him to the brink of a championship. He topped Maine Endwell’s Zak Gerrehy in the first round, 13-4 and then won consecutive one-point decisions over Union-Endicott’s Kyle Hughes (4-3) and Norwich’s Tristan Rifanburg (5-4). Jamison lost a 5-2 decision in the finals to Kyle Kelly of Chenango Forks.
Huntington head coach Kieran Mock can only like what he sees from his Big Three – McNeil, McQueen and Puca. All three are expected to vie for Suffolk titles next month and they are each hoping to go much further than that.
Final team scores: 1. Chenango Forks 213.5; 2 Huntington 160; 3. Penfield 145; 4. Union-Endicott 138.5; 5. Greene 125; 6. (tie) Bainbridge Guilford Afton 119; Jay M. Robinson (N.C.) 119; 8. Windsor 102.5; 9. Lansing 84.5; 10. Norwich 71; 11. Chenango Valley 62; 12. Saratoga Springs 53; 13. Canandaigua 49; 14. Waverly 44; 15. Corning 36; 16. Maine-Endwell 34; 17. Susquehanna Valley 32; 18. Unadilla Valley 23; 19. Ithaca 15; 20. (tie) Harpursville 4; Marathon 4.
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