Cortland Standard .net

BINGHAMTON — In the past two seasons competing at the Section 4 Division II Championships, Groton Central wrestler Darren Ostrander had suffered narrow overtime losses in the semifinal round.
Having learned from those disappointments, there would be no further frustration for Ostrander in his final shot at a sectional title. The senior 138-pounder came through to capture his weight class with a 4-2 decision victory over Kobe Garrehy of Maine-Endwell in Saturday night’s championship match held at the Floyd L. Maines Veteran’s Memorial Arena.
Ostrander became the first Section 4 champion for the Indians since former Groton coach Marty Connor achieved that success in 1979.
“I am very proud of Darren,” said current Groton coach Greg Rotunda, as Ostrander was also named the most outstanding Division II performer over two days of competition at the Arena.
“Darren was focused the whole tournament and was very determined to win it all,” added Rotunda. “He puts in a ton of extra work to be the best wrestler he can be. To see that hard work pay off is awesome. I wanted it badly for him, too.”
In the semifinals on Saturday, it was finally third-seeded Ostrander’s time to shine as he nipped second-seeded Jesse Manuel from Tioga by a narrow 3-2 margin.
Top-seeded Garrehy blanked Colby Hall from Deposit/Hancock 5-0 in his semifinal match, only to be upset by the determined Ostrander in the finals.
“After losing in the semifinals the last two years in overtime, it was great to see him break through,” said Rotunda, as Ostrander advances to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Championships being held Feb. 28 at the Times Union Center in Albany.
Norwich was the team champion in Division II, where Groton (46.5) finished 21st, Marathon (34) 23rd and Dryden (14) 28th in a field of 30 schools.
Ostrander teammate Garrett Lockwood came home fourth at 113 pounds. Lockwood dropped a 9-0 major decision to Dean Raymond from Deposit-Hancock in Saturday’s semifinals and reached the consolation final where he suffered a 4-2 loss to Norwich’s Dalen Geislinger.
“Garrett wrestled as well as I’ve ever seen him wrestle,” Rotunda said. “He really rose to the occasion. Garrett wrestled the top seed (Raymond) very tough in his semifinal match and came up a bit short in the consolation match against a very tough kid.”
Groton’s Reese Lockwood came up one match short in Saturday’s wrestlebacks of battling for fifth place.
“Darren is our lone senior and I hate to see him go, but we have a good team with a lot of talent,” said Coach Rotunda after Ostrander highlighted a successful weekend. “Our other kids put a lot of hard work and extra work in to be the best. I think we have the talent on this team get some more kids to the state meet in Albany in years to come.”
Dryden’s Chad Adams was the third local semifinalist, competing at 220 pounds. Adams lost a 7-0 decision to Deposit-Hancock’s Zach Gifford in that Saturday morning match and did make it back to the consolation finals. Gifford dropped a 4-2 decision in the finals to Garyn Huntley from Oxford.
Marathon wrestlers Pat Lehman (106 pounds), Shuvnte Searcy (145), Richard Hurlbert (195) and Liam Chilson (220) all competed in wrestlebacks Saturday. None made in into the consolation finals.
IN DIVISION I, Newark Valley out of the Interscholastic Athletic Conference was the team champion with 209 points — one point better than Vestal. The Cardinals crowned three weight class champions, Benny Baker at 99 pounds, Vinnie Darpino at 160 pounds and David Crow at 182 pounds.