Ferro and Aeberli Are State Champions!!!
Congratulations to Warwick Valley junior Ryan Ferro and Minisink Valley senior AJ Aeberli for capturing state titles at this weekend’s NYSPHSAA Wrestling Championships at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY! Ferro was completely dominating in winning the title at 152 pounds. His four wins came by pin, tech fall, pin and pin! Ferro was the only D1 wrestler who pinned his opponent in the finals! Aeberli’s bracket was loaded and he needed to avenge the only two losses on his record this season in order to bring home the title. After recording convincing victories in the prelims and the quarters, Aeberli defeated Adam Santoro from Fordham Prep in the semis by a 2-1 margin before topping Ricky Stamm from Levittown/Division 3-2 in the finals. Both Stamm and Santoro
had defeated Aeberli at the Eastern States Classic back in January.
220 pounder Ryan Ellefsen was Section 9’s third finalist of the tournament. The Goshen junior, who was defeated by Monroe Woodbury Nick McShea in the Section 9 finals and needed a wildcard to get into the tournament, had an incredible weekend! He was absolutely domination in his first three matches! After recording second period falls in the prelims and quarters, Ellefsen squared off with McShea for the third time this season in an all-Section semifinal. The rubber match went to Ellefsen. After mounting a big lead, Ellefsen was able to turn and pin McShea at the 5:16 mark to punch his ticket to the finals. In perhaps the most exciting title match of the evening, Ellefsen was defeated by Walt Whitman’s Terron Robinson 9-5 and had to settle for the silver.
The Section 9 Division 1 team had six additional wrestlers place in the top 6 in their weight class. Middletown senior Joe Humphrey’s only loss came to the champion, nationally ranked Edwin Rubio by a 5-2 margin in the semi, and he finished 3rd. Monroe Woodbury finished in 6th place as a team and had three top 6 place winners. Junior Kendall Elfstrum finished 3rd at 182 while fellow junior Evan Barczak took home 6th place. After his semifinal loss to Ellefsen, Maryland-bound senior Nick McShea wrestled back to finish in 5th place at 220. Warwick Valley had a second placewinner in senior Charlie Johnson who came in 5th at 138. Warwick finished 10th in the team standings a few spots of Minisink Valley who finished 12th. Wallkill’s Mike Fekishazy was Section 9’s other place winner. The 170 pound junior took 6th place and became the first NYS place winner in his school’s history! Fekishazy could have potentially placed higher, however he suffered a concussion during his impressive 6-3 win over Section 1’s Stephen Lauro in the blood round and was forced to forfeit to the 6th place spot. The Section 9 team finished 4th in the overall standings behind Section 11 (Suffolk County), Section 5 (Rochester area), and Section 1 (Rockland/Westchester area).
This year’s tournament was also a banner year for our rapidly improving Division 2 squad! For the first time since the division were separated, the Section 9 small school team had three wrestlers place in the top six in their weight! Eldred/Liberty/Sullivan West junior Noah Curreri made it all the way to the semifinal round where he dropped an 8-2 decision to 4X state place winner Dakota Gardner. Curreri wrestled back tough and finished the tournament in 5th place at 152 pounds. Chester senior Liam Heslin dropped a 5-0 decision to eventual champion Cameron Swick in the opening round but battled all the way back to finish 6th at 160 pounds! New Paltz senior Theo Chazkel was D2’s final place winner. Chazkel went 3-3 on the weekend and took home 6th place honors at 182!
