B-R’s Sibble and Coleman, Wellsville’s Layfield shine on final stage of wrestling season in Albany; Sibble places as State Runner-Up in 215 weight class

ALBANY — The Final stage was set for what was an exciting night of wrestling from within the confines of MVP Arena in Albany. After spending the majority of opening day determining who would fight for their right to claim all of New York State’s glory, the moment do so came Saturday night.

Among them was Bolivar-Richburg junior Trent Sibble, who became the second wrestler in as many seasons for the Wolverines to reach the State Finals match. The last being his former teammate, Hudson Evingham, who finished second on the podium back in 2019.

Bolivar-Richburg has never had a wrestler come home victorious with a State Champion before in its history. In fact, Evingham was the last wrestler to get as close to championship glory. With the performance of the season that Sibble had given in his final match, the Wolverines were seconds away from rewriting the books.

But in the end of his 215-pound Championship match against Homer’s Sam Sorenson, who also entered the circled square undefeated on the season, the two elite grapplers would fight all the way to the end into overtime, where Sorenson was able to hang onto a 2-1 decision to become State Champion to highlight a night filled with excitement, as three of Allegany County’s finest returned home.

After a point for Sorenson gave him the lead off an escape, Sibble went for it all with seconds remaining in the match, nearly pulling off the miracle finish to become Champion. But the Bolivar-Richburg junior ran out of time from a two-point reversal that would have given him the victory. Instead, Sibble finishes what has been a season of epic proportions with a record of 54-1 during a run that saw him as the No. 7 seed.

To start his journey, Sibble recorded a 5-1 decision win over Waverly’s Ty Beeman. He then would follow up in the Quarterfinal round with a huge pin-fall win over Southwestern’s Dontae House, a No. 2 seed in the 215-pound weight bracket, at the 3:38 mark of the second period. To punch his ticket to the Finals, Sibble came away with one final victory in the Semifinals, defeating Windsor’s Garrett Bidwell with a 3-1 decision.

Sibble was not alone during the journey in Albany. His fellow teammate, Ethan Coleman also provided a solid showing on the mat that ended earlier that afternoon, going 5-2 during his tenure. Entering the State tournament as the No. 12 seed in the 138-pound weight division, Coleman recorded an upset victory over No. 4 seed Kyle Barber of Bayport-Blue Point in just 41 seconds to pick up the fifth place finish overall.

Perhaps the biggest win of the bunch was a massive upset win over top-seeded Ryan Sweeney from Iroquois, as he settled with a narrow 4-2 division victory to help put a cap on what was an extraordinary weekend for the not only the Wolverines sophomore, but for first-year head coach Andrew Taylor and the entire Bolivar-Richburg program.

Wellsville’s John Layfield also impressed on the mat for head coach Tyler Carman, as the Senior made his way onto the podium himself with an eighth-place finish overall from within the 189-pound weight division. Layfield finished 2-2 overall to finish his final season in a Lions singlet.

His biggest win during his tenure came against Chittengo’s Andrew Bailey, where he recorded an enormous two-point takedown with seconds remaining to take the lead, and ultimately the win in an exciting 5-4 finish.

“Absolutely outstanding. I’m so proud of his efforts, and he built a wonderful career for himself,” said Lions coach Tyler Carman. “There’s not very many wrestlers that were at the tournament that could say that they’ve been wrestling since they were five years old. To get on the podium with the experience that John holds, that is incredible in itself. I’m really proud of the way he performed, even in the matches that he lost. We’re talking one-point decisions and the like, and the fact that he did what he did is tremendous. Congratulations to the other teams from our area. We’ve built such a tremendous system of great wrestlers. It’s a great sign of things to come.”

At the end of the night on Saturday, all three Allegany County wrestlers were awarded with a State patch.