Wellsville’s Outman, Taggert; B-R’s MacDonell lead field for glorious weekend on mat for local grapplers at Section V Championships up north; Qualifiers begin this weekend

LYNDONVILLE/EAST ROCHESTER — The journey to MVP Arena in Albany has begun.

For many of Allegany County’s best of the best on the mat, they scattered far and wide up north this past weekend to compete alongside the rest of Section V for that coveted Section V patch and a place in this upcoming weekend’s State Qualifier at Bath-Haverling.

Among those in travel were the Wellsville Lions who, after the weekend reached its conclusion, saw two wrestlers come back as Section V champions — one of them being Xander Outman, who will now look to follow in his own footsteps back towards the Empire State’s capital after capturing gold at 170 pounds in the Class B2 Championships at East Rochester, defeating Bath-Haverling’s Gavin Rook in a 11-1 major decision to claim his patch.

At 215 pounds, the Lions crowned a second winner in Brayden Taggert, as he became champion after a rapid pinfall victory over Red Creek’s Bradley Lewis to claim his patch at the 1:02 mark. Wellsville nearly saw a third competitor come home victorious, with Gabe Black fighting tooth and nail across his match at 190 pounds, but ultimately falling in a 5-0 decision to eventual champion Ayden Miller of Letchworth.

The Lions also collected a fourth place finish from Jensen Spicer at 131 pounds, as he defeated Justin Mann of Letchworth by pinfall, along with sixth place finishes from Jack Cicirello (152 pounds) and Mason Edwards (160 pounds).

Further south in Lyndonville, the stage was set for both Bolivar-Richburg and Fillmore/Keshequa to punch some tickets of their own to the Home of the Rams this weekend. Leading the field was Class B3’s Most Outstanding Wrestler in the heavyweight division, Tavyn MacDonell for the Wolverines, as the 170-pound grappler went on to claim his fourth straight Section V Championship with an overpowering 16-0 technical fall win over Perry’s Noah Leitten to score his patch.

The Wolverines also saw Presley McDowell finish third place at 116 pounds, scoring his victory in a 9-3 decision over Warsaw’s Brody Shaffer. At 215 pounds, Cameron Wilber placed fifth.

For Fillmore/Keshequa, Eli Voss and Kalen Beardsley both locked up spots in the State Qualifier behind their pair of fourth place finishes at 101 and 138 pounds, respectively. Zach Nageldinger (108 pounds), Garrett Hodgson (124 pounds) and Gavin Bush (131 pounds) all placed sixth overall.

In the midst of the Championship weekend on the mat, in the first ever Section V Girls Wrestling Championships in East Rochester, both schools will have a representative also make the trip to Albany later this month, as Bolivar-Richburg’s Teegan Sibble (114 pounds) and Fillmore/Keshequa’s Alivia Cartwright (126 pounds) both claimed first place in their respective matches to continue their quest for empyric glory.

Sibble was named Most Outstanding Wrestler.

The top five finishers in each weight class across Section V will now advance into the State Qualifier round, beginning this Friday at Bath-Haverling.