The SUNY Oneonta wrestling team competed in the annual NYS Collegiate championships this past Sunday at Cornell University.  The competition, which brings together wrestling programs from Divisions 1, 2 and 3 along with junior colleges, has been held annually now since the 1960's.
 
Oneonta came away with four All-State wrestlers, compiling 33.5 points, to finish in 13^th place overall.  The team title went to Cornell University, who scored 144.5 points, just edging out Hofstra by one-half point.
 
The four wrestlers earning All-State honors for the Red Dragons was senior Chad Obzud (Cohoes/Lansingburgh), juniors Evan Wallace (East Greenbush/Columbia) and Shaun Gillen (Bohemia/Connetquot) and freshman James Bethel (Saugerties/Saugerties).  Obzud was Oneonta's highest place-winner with his sixth place finish at 197 lbs.  Wallace, Gillen and Bethel all finished eighth in their respective weight classes.
 
Obzud came out of the gate with back-to-back pins over Brian Bulger of SUNY Cortland and Brian Anderson of NYU to put himself in the semifinals of the championship bracket.  In the semifinals he dropped a close, 6-4, decision to Jace Bennett of Cornell.
 
In the consolation semifinals, Obzud lost, 7-2, to Matt Idelson of Columbia University, which put him in the 5/6 place match.  In that match, he was defeated, 8-3, Dennis Melendez of Hunter College.
 
After receiving a bye in the opening round, Gillen (174) won his first match against Roman Accetta of NYU.  He then fell in the quarterfinals to Jacob Taylor of Cornell, which dropped him into the consolation bracket.  After a win and then a loss, he ended up falling, 12-4, in the match for seventh place to Tyler Lusht of Brockport.
 
After dropping his first match, Wallace (157) won three straight matches in the wrestlebacks before losing, 9-8, to Jackson Mordente of Long Island Post to fall into the 7/8 match.
 
Bethel (285) defeated Emanual Zamora of Jamestown CC, 8-2, in his first match of the day.  He then ran into Jacob Aiken-Phillips of Cornell in the quarterfinals where he fell 8-5.  He then took an 8-4 win against Sam Weinger of RIT in the consolation quarterfinals before falling to Cole Tristram of Brockport by pinfall.
 
Oneonta also had seven wrestlers compete in the Open tournament and came away with a pair of top-6 finishes.  Freshmen Timothy Flower (Rotterdam/Schalmont) finished sixth at 197 lbs. while Adam Groesbeck (Bethlehem/Bethlehem) was fourth at 285 lbs.