Photo courtesy of Michelle Gilbert Westfield senior Mason Maring, top, finished his high school career in third place at the NYSPHSAA Division II wrestling championships at MVP Arena in Albany on Saturday.

ALBANY — Tioga sophomore Declan McKee lost two times this season and one of those losses came from Southwestern junior Adrian Torres in the 108-pound final of the Linda C. Knuutila Memorial by a 3-2 decision in tiebreakers.

The pair were once again pitted against each other in a final on Saturday evening, but the stakes were much higher. It was for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association 101-pound Division II wrestling championship at MVP Arena.

Torres was looking to add another loss to McKee’s total, but could not find the same result as time ran out on him in a 5-1 decision.

“He’s had an awesome run this postseason,” Southwestern head coach John Vogan said. “Dominant at our sectional tournament, he’s beat the third-place finisher in our sectional finals, he had that huge win in the semis against that kid he lost to earlier in the year and he lost a close match. He’s right there with the best kids in the state at this weight class. He really just did an awesome job.”

The first round ended scoreless as both wrestlers failed to make a successful move for a takedown, looking as if neither one wanted to try anything too risky and give up points.

McKee elected to go down first to start the second period and quickly earned the first point with an escape. Then, near the end of the period, he picked up a point for Torres stalling.

Torres was now in desperate need of a takedown, hoping to recreate the magic he found late in his semifinal match against Wyatt Sartori of Dansville/Wayland/Cohocton-V. After his escape, he trailed 2-1 and McKee only received his first stalling warning in the round so Torres had to act fast.

After a Torres dive of desperation to gain a takedown, McKee was able to capitalize with a takedown of his own to claim the state title by 5-1 decision.

“I’m really proud of him, he’s worked really hard,” Vogan added. “He went through some tough times during the year. He didn’t place at Eastern States, didn’t place at the Fred Bell tournament we went to and he just kept believing in himself and knew that if he kept working hard he could have a great tournament. He came up a little short, but I think he’s proud of the season he’s had.”

While the loss is heartbreaking for Torres, he will have his senior year to come back and attempt to climb higher on the podium.

“I’m really excited about this,” Vogan said about the future of the Southwestern wrestlers. “I’ve been with this group for a really long time. … Carmine (Calimeri), Adrian, Brayden (Potter) and Miles (Torres) have been together a long time. Brayden Potter, our 215, is a sectional place finisher, too. It’s a great core group to come back and work with a younger group that we’ve got and really try to make their mark. We’d like to bring four out here next year. That’s the goal right now.”

Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Panama/Clymer’s Mason Maring was favored to join Torres in the finals later on Saturday as he was wrestling the opponent he defeated to get to states, Wilson’s Hamza Merrick.

However, the familiarity Merrick had with Maring paid off in their semifinal bout as he flipped the script from an 18-5 major decision to a pin for his spot in the 285-pound state championship. Merrick took on defending state champion Troy Beeman of Waverly-IV, an opponent he lost to in the quarterfinals last season in the tournament before finishing in third place.

While Torres was able to score the late points needed for a spot in the championship, Falconer/Cassadaga Valley sophomore Dylan Newman could not notch the last-second score in a 2-1 decision against Brock Frederick of South Jefferson-III.

Newman received a penalty in the first round and after that both wrestlers scored one point from escapes, a big difference from last year’s result between the pair in which Frederick won by pinfat 0:33 in the 116-pound quarterfinals.

Randolph senior Caden Inkley faced a tall task in his semifinal at 152 pounds going up against 2024 Division I 138-pound finalist Luke Nieto of Plainedge-VIII and the top-seeded Nieto lived up to his billing with a dominant 19-2 technical fall.

Both Maring and Inkley made the most of their semifinal losses by getting to the highest point of the podium they still could.

Aside from the costly mistake against Merrick, Maring was back to business with a 12-1 major decision against Landon Andrade of Sherburne Earlville-III. Then in the third place match he dominated again with a 10-0 major decision over Zach Kuelling of Williamson/Marion/Sodus-V, finishing his high school on the podium.

Inkley bounced back with a 9-3 decision over Cooper Robinson of Waverly-V to reach the third-place match and that became a battle he really needed to grind for.

After two periods against Waylan Winseman of Honeoye Falls/Lima-V, Inkley trailed 2-0. He then kicked things into drive in the final period of his high school career by scoring eight points on two takedowns and two escapes for an 8-7 decision for third place.

“I had a tough semis,” Inkley stated. “But I’m glad I finished with a win. I’m glad that I went out on a good note, I’m proud of what I’ve done.”

All of the semifinalists guaranteed spots on the podium, while the remaining five local wrestlers had to work through the wrestlebacks.

Southwestern sophomore Miles Torres had the longest road to go after he essentially began his tournament in the consolation bracket due to an injury in the first round at 108 pounds.

“He had a hard time managing his weight cut on Friday,” Vogan said about Miles Torres. “The travel day wasn’t good for him, but after we had the cramping issue, we got him hydrated. We managed his intake and he did a great job self managing all day on Friday so that he was right on first thing in the morning so he had time to rehydrate so the cramps didn’t come up again.”

After picking up a pair of wins on Friday, Miles Torres needed just one win to guarantee a podium placement and he got that with a 4-1 sudden victory over Dylan Newman of Windsor-V to begin Saturday.

The younger Torres brother was not done after that as he was out to show that if not for injury he could have certainly made a lot of noise in the championship bracket. Rattling off another two wins, including an 11-6 decision over semifinalist Seth Strain of Adirondack-III, Torres found himself in the third-place match.

Then in that match Miles Torres was dealt his only loss of the tournament in which he wrestled to completion as top-seeded Mason Tanner of Jordan Elbridge-III defeated him with a 13-1 major decision.

“He just believed he was one of the better kids in the weight class,” Vogan said. “He has a lot of belief in himself, that’s one thing he’s not lacking. It meant something to him, even when he knew he was out of the hunt to win a state title he wanted to put on a good showing out here and he wanted to make a name for himself. I’m very proud of him. He went from fourth place in our section last year to a sectional champ and fourth place in the state.”

Chautauqua Lake sophomore Thandon Bensink started in the same position as Miles Torres on Saturday, but his quest for the podium at 131 pounds was cut short by Evan Sheils of Lansing-IV with a pin at 2:38.

Reaching the quarterfinals on Friday, Randolph senior Domanik Clark, Southwestern junior Carmine Calimeri and Falconer/Cassadaga Valley sophomore Patrick Braley needed just one win on Saturday to place at states.

Clark started with a 10-3 decision over Ryan Mashaw of Gouverneur-X, dominating the match the entire way aside from one reversal scored against him. He then followed that up with a more dominant victory as he earned a 10-1 major decision against John Parisi of Nanuet-I and was set to wrestle one of the semifinalists.

The Randolph senior was relegated to the fifth-place match as Owen Clark of Lansing-IV secured a pin at 1:51. Clark finished his high school wrestling career in sixth place at 138 pounds as Hunter Lines of Homer-III defeated him 4-0.

“It’s something special that we were able to have two guys place,” Inkley said about him and Clark making the podium for Randolph. “As far as I know, that’s only happened once at Randolph. It was just special.”

Calimeri scored a 17-1 technical fall over Barrett David of South Seneca-V to clinch a state medal, but then lost to eventual third-place finisher at 124 pounds, Trevor Middendorf of Newark Valley-IV, by 7-5 decision. Then he lost one more time with an 18-10 major decision by Lucas Hoffman of Odessa Montour/Watkins Glen in the seventh-place match.

“I’m super proud of all three of them,” Vogan said about his trio of state wrestlers. “It’s kind of been par for the course for us the last four years. We’ve been lucky. We’ve had two or three place finishers out here every year. We brought three or four kids and Carmine has been one of them.”

After falling in his semifinal, Newman lost two straight matches to finish a pair of spots above Calimeri on the podium. First he lost 8-2 against Aidan Lee of John Glenn-XI and then in the fifth-place bout suffered a 10-1 major decision to Joe Scott of Letchworth-V.

Braley had a similar finish to Calimeri as he began the 190-pound wrestlebacks with a 9-4 decision against Dikota Hamilton of Trumansburg/Charles O Dickerson-IV. Then he suffered an 18-8 major decision by Alwalid Bourkia of Scotia Glenville before dropping an exciting 11-8 sudden-victory decision against Avery Bustamante of Wayne-V in the seventh-place match.