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Seven Buffalo Wrestlers Seeking New York State Titles

Cliff Smith

Seven wrestlers have advanced to the semifinals at the event, only one wrestler behind Army's eight in the semifinals, which has helped the Black Knights to a 92-point total after day one. Last year, Army took the title with 195 points with Buffalo 23 points behind. With two semifinal matches between the two teams already set and multiple opportunities for finals matchups, the two teams will fight for the title head-on on Saturday.

Cortland stands third with 61 points while Ithaca and Cornell round out the top five teams in the 17-team field with 59 points each.

Leading the way for Buffalo is 141-pound senior Cliff Smith (Merrick, NY/Calhoun), who has entered the starting 10 for the first time this year and responded with two wins, beating Nassau Community's Al Iaquinta, 4-1, in the first round before posting a 14-1 win against Oswego's Phil Gordon in the quarterfinals. He faces Cortland's top-ranked Paul LaBlanc in the semifinals. Smith is 4-5 in competition this year, but has posted a 45-41 career record.

Mark Budd

The NWCA/InterMat's fifteenth-ranked Mark Budd (Orrville, OH/Orrville) posted an 18-1 technical fall of RIT's Julian Nichols to advance to the quarterfinals where he took a 9-6 decision from Cornell's Nick Bridge. Budd, who has won eight matches in a row, is 26-3 this year. He faces Columbia's Eric Amstutz in the semifinals.

John Cummings

157-pound junior John Cummings (Bay Shore, NY/Bay Shore/Nassau CC), brimming with confidence stemmed by six straight wins, posted two more impressive wins, pinning Oneonta's Dave Ballard and then winning a 15-0 technical fall against Oswego's Eric Dicapua. He faces Army's Brian Rowan, ranked 17th in the Atlantic Region by WrestlingReport.com, in the semifinals.

Senior Garrett Hicks (Chautauqua, NY/Chautauqua Lake) beat Cornell's Mike Moore, 6-2, in his opening 184-pound match then pinned Alfred State's Justin Stewart at the 4:43 mark to earn a bid to the semis, where he faces Ithaca's Robert Stubbs.

Harold Sherrell

Senior Harold Sherrell (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) posted two of the three wins he needed to enter the top 15 in school history in career wins, as he beat Oswego's Jake Taylor, 9-2, in the first round, then beat Cornell's Matt Pollock, 2-1, in the quarterfinals. He faces Army's Michael Sprigg in the semifinals.

Two Bulls took the easy route to the semifinals, only having to win one match, as NWCA/InterMat/NWMA's seventh-ranked senior Kyle Cerminara (Lewiston, NY/Lewiston-Porter) posted a 21-5 technical fall of Hunter's Brian Scher for his 27th straight win at 197 pounds. Cerminara is currently on the second longest winning streak in the nation, behind only Missouri's Ben Askren, who has won 30 in a row. Jake Herbert of Northwestern has won 26. Cerminara faces Ithaca's Nick Calandrino in the semis.

Pat Lloyd

Junior Pat Lloyd (Middletown, NY/Valley Central) beat Cortland's Jason Chase, 6-1, in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals against Oswego's Dane LaPlante.

The Bulls will look for their ninth New York State Championship with a big finale to the tournament with semifinals starting at 12:00 pm on Saturday at Laker Hall.