skip navigation

NY-USAW High School Team of the Week (Wk #2): St. Francis Red Raiders

12/10/2024, 3:30pm EST
By NY-USAW Media Team

Red Raiders Take Down DII #1, HFL, En route to Title at VinLouie Duals Title

Team:
St. Francis 

Section:
CHSAA

2024 Achievements:
-3rd at the 2024 NYSPHSAA DI State Tournament
-2024 NYCHSAA State Tournament Champions
-2024 NYCHSAA State Dual Champions

Rationale:
Went a perfect 9-0, including wins over DII #1 Honeoye Falls-Lima and DII #25 Newfane to win the VinLouie Pizzeria Duals!


Description:
Defending their home soil on the Hamburg, NY based campus, the Red Raiders would not just win; they'd conquer in convincing fashion by getting their arms raised in 101 of the 117 contested individual bouts between last Friday and Saturday...

Entering the 2024-2025 season as the #2 ranked large school program in the state; the defending CHSAA State Dual and Tournament champs made an early play for the top spot when they upended the "numero uno" among DII schools, Honeoye Falls-Lima, to the tune of a 50-17 triumph!!

Picking up all important signature dubs during this clash of #1 (DII) vs. #2 (DI) would be the likes of Griffin LaPlante (22-7 TF over #3 ranked/2024 State 4th, Waylan Winseman); Kole Haseley (pinned #15 ranked Chase McVige in 1:03); Zachary Caldwell (10-2 major decision over 2024 Section 5 placer, Owen Englert); & Willy Wortkoetter (pinned 2024 Section 5 placer,  August Youngstrom, in 2:00)...

The win over the Cougars being the second of a pair of top-25 victories notched by St. Francis; on day #1, they were every bit as convincing in toppling 25th-rated Newfane by a score of 56-15...

Emerging with a noteworthy individual exploit versus the the Panthers would be Rory White (pinned 2023 S6 Bronze medalist, Collin Doxey, in 3:32)!!!

Additional dual victories came at the expense of the following: 
*55-15 over Orchard Park (Haseley 15-0 over '24 S6 6th, Evan Dorsheimer)
*63-9 over Gowanda (Haseley 16-1 over '24 S6 6th, Greg Reid)
*72-6 over Lewiston-Porter 
*67-4 over Attica-Batavia (Caldwell 4-2 over #7 ranked, Dominic Darch)
*57-9 over Eden (Catrabone 2-0 over #2 ranked/2024 State 7th, Mason DellaPenta)
*71-0 over Niagara Falls (Catrabone 14-3 over #15 ranked/2024 S6 runner-up, Cameron Crumpler), 
*70-0 over Frontier (Wortkoetter pinned #3 ranked/2024 State 7th, Mike Welsh, in a time of 1:22)

Seven different Red Raiders completed the weekend's festivities unblemished as LaPlante (160/170), White (160/170), Caldwell (215), and Wortkoetter (285) were joined in the undefeated club by Tanner Catrabone (108), Cullen Edwards (124), and and Tavio Hoose (190)...

Rocco Batt (101), Haseley (131/138) both just missed perfection by racking up 8-1 resumes...

Zak Massaro (131/138) & Max McCarthy (145/152) more than held their own, ending the weekend with 7-2 marks!


FINAL RECORDS

WEIGHT CLASS NAME RECORD
101 Rocco Batt 8-1
108 Tanner Catrabone 9-0
116 Cam Wiepert 5-4
124 Cullen Edwards 9-0
131/138 Kole Haseley 8-1
131/138 Zak Massaro 7-2
145/152 Max McCarthy 7-2
145/152 Brandon Wiepert 3-3
152 Owen Miller 0-3
160/170 Griff LaPlante 9-0
160/170 Rory White 9-0
190 Tavio Hoose 9-0
215 Zachary Caldwell 9-0
285 William Wortkoetter 9-0

***If there is a team that you feel ought to be honored; please do not hesitate to share your opinion....

All nominations for consideration can be submitted to NYUSAWTOW@gmail.com****


Note: Criteria/bullet points for a given week will run the traditional Sunday-Saturday format!

Tag(s): Articles