WINDSOR – Two Chenango County teams have emerged early in the 59th annual Windsor Christmas Tournament to take the top two spots for the team scores.

Norwich trails only BGAH, both Chenango County, for the top two spots after the completion of the first day of the two-day tournament. BGAH leads Norwich by a close two and a half-point margin, as both teams look to improve on their first day results.

Norwich placed second as a team overall last year at the2014 Windsor Christmas Tournament, ultimately losing to Huntington. “If we place in the top four or five as a team I will be happy, but our main goal is to get some Windsor champions, were taking it one match at a time so hopefully we’ll have five in the finals come tomorrow night,” said Norwich Head Coach Bob Hagenbuch.

“We brought 12 guys here and we still have 11 wrestling,” said Hagenbuch, “we matched up pretty tough with the seeds. But overall, we won when we were supposed to win and we dominated those matches.”

The 28-team tournament is known for being very competitive, as each year never fails at producing some of the year’s most exciting matchups.

“You have state winners and state placers here everywhere you look,” said Hagenbuch, “semi’s are usually the best matches to watch, there are going to be some really great matches.”

Norwich returns tomorrow with 5 of their 11 remaining wrestlers slated to step on the mat for a semi –final matchup.

Hagenbuch gave a preview of some of tomorrow’s big semi-final matchups for the Purple Tornado saying; “Eli Rodriguez has a kid that beat him last year in the semi’s, it will be a lot closer match this year. At 145 Nick Murphy is wrestling against a kid that pinned him in the Vestal Duel meet. We have got to keep wrestling tough, no doubt about it.”

Due to bad weather being expected throughout the night and into tomorrow moring, the tournament start time for semi-finals and wrestle backs has been pushed back from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m., with finals to start around 5 p.m.

Team scores from first to last place after the first day:

BGAH, 64; Norwich, 61.5; Indian River, 60.5; Deposit-Hancock, 60; Huntington, 52.5; Canandaigua, 43; Vestal, 43; Towanda, 37.5; Sherburne-Earlville, 37; Tioga, 30; Liberty, 29.5; Colonie, 29; Homer, 28; Greene, 24; Susquehanna Valley, 24; Walton, 24; Saratoga Springs, 20.5; Windsor, 20.5; Whitney Point, 19; Watkins Glen, 18.5; Oxford, 18; Union Endicott, 17.5; Unatego, 15; Spencer-Van Etten, 13.5; Waverly, 13.5; Chenango Forks, 13; Corning, 7.5; Lansing, 4.

Chenango County semi-finalists:

99: Eli Rodriguez (1), Norwich. 113: Chris Cirigliano (1), BGAH. 120: Dalen Geislinger (2), Norwich. 126: Ty Rifanburg (4), Norwich. 138: Cole Rifanburg (2), Norwich; Ben Bivar (3), BGAH. 145: Nick Murphy (5), Norwich; Shane Hoover (6), BGAH. 152: Nate Banks (4), Greene; Hunter Owen (6), S-E; Madison Hoover (2), BGAH. 160: Austin Carr (2), BGAH. 182: Braxton Howell (3), Greene. 195: Jack Buell (1), S-E. 220: Dylan Mondore (4), BGAH. 285: Kordell Huntley (1), Oxford.

For a complete layout of the brackets and matchups, you can find them online at: http://www.windsor-csd.org/WindsorChristmasTournament.aspx