BERNE — History was made for the young Berne-Knox-Westerlo wrestling program on Saturday.

BKW had its first-ever classification champion in only its third year of being a varsity team.

Josh Glick won the 140-pound weight class at the Class C meet in Corinth on Saturday. Glick bested Tyler Nicholson of Corinth to win the weight class. It was Glick’s 29th win of the season.
"He avenged a loss from earlier in the season," said BKW Coach Jeff Vogel. "He dominated the match, 14-9."

Not only did the Bulldogs get their first champion, but five wrestlers qualified for the Section II small-school tournament at the Glens Falls Civic Center this Friday and Saturday.
"It’s quite the accomplishment," Vogel said. "This year they are only taking the top four in each weight class. In the past, they took six."

Nolan Diamond reached the final of the 160-pound weight class. Greg Hannay went 4-1 in the 189-pound weight class to earn a spot at the Section II meet.

Matt Hoffman finished fourth in the 145-pound weight class and David Tiernan finished in the same spot in the 125-pound class.
"He had an awesome day," Vogel said of Hannay. "His weight class had nine boys with 18 wins or more in it. He had a tremendous day. He has 27 wins on the season."

The Bulldogs had a good day without one of its best wreslters.
"Our main guy, Keith Domermuth, is out with an injury," Vogel said. "That makes the day more remarkable. He’s our super heavyweight and one of the favorites in the section. He was injured two weeks before and was not able to wrestle."

Tommy Bushnell finished sixth in the 152-pound weight class.
"He was injured in the semifinals," Vogel said. "He would’ve finished higher."

The Bulldogs finished the day with six grapplers in the top six of their weight classes.
"We finished with over 100 points," Vogel said. "I don’t know of any third-year team that scored as high in the section."

BKW scored 101 points and finished seventh against much longer-established programs.
"I think ending the year with at least nine high quality wrestlers is great," Vogel said. "We had six placed in the top six and three more that were in the round of eight."

The Bulldogs also had a good regular season as six wrestlers finished with 20 wins or more.
"That is a major accomplishment especially if you look at our non-league matches," Vogel said. "We wrestled two CC schools and an AA as well as some B schools. So to have six kids with 20 or more wins with an aggressive schedule like that is something to be proud of."

The Bulldogs wrestled Shaker, a much larger Class AA school, as well as Class B schools Oneonta, Schalmont, and Catskill during the regular season.

BKW also finished second in the Western Athletic Conference behind Duanesburg, which is a top-10 team in the state in Class D.

And the best part for the Bulldogs, is they have just one senior. Tiernan is the only wrestler who will graduate this June.
"We’ll have Keith coming back," Vogel said, "and add in Blake Whitbeck, Vinnie Pasquini, and Steven Yakel and that is nine quality varsity wrestlers coming back next year. That is great for a fourth-year program to start the year with nine really good varsity wrestlers."