Samson Mckissick Staley sized up two weight classes in the 2026 Eastern States Wrestling Classic, a wrestling tournament that is a magnet for elite high school wrestlers.
The path to a first-place finish in one weight class seemed to present a tougher challenge than another.
“I wanted to push myself, so I cut down (my weight) to 144 for that matchup (I was seeking),” Mckissick Staley said.
The Pittsford middleweight, a runner-up in the 2024 and 2025 high school wrestling state championships, did get the matchup he wanted with Gavin Mangano, a junior at Shoreham Wading River on Long Island. Mckissick Staley lost, 17-3 during the Eastern States Wrestling Classic finals in Clifton Park, Saratoga County.
“I wrestled him last year at the same tournament and lost to him there,” Mckissick Staley said.
“I’m always trying to get better, you wrestle good kids.”
In Mckissick Staley’s mind, this is the way to go even if there is a chance to lose an undefeated season, like he did. Mckissick Staley, an Eastern States Wrestling Classic champion two years ago as a sophomore, now has a loss among 22 matches this season, according to trackwrestling.com, but no regrets.
“I like doing things that a lot of people don’t,” Mckissick Staley said. “Hard things, things that are uncomfortable or people say ‘Ah man, that sucks.’
“I really like getting the opportunity to do those things.”
Pittsford coach Keith Pittinaro has watched Mckissick Staley seek out, and in many cases, meet challenges since the wrestler’s freshman year. Mckissick Staley and his family moved into the Pittsford school district from Rolla, Missouri, a city about halfway between St. Louis and Springfield.
“Some people would argue that (the Eastern States Wrestling Classic) is tougher than the state tournament, because you have the best in the state from large and small schools, plus kids from other states,” Pittinaro said. “His focus was on his area of wrestling, that he got better, rather than the title. That says volumes about him.
“He’s a dawg, he just wants to go. He went down there just to wrestle that kid. It didn’t go his way, but he was happy that he got that match.”
The New York-USA Wrestling website has Mckissick Staley at the top of its Division I or large schools state rankings for 150-pound wrestlers. He was a strong contender for the 2024 and 2025 Democrat and Chronicle All-Greater Rochester Large Schools Wrestler of the Year and is again a candidate during his senior year at Pittsford Mendon.
Coaches at Cornell University see a fit for their program in Mckissick Staley, who has committed to wrestle at the Ivy League school.
“It’s one of the best wrestling schools in the country, top 10,” Mckissick Staley said. “Obviously, there is an opportunity to push myself there. It’s an Ivy League school.
“(And) there was an emphasis on making it fun while pushing yourself. They definitely had the best team mentality.”
Mckissick Staley’s wrestling resume includes a lot more, including four Monroe County league championships, three Section V class titles and three first-place finishes at the Section V SuperSectionals or state qualifiers. He also has finished in the top-six in his weight class at the state championships three times, including second in 2024 and 2025.
“I’ve been the No. 1 seed in the state tournament but I’ve finished second both years,” Mckissick Staley said. “I haven’t walked away disappointed, because I know that I’ve worked and did everything I could have just to get there that year.”
Here are other 138- to 165-pound wrestlers in Section V to watch, with the Section V class championships (Feb. 7) and state qualifiers or SuperSectionals (Feb. 14) coming up:
Ben Burrows
Burrows is senior on the Pittsford wrestling team, who won 22 of his first 26 matches. He is the 2025-26 season Monroe County 144-pound champion, a title earned with an 8-0 victory over Honeoye Falls-Lima’s Chase McVige. Lansing’s Evan Sheils, a wrestler in Section IV, defeated Burrows in the Canandaigua tournament finals..
James Chase
A sophomore on the Avon‑Geneseo team who earned a seventh‑place finish at the state championships last year as a lightweight, Chase is the 144‑pound Livingston County champion this season and a tournament winner at Perry and Arkport.
Brody Heckman
This is the senior-year season for Heckman, who wrestles on the Alexander/Pembroke team. Heckman has racked up the first-place finishes at the Byron-Bergen and Canandaigua tournaments, plus an event with more than 25 teams at SUNY Niagara. Heckman pinned his opponent during the final round out west and won 2-1 over Dansville/Wayland-Cohocton’s Peter Thompson in the 165-pound Byron-Bergen final. At Canandaigua, Heckman came out on top 15-10 over Pittsford’s Kristopher Milhatitsas in the Robert Bradshaw Memorial final.
Trey LeChase
LeChase was a member of the 2025 Democrat and Chronicle All-Greater Rochester Division I Team. The brightest spot in the Fairport senior’s season so far, is a fifth-place finish at the Eastern States Wrestling Classic. He won the 2025-26 season tournament at Batavia. LeChase finished second to state champion Christopher Noto at Cicero-North Syracuse’s tournament, the Monroe County Championships and Canandaigua’s Robert Bradshaw tournament. Landyn Shaffer, a wrestler in Section IV, was the only wrestler who placed ahead of LeChase at the Windsor tournament.
LeChase jumped on to the list of wrestlers to watch last season after he won his weight class at Section V’s SuperSectionals and finished fourth at the state championships.
Myles Jarzyna
The Livonia senior won 19 of his first 21 matches, according to trackwrestling.com. His most recent triumph through Jan 17, was earning the Livingston County 157-pound championship. That title was clinched with a pin in 2 minutes, 37 seconds. Jarzyna was one of two outstanding wrestlers recognized at the tournament at Pavilion and also pinned his opponent in the weight class final at Perry.
Jacob McVige
Honeoye Falls-Lima senior was a state finalist last year. McVige is a Monroe County champion this season, a title he earned with a 1-0 victory over Devon Weber, another wrestler on this watch list. The HF-L middleweight also won the tournament in Windsor in Section IV or Binghamton region. Another victory for McVige to circle, was a triumph over Webster Schroeder’s Liam Torpey in the third-place match of the Canandaigua tournament.
Marco Provenzano
Provenzano is a sophomore at Fairport whose season seems to be picking up speed. He won the 2026 Hornell tournament in the first week of January. He also won his bouts by convincing scores against a Brockport wrestler and a Webster Schroeder wrestler during the Section V Dual Match Championships. Provenzano, who placed eighth at the 2025 state championships as a 124-pounder, placed third at Canandaigua’s tournament Jan. 16-17.
Ryder Reichert
It’s a guess, but it might not be a coincidence that this junior on the Alexander/Pembroke team has had success similar to middleweight teammate Brody Heckman’s. They seem close enough in weight to be partners during practice drills. That would help explain how Reichert was undefeated after 24 matches this season, including bouts in the 150-pound tournament at Canandaigua. That added to Reichert’s first-place finishes at Byron-Bergen and SUNY Niagara.
Jon Testa
The Hilton senior hopes to build on his fourth-place finish at the 2025 state championships. Since then, Testa has earned a fourth-place finish at the Eastern States Wrestling Classic and become a Monroe County champion. Testa scored a technical fall against Webster Schroeder’s Jackson Harrison in the Monroe County 132-pound final.
Gage Thomas
A senior at Bath Haverling, Thomas became a three-time Livingston County champion Jan. 17, but for the first time since the 2022-23 season. He also won tournaments at Arkport and Alfred University, an event that included Fairport and Geneva. Last season, Thomas became a Section V class champion for the first time.
Devon Weber
A sophomore on the Greece Storm team that includes wrestlers at all of the schools in the district, Weber had some success last season He placed seventh at the 2025 state championships at 138 pounds after he was a runner-up at Section V’s state qualifiers and during the sectional class championships. He’s about 20 pounds heavier this season, but has displayed that he has handled a growth spurt. The largest piece of proof of this is a third-place finish at the Eastern States Wrestling Classic.
Weber also won the tournament at Penfield and lost in the Monroe County Championships finals to HF-L’s Jacob McVige, a 2025 state finalist. Two-time state finalist Samson Mckissick Staley shut out Webber 7-0 during the Canandaigua tournament finals.
William Wood
“Billy” Wood placed seventh as a middleweight at the 2025 state championships. This season, Wood is the Monroe County 165-pound champion. He also was a winner at the Webster Schroeder and Lockport tournaments. Rory White, a member of a respected team at Buffalo Saint Francis, defeated Wood during the finals of a 36-team tournament in Jamestown.
James Johnson, who grew up in the city of Rochester, has worked as a full-time journalist covering high school sports for the Democrat and Chronicle since 1996. He has become a two-time winner of the Rochester Press-Radio Club’s Sports Media Excellence Award. The Upstate New York Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame presented Johnson its 2023 Stanbro Media Award. He was the recipient of Section V wrestling’s award for “outstanding service” to the sport in 2012.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: These top Section V middleweights are dominating on the mat this season
Reporting by James Johnson, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
