High School Wrestling Blog

BY CHRIS MASCARO

What a fantastic day of wrestling today. A tournament comes down to the final match (which verrryy rarely happens), the Long Island Challenge lived up to its billing as the best high school wrestling event of the year, we saw one of the best matchups of the season so far at the Sachem North Tournament, and much, much more.

Okay, let's start in Glen Cove, where North Shore's Joe Denouvellis pinned Glen Cove's Lewis Linares in 59 seconds in the 285-pound final to give North Shore a two-point advantage in the final team score.

Some other highlights of the tourney include a pair of Garden City wrestlers. Spencer DeSena earned a first-period pin in the 215-pound final, while teammate Joe Barbato stuck his man in the 96-pound final. GC's Nick Preziosi lost in the 145 final, 7-3, to New Rochelle's Tom Antonioli, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler.

Okay, let's move on to the first day of the Long Island Challenge. Pool A (Brentwood, MacArthur "B," Sayville, Plainedge) was at MacArthur, while Pool B (Islip, Miller Place, Farmingdale, MacArthur) was at Islip. It'll be Brentwood against MacArthur in tomorrow's final at Islip at 12:30 p.m.

Brentwood cruised in its three matches today. Here are the team's results:
Brentwood 68, MacArthur "B" 3
Brentwood 49, Sayville 13
Brentwood 47, Plainedge 16

What's interesting is that Sayville bumped off Plainedge (who I had ranked third on Long Island in my preview), 36-22. A couple of conclusions about this, A) yes, Brentwood is that much better than all of the teams on L.I. save Hauppauge, B) Plainedge was ranked a little too high. Not 10 spots too high, but maybe four. We'll see how to sort things out after tomorrow's matches. I'll be there for the final, and I'll try to get a blog in with results from the morning.

Here's how MacArthur got to tomorrow's final:
MacArthur 44, Farmingdale 21
MacArthur 36, Miller Place 20
MacArthur 33, Islip 18

I can't see MacArthur beating Brentwood (or really coming close for that matter), but what a great win over Islip. When I put out a new set of rankings next week, I know that MacArthur will be at least fourth behind Brentwood, Hauppauge, and possibly Longwood depending on how they did at the Cicero-North Syracuse Tournament, which ended today.

Sayville definitely warrants a spot in the top-10 with its performance. Glenn won the Ward Melville Tournament , but as I've stated before, I need to see a little bit more from them before they crack into the top-10. Ward Melville is a pretty good club, but beyond that, there wasn't much talent in the seven-team field. Stay tuned with them.

Also, watch out for Miller Place. They aren't even close to being well-rounded enough to be in the conversation for the top-10, but their big guys can compete with anyone, led by Carl Korpi at 215. Check out what he's done so far this year, and how many coaches have already decided to duck him.

Now, let's talk about the match of the day...maybe the match of the season. At the Sachem North Tournament, Shoreham-Wading River's Steven Keith took on Bayport-Blue Point's Glenn Donatelli in the 112-pound final. Keith won the state title at 96 pounds last season, while Donatelli was fourth at 103.

It was a very tight match, but in the end Keith earned a 4-1 victory. The match was scoreless after the first period, but Keith got two near-fall points in the second on a tilt. Donatelli (who chose to be on bottom at the beginning of the period) eventually escaped to make it 2-1 going into the final period. Keith took neutral, and made the decision pay off by taking Donatelli down to seal the victory.

Said SWR coach Joe Condon: "I think it's going to help his confidence. It's a quality win over a top opponent. Steven was on the offensive the entire match."

The greatest thing about this match—it's scheduled to happen again on January 9.

From sectionxi.org: 1/9/2008 4:30 PM Shoreham WR @ Bayport-Blue Point

Stay tuned.

Also from Sachem North (where no team scores were kept, but East Islip led the way with four champions, while Deer park had three champs and two runner-ups), was yet another SWR-BBP final at 145 pounds, as T.J. Neidhart (SWR) defeated Kevin Edward, 7-0. Another pretty good matchup that should take place again in the coming weeks.

Yet, I can't see either of the BBP guys getting revenge the next time around.

Elsewhere: Uniondale won a pair of matches at its dual-meet tournament, West Babylon won the Half Hollow Hills East Tournament and Bellmore-JFK's Zach Cogan was named MOW, and Rocky Point won the Mid-Hudson Tournament in a tough, 19-team field behind strong efforts from Matt Ross (96 pound champ) Brandon Escobar (112 champ), Anthony Volpe (135 champ who earned his 100th career win in the final), Jerry Ceccio (140 champ) and Billy Coggins (145 champ). Baldwin's Vinny Pecora also was crowned a champion, at 103 pounds. He and Ross were named the Most Outstanding Junior and Freshman at the event, respectively.

Rocky Point is one of the teams alongside Glenn on the cusp of breaking into the top-10. So make sure to watch out for the Eagles.

As for tomorrow, we've got three huge events on tap: the second day of the L.I. Challenge, the finals of the West Islip Tournament (featuring the host Lions, East Meadow, Harborfields and more), and the Massapequa Tournament (featuring Hauppauge, the host Chiefs, Monroe-Woodbury of Section IX, Wantagh and more).

I'll try to post a blog about each one throughout the day tomorrow (or at the latest Sunday morning), so be on the lookout.

See you out there.