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Southampton Press
January 8, 2003
Hurricanes Place 2nd at Home Tourney
By Kerry Monaco
The Westhampton Beach wrestling team wrapped up the preseason with a solid performance
to claim second place at the Westhampton Beach Dual Meet Tournament on Saturday.
The third seed Hurricanes fell to top seed Smithtown, 37-24, in the final. Walt Whitman took third with a 39-32
win over East Islip and Comsewogue finished fifth with a 45-27 victory over Southampton.
How the Tournament Works
The morning of the tournament, the coaches take a vote and each team was seeded.
League I Smithtown earned the top seed followed by League II Walt Whitman, League IV Westhampton Beach, League
III East Islip, League IV Comsewogue and League V Southampton.
The first, fourth and fifth-seeded teams were in one pool and the second, third and sixth seeds were in a second
pool. Each team wrestled the other two teams in its pool in a dual meet and the two teams that finished the opening
round undefeated wrestled for the championship.
Smithtown and Westhampton Beach both finished the opening round undefeated and earned the chance to wrestle for
first place. East Islip and Walt Whitman each lost one match in the opening round and battled it out for third
and winless Southampton and Comsewogue wrestled for fifth place.
Hurricanes Lose in Final
The Hurricanes knew it wasn’t going to be easy heading into the final match against Smithtown, one of the top teams
in League I.
“A lot of people may say that we had a good showing against a team in a higher league,” Westhampton Beach coach
Paul Bass said. “But we could’ve beaten them. After it’s all over, you always rethink and say ‘What if?’ We gave
up too many pins.”
Smithtown came out and jumped to an early 12-3 lead but the Hurricanes made it interesting, tying the score at
12-12 after five bouts. Hurricane Joe Guiffre (130) was trailing Brandon Haviland, 9-3, with about 25 seconds left
in the second period but he scored a quick takedown and then got the pin with 18 seconds to go to tie the team
score at 12-12.
But Smithtown came barreling back, jumping to a 31-12 lead.
Travis Chornoma (160) kept the Hurricanes within striking distance with a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Jeff Pastore.
Chornoma trailed 4-2 after one period but tallied three near-fall points to grab a 5-4 edge after the second period.
Pastore managed an escape to tie the score at 5-5 with 1:15 to go in the bout and the score remained locked in
a tie until Chornoma scored a takedown with 33 seconds left to take a 7-5 lead. Pastore earned another escape but
Chornoma hung on for the win and the Bulls led, 31-15.
Bull Steve Krivista pinned Hurricane Jim Christy in 1:46 to give Smithtown an insurmountable 37-15 lead.
At 189, Hurricane Frank Schlegel won a 4-1 decision over Steven Jordan for three team points and Hurricane John
Krupp (215) pinned Mike Reiter in 3:23 to make the final score 37-24 in favor of the Bulls.
“I’ve been seeing some inconsistencies so far this season,” Bass said. “We are working on that. If you want to
be an elite team, you need more consistency from everyone.”
Despite some weaknesses, Bass is positive about his team’s future.
“We’re right there,” Bass said. “We haven’t peaked yet, which is good.”
WHB Dominates 1st Round
The Hurricanes had no problems making their way into the championship as the squad dominated Southampton, 75-6,
and upset Walt Whitman, 47-20, to qualify for the final.
It was a walk in the park for the Hurricanes against Southampton as the squad pulverized the Mariners. The Mariners
forfeited the 103- and 125-pound bouts and the only bout the Hurricanes lost was at 119 pounds.
Hurricanes Fitzgerald (112), Kyle Berglin (135), Rob Sanfilippo (140), Tom Sheppard (145), Brett Klug (152), Chornoma
(160), Christy (171), Schlegel (189), Krupp (215) and Jason Herrick (275) all pinned their opponents.
In the match against Walt Whitman, the Wildcats took an early 14-3 lead after four bouts but the Hurricanes won
two bouts with pins and a forfeit to take a 21-14 lead. Hurricane Joe Guiffre (130) pinned Mike Dolan in 1:40,
Walt Whitman forfeited at 135 pounds and Sanfilippo (140) pinned Steve Karim in 5:40 to help the Hurricanes build
that seven-point lead.
Jeff Karl, Chornoma, Christy, Schlegel and Krupp all won their bouts to help Westhampton Beach pull off the upset.
“The positive thing right now is with every match, different people are stepping up,” Bass said. “Whitman beat
our two All County kids [Fitzgerald and Fredette] but we still beat them by almost 30 points. That’s pretty impressive.”
The Press 01/09/03
Copyright The Southampton Press
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