A victory at 112 pounds for Westhampton Beach wrestler Pete Detore was the highlight
of his team’s 37-18 road win over League VI Amityville on Friday, January 11. Detore, wrestling in a higher weight
class than usual, won an 11-3 decision against Mico Wang, which pleased head coach Paul Bass.
“[Wang] pinned Pete last year and really manhandled him,” Bass said. “Pete usually
wrestles at 103 pounds, but we bumped him up since Amityville forfeited at 103. Pete not only beat him, but he
really handled him. That was a real great win and it shows how far he’s come in one year.”
The bout at 112 pounds was one of what Bass described as two “feature” matchups
on the day. The Hurricanes didn’t pick up a win in the other highly anticipated match, as Paul Dilandro (152 pounds)
lost a 12-9 decision to Angel Mazara. Both wrestlers were county placewinners in Division I last season, but had
never faced each other prior to Friday’s match.
“He just didn’t wrestle well at all,” Bass said of Dilandro. “He just didn’t have
it that day for whatever reason. He couldn’t get in a rhythm on his feet and just had a bad day. But he’ll regroup
and I’m confident that when he sees him again, he can beat him.”
While the final score was not close, many of the individual matchups were, as the
Hurricanes had to grind out close decisions to gain the win. At 119 pounds, Cory Hubbard earned a 12-8 decision;
Ethan Mitchell (130) won 11-5; Kyle Hubbard (135) earned a 10-2 decision; Dennis Hayes (140) earned 13-10 decision;
Brian Kobus (145) won a 7-1 decision; John Prudenti (160) won by a pin in 2:17 and Alex Mazarakis (171) won by
a technical fall in six minutes. Westhampton Beach forfeited at 215 pounds while Amityville’s only forfeit was
at 103 pounds.
“I didn’t think we wrestled extremely well sometimes, but we had great mat sense
and I thought we wrestled very tough,” Bass said in assessing his team’s overall performance. “Even sometimes after
making mistakes to put ourselves in bad situations, we pulled it out. Their coach even commented that we out toughed
them and out smarted them.”
Bass said on Sunday that his team was gearing up for a big week with some tough
dual meets on the horizon as well as a competitive tournament. The Hurricanes were scheduled to face Shoreham/Wading
River on Wednesday and will visit powerhouse Mount Sinai tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.
The team will compete in the Kujan Tournament at William Floyd on Saturday, which
will feature many of the top wrestlers in the county. Tough Nassau teams such as Wantagh and Plainedge will be
there as well.
