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"Commitment to Excellence" |
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Southampton Press The last time the Westhampton Beach wrestling team took the mat at Shoreham/Wading River, the Hurricanes suffered an 11-point loss in the season finale and missed out on their first league title since 1991. That was back in 2004. Things have turned around since then for the Hurricanes, who won back-to-back undefeated League VI titles in 2005 and 2006, before extending their undefeated league dual meet streak to 14 in the opening weeks of their 2007 campaign. But a trip back to Shoreham/Wading River on January 10 had a devastating impact, just as it did three years ago. In a match that should have swung the way of the visitors, the Wildcats pulled off a 35-25 victory. With that meet being the first in a series against teams that will compete for the league title, the loss to the Wildcats stings—a lot. Three big dogs remain on the Hurricanes’ schedule: they were set to host Rocky Point yesterday and will travel to Harborfields on Friday and Mount Sinai on February 2. As of Tuesday morning, Rocky Point and Harborfields were undefeated while Westhampton Beach and Mount Sinai each had one loss. Shoreham/Wading River still has a slim chance at the league title as the Wildcats lost their two season-opening matches. Entering the match against the Wildcats, Westhampton Beach coach Paul Bass said he felt good about his matchups and, for the most part, decisions went the way he expected. He noted that the failure of some wrestlers to score more team points in victories is what did the team in. It was the same situation in the dual meet loss to Deer Park in the finals of the Westhampton Beach Dual Meet Tournament four days earlier, which was the first dual meet loss of any kind for the Hurricanes since that night in Shoreham three years earlier. “I don’t think that half of our team came to wrestle that night and that falls on me,” Bass said. “As the coach, it’s my job to get the intensity up. That’s on me to motivate them. They are a nice group of kids and we have good leadership, but they’ve got to learn to bring up the intensity. It’s not everybody but there are guys that are mellow. We didn’t pin when we needed to.” Even though the Wildcats lineup features five studs, four of whom are ranked in the county’s top six, coach Bass was confident that if things played out as expected, it would amount to the third victory of the season for his Hurricanes. Defending state champion Corey Jantzen is ranked No. 1 in the county and is the favorite to win the states this year at 135 pounds, an opportunity that was in jeopardy in recent weeks. The Wildcat had been ruled ineligible after competing and placing seventh in the prestigious Midlands Tournament in Ohio in late December. At the tournament, Jantzen wrestled against collegiate athletes, which is not permitted without a waiver from the state. Shoreham/Wading River Athletic Director Jim Cranmer assured Jantzen that he had the proper paperwork when, in fact, no such paperwork was filed. Jantzen appealed the decision and was reinstated the morning of the meet with Westhampton Beach. Steven Keith is the top-ranked wrestler in both the county and the state at 96 pounds, T.J. Neidhardt is the county’s sixth-ranked guy at 140 and superheavyweight Ian Mucciolo is the county’s top wrestler at that weight. Keith Butler is not ranked in the county though he finished second in the league last season and is generally a guaranteed victory for the Wildcats at 171 pounds. Because the super-heavyweight class is optional, it’s not often wrestled in dual meets and coach Bass said that the other four standouts in the lineup generally rack up 24 points, the maximum, for the Wildcats. And while that wasn’t the case against the Hurricanes, the team in green still could not find a way to beat Shoreham/Wading River, mainly due to that lack of intensity on the mat. The only match that the Wildcats earned six points for was a forfeit to Jantzen. Keith scored five points, Neidhardt added four and Butler scored three. The forfeiture to Jantzen was a strategic move by Bass, who then moved each of the next five wrestlers up a class. “That was the best lineup for us against them,” he said. “I would have wasted [Paul] Dilandro if I put him against Jantzen. No one in Suffolk County can go with him. One of the worst guys in their lineup is at 189, so I would have wasted [Steve] Kobus too if I didn’t move him up. We should have had enough to beat them but a handful of kids didn’t come to wrestle.” Dilandro won at 152 pounds, Alex Mazarakis pinned at 189 and Kobus won at 215, all up one class, and in that stretch of matches came one of the biggest disappointments of the night at 160 pounds. Westhampton Beach’s Mike Miller led 2-0 and then with 40 seconds remaining, he got put on his back and 10 seconds later he was stuck, taking what would have been a three-point Westhampton Beach decision and turning it into a six-point Shoreham/Wading River pin. Cory Hubbard pinned at 112 pounds, Scott Lagoumis won at 125 and Kyle Hubbard was victorious at 135 for the other Westhampton Beach wins. Pete Detore (96), Joe Santaly-Graf (140) and Rich Mailand (171) all lost their respective matches. But the fact that not a single one of them was pinned by their opponents, not an easy feat considering the talent of the Wildcats, helped keep the Hurricanes in the match. In other news, some of the Hurricanes’ younger wrestlers, 21 freshmen and sophomores, competed in a 13-team junior varsity tournament at Newfield High School on Saturday. Nine of the 21 wrestlers placed and five were finalists.
Westhampton’s Kyle Hubbard, right, breaks down his opponent in the 135-pound match on January 10 at Shoreham/Wading River. Hubbard went on to win by major decision, 10-1. KERRY MONACO PHOTOS
Frustration is evident on the face of Westhampton Beach head coach Paul Bass in the loss to Shoreham/Wading River on January 10. |
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