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Southampton Press
January 30, 2003
WHB Falls to Huntington, Tops Kings Park, Wins Tourney
By Kerry Monaco
The Westhampton Beach wrestling team became Huntington’s 67th straight victim on
January 22. The Hurricanes suffered a 40-18 loss to Huntington at home in a League IV match. The win was Huntington’s
67th consecutive dual-meet victory and Huntington and Islip are currently tied for first place in League IV with
5-0 records. The Hurricanes are in second with a 3-2 record.
The Hurricanes followed the loss to Huntington with a 42-24 win over Kings Park on Friday and then won the Herricks
Highlander Tournament, for the second straight season, with 190 points on Saturday at Herricks High School.
The tough competition continues this week for the Hurricanes, who are currently ranked 12th on Long Island. Westhampton
Beach will face Hauppauge, ranked 10th on Long Island, on Friday in a League IV match.
Canes Fall to Huntington
The match between the Hurricanes and Huntington started off in favor of the Blue Devils but the Hurricanes crept
back into it and still had a chance to win it with three bouts left.
But it didn’t happen. The Hurricanes lost all three of the final bouts and fell to Huntington, 40-18.
Huntington led 28-6 heading into the 145-pound match-up but the Hurricanes weren’t going down without a fight.
Senior Todd Fitzgerald had scored the Canes’ only points through the first seven bouts with a pin at 112 pounds.
At 145 pounds, Hurricane Rob Sanfilippo trailed 5-4 heading into the third period but scored a reverse with 1:10
left in the bout to grab a 6-5 lead and hung on for the win to earn three team points.
In the 152–pound battle, Westhampton Beach’s Jeff Karl was trailing Chris Steibel, 6-3, but scored a pin with 12
seconds to go in the third period to bring the team score to 28-15 in favor of Huntington.
Brian Schmidt kept the Hurricanes alive with a 3-2 decision over Chris Holland at 160 pounds to cut the Blue Devils
lead to 28-18.
The Hurricanes needed to win the final three bouts and score at least 11 points to pull off the win but Huntington
won all three of the remaining bouts to come away with the win.
Westhampton Tops Kings Park
The Hurricanes put the loss to Huntington behind them and beat Kings Park (1-3), 42-24.
“We won without four of our starters, which is pretty impressive,” Westhampton Beach coach Paul Bass said. “The
best thing about this team is our depth. There’s a bunch of kids who are sick or injured but we have kids who can
step up and fill in and be successful.”
Kings Park forfeited four weight classes and the Hurricanes won four of the nine bouts that were wrestled.
Fitzgerald (112) pinned Rob Scanapico in 3:11 to put the Hurricanes on the board.
“Todd wrestled really well,” Bass said. “He is starting to do the right things in order to win.”
Freshman Nick Broccoli made his varsity debut with an 8-4 win over Steve Montambo in the 135-pound bout. Broccoli
is the first freshman to wrestle for the varsity team so far this season.
Tom Sheppard (145) won a 12-7 decision over Tom Mullins and Schmidt won the 160-pound bout by injury default to
round out the Hurricane winners.
Squad Wins Herricks Tournament
The Hurricanes tallied 190 team points to win the Herricks Tournament, edging out second-place Port Jervis (Section
IX) by five and a half points.
“It was a nice mix of teams,” Bass said. “There were four teams from Nassau, three teams from upstate and us. There
was some really good competition there.”
The Hurricanes crowned three champions and scored points in every weight class.
Fitzgerald pinned Herricks’ Paul Phillips in 4:22 to claim the 112-pound crown, Hurricane John Krupp won a technical
fall decision in 5:04 against Herricks’ Mike Auriemma in the 215-pound final and Westhampton’s Jason Herrick pinned
Lou Kucharski of Port Jervis, who is ranked fifth in Section IX, in 5:48 to prevail in the super-heavyweight final.
Schmidt (145) and Frank Schlegel (189) both took second and Joe Guiffre placed third at 130 pounds.
The Hurricanes had eight wrestlers clinch fourth place in their respective classes: Andrew Mistina (103), Ryan
Spano (119), Bryan Gales (125), Kyle Berglin (135), Sanfilippo (140), Karl (152), Jim Christy (171) and Charlie
Pendlebury (189).
Bret Klug took fifth at 160 and John Gillin (171) and Jason Gress (189) placed sixth.
The Hurricanes will face Hauppauge tomorrow at home and will travel to Comsewogue on Wednesday to wrap up the League
IV season.
“If we can knock Hauppauge off, it will really do good things for us,” Bass said. “I’m happy with the way things
are going so far this season and I hope they continue.”
The Press 01/30/03
Copyright The Southampton Press
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