What makes a successful dual meet team doesn’t always make a successful tournament
team. Westhampton Beach has what it takes to have both. Just a week after winning its second straight undefeated
regular season League VI title, the Westhampton Beach wrestling team won the League VI Tournament title on Saturday
at Harborfields High School.
To have a winning dual meet team, a team needs just one e x c e p t i o n a l wrestler
at each weight while a good tournament team has to have multiple talented wrestlers at each weight. “It was very
important to have our number two guys come through early with pins,” Westhampton Beach assistant coach Bob Emmons
said. “It set the stage and we really gained a lot of momentum with that.”
While the place-winners and big guns did their job scoring the points, it was the
second-string guys who won in the early rounds of the tournament, which made the difference. Westhampton Beach
tallied 209.5 points while Shoreham/Wading River trailed with 198 and Harborfields with 194. Shoreham/Wading River
had more champions and more finalists but Westhampton Beach came out with more points in the earlier rounds to
account for the difference.
“Without a couple of those firstround pins, we wouldn’t have gotten like 10 points,
which we needed to win the tournament,” senior Jon Gress said. “It means a lot that they did their job and came
through for the team.”
Westhampton Beach entered 25 wrestlers in the tournament, 12 of whom placed in the
top four and nine in the top three with three champions. The top three wrestlers in each weight class from each
of the county’s six league tournaments qualify for the Suffolk County Tournament, which will be held at the State
University of New York at Stony Brook on Friday and Saturday. Wrestling begins at 2 p.m. on Friday and 10:30 a.m.
on Saturday.
Seniors Gress (140), Nick Broccoli (145) and junior Steve Kobus (171) all won their
respective weight classes while Cory Hubbard (103) and Paul Dilandro (135) took second. Dennis Hayes (103), Joe
Graf (130), Julian Lee (135) and James Uresk (152) took third. Scott Lagoumis (119), Kyle Hubbard (125) and Chris
Lettieri (160) placed fourth and will be alternates for the county tournament.
“They are absolutely ready,” Emmons said of the upcoming county tournament. “Paul
[Bass] and I have been ready for the counties for a long time but they have to go out and wrestle, we don’t. This
week, it’s going to be a lot of finetuning. What they think they know, they don’t know well enough. The first goal
is to make it to the semis. That’s a thrill. You usually get your best matches in the semis and the kid with the
biggest heart and who wants it most wins. Then the finals and with the states on the island this year, everyone
has more desire to go all the way.”
As always, Gress, Broccoli and Kobus provided consistent winning for the Canes.
Broccoli won the league title at 140 pounds last year. This was the first league title for both Gress and Kobus,
who both placed second at last year’s league tournament.
Gress, the top seed, won his title with a 10-5 decision over second seed R.J. Miltner of Harborfields. “It’s amazing,”
Gress said of finally capturing the league title. “Especially being there for three years, to finally win it is
a great moment.”
Top seed Broccoli made it two straight league titles with a technical fall decision
over third seed Dennis Henriquez in the 145-pound championship bout.
Kobus, the top seed, won his title with a revenge victory, 5-3, in overtime over Eastport/South Manor’s Matt Berretta,
the second seed. Berretta beat Kobus during a dual meet earlier in the season.
“I didn’t want to take second,” Kobus said. “I didn’t want to lose to him a second
time. That’s all I kept thinking. I wanted to wrestle as hard as I could. I learned from last time and I watched
his earlier matches at the tournament.”
The little guys at 103 came up big for the Hurricanes. Eighth-grader Cory Hubbard,
the second seed, placed second while sophomore Dennis Hayes, who was unseeded, surprised all with a third-place
finish.
Hubbard and Hayes both had byes in the opening round and then in the quarters, Hayes
upset third seed Mike Dunn from Harborfields in the quarterfinals. Dunn had beaten Hubbard, the Hurricanes’ number
one wrestler at 103, in a dual meet earlier in the season.
Hubbard also won his quarterfinal match and the two then met in the semis, where Hubbard came out the victor. Hubbard
then got pinned by top seed Zach Colgan, the top seed, in a minute in the championship bout.
In the consolation bout, Hayes beat Kyle McLaughlin of Harborfields in dramatic
fashion to earn his spot in the county tournament. With 6.6 seconds remaining in the bout, McLaughlin led 8-6.
The Harborfields coach instructed McLaughlin to let Hayes escape, to make the score, 8-7, and then just stay on
his feet for the final seconds to secure the win.
Hayes had a different plan.
He managed a takedown at the buzzer for two points and the 9-8 win.
Also placing second was Dilandro, the top seed at 135, who was knocked off by third
seed Paul Coffin of Smithtown East, 6-5, in the finals. Dilandro beat teammate Lee in the semifinals. Lee went
on to place third.
Uresk entered the tournament seeded second but ended up in third after getting upset
by third seed Jeff Kent from Miller Place in the semifinals. Uresk pinned Peter Courtney from Shoreham/Wading River
in the consolation bout to secure his county tournament spot. Graf, the third seed, ended up in third with a 6-2
win over Eastport/South Manor’s Alex Rojas in the consolation bout at 130.
Lagoumis, Kyle Hubbard and Lettieri all lost in the consolation matches to finish
in fourth. Lettieri pinned fourth seed Tom Englehardt from Eastport/South Manor in the quarterfinals.
Tom Comorada (112), Mike Miller (140) and Jimmy Zambik (215) each won one match before getting knocked out in the
quarterfinals.
