It was a monumental day for the Westhampton Beach wrestling team at the Sprig Gardner
Tournament at East Hampton on Saturday, as the Hurricanes crowned seven champions, the mostever at a single tournament
for the program, and boasted both the Most Outstanding Wrestler and the Most Pins Least Time. With all that, the
Hurricanes accumulated 268 points to win the tournament.
“We were very happy,” Westhampton Beach coach Paul Bass said. “It was a great way
to open the year, not only for the guys who won but for the freshmen and JV guys who this is the first time out
for them. It’s a learning experience for them. We got some comments from some noteworthy people about how hard
the kids wrestled.”
The depth of the Hurricanes team was evident with 10 finalists, seven champions
and 23 place-winners. And the Hurricanes were able to achieve all this success down two starters, 119-pounder Dennis
Hayes and 171-pounder Alex Mazarakis, who were both sick.
Riverhead finished second with 253 points and five champions and Ward Melville,
East Hampton and Southampton each had one champion.
Wrestling in his first varsity tournament, freshman Pete Detore was named Most Outstanding
Wrestler after winning the 96-pound weight class. Detore came into the tournament seeded second and on his way
to the title, Detore knocked off the fifth ranked wrestler in the county, Riverhead’s Jeremy Dade, 12-3.
Scott Lagoumis tallied four pins in 11:29 to win the 125-pound title and the Most Pins, Least Time honors. Lagoumis
was the tournament’s top seed at 125 and is ranked sixth in the county at that weight.
Tom Comoroda won the 130-pound weight class, Kyle Hubbard won at 135, Paul Dilandro won at 145, Rich Mailand was
the 160-pound champion and Steve Kobus won at 189.
Kobus earned a number one-ranking in Suffolk County at 189 in the preseason rankings
and in the finals, he met up with another one of the county’s best in the weight class, defeating Connor Pryor
from Ward Melville, who is ranked third in the county, by a 3-2 decision.
Reaching the finals but not finding victory were Brian Lagoumis at 103, Cory Hubbard
at 112 and Anthony Familia at 275. The only third-place winner was Connor Bass at 96 pounds. Coming in with fourth-place
finishes were Mike Pupura (96), Ryan Marin (130), Chris Squeri (135) and John Prudent (140).
Zachary Bass (103), Mike Mercurio (130), Joe Santaly-Graf (140), Mike Miller (152) and Jimmy Zambik (215) were
all fifthplace finishers and Marco Pizzo (130), Scott Carey (145) and Dan Becza (171) finished in sixth.
Eastport South Manor
At the William Floyd Dual Meet Tournament on Saturday, the Eastport South Manor team didn’t fare so well, losing
all three matches, 40-21 to Bellport, 51-12 to Smithtown West and 72-12 to William Floyd.
ESM senior Matt Berretta was the only wrestler to win all three of his matches at the tournament, recording two
decisions and a pin at 171 pounds. Entering the season, Berretta is ranked second in Suffolk County at 160 pounds.
“Matt looked great,” ESM coach Nick Garone said. “The scores don’t show how dominant
he was in the matches. The guys were running away, backing up. People don’t want to wrestle him. I told him that
this year is going to be tougher because people know who he is. I told him that he has to keep a solid head. I
could see it was frustrating him. It happens to the best wrestlers. There’s an apprehension about wrestling guys
like that.”
The only other wrestlers to find victory that day were Shaun Haverty at 152 against
Smithtown West and Jon Mercado at 119 against Floyd.
Matt Saul and Andrew Cohen’s efforts were pleasing to Garone who said, “Sometimes,
it’s hard for people to see progression in a loss because all they are thinking about is the loss. I was so happy
because they were doing things right, hanging in there and fighting hard.”
Garone also noted that he was happy with senior Mike Morrissey who wrestled at the
189-pound spot even though he is a 160-pound wrestler.
“He sacrificed himself for the team,” Garone said. “I respect him for doing that
because it’s a tough thing do to.”
The Sharks will take on Shoreham/ Wading River today at home in a non-league dual
meet and then head to the Bay Shore Tournament on Saturday.
