The Westhampton Beach wrestling team had just a single first-seed and single secondseed
wrestler at East Hampton’s Sprig Gardner Tournament on Saturday, but the Hurricanes were able to put six in the
finals, and all were crowned champions—five winning by pin. “It was the most incredible final we’ve ever had,”
Westhampton Beach coach Paul Bass said. “It was a hell of a way to open the season. The kids all wrestled well
and wrestled hard. We were hitting on all cylinders.” Riverhead took first place of the eight teams with 249.5
points, followed by Westhampton Beach with 230 and Ward Melville with 204. Rounding out the rest of the teams were
Hampton Bays in fourth, Eastport/South Manor, Center Moriches, East Hampton and Southampton. Coach Bass said he
was pleased with the way his wrestlers didn’t let up at all throughout the tournament. In about eight matches,
he said, his wrestlers pulled out the win in the final 15 seconds of the bout. In another halfdozen matches, after
wrestling even in the first two periods, he said his wrestlers dominated in the final period.
Entering 27 in the tournament, the Hurricanes had 16 wrestlers place, including
the six champs.
Seniors Jon Gress (145) and James Uresk (160) both won their titles in nail-biting
matches.
With the score locked in a 2-2 tie, Gress, the second seed, caught Hampton Bays’ Dom Mustascio for a pair of back
points within the final 15 seconds of the bout to pull off the 4-2 decision.
In the other dramatic finals bout, Uresk trailed 5-0 with time running out in the
third period in the final against ESM’s Matt Berretta. Berretta, perhaps thinking he had the win in the bag, let
up with about 18 seconds to go and Uresk put Berretta in a headlock, got the five points back and then pinned with
one tick left on the clock.
Scott Lagoumis had gotten the championship-run started for the Hurricanes at 119
pounds. Lagoumis pinned Riverhead’s Joey Chew in 3:40. Next up was Kyle Hubbard at 125, who got the job done rather
quickly, pinning Hampton Bays’ Julian Davilla in just 47 seconds.
Nick Broccoli, who was the Hurricanes only top seed in the tournament, pinned Zachary
Buckley from Riverhead in 2:46 and Steve Kobus pinned Rob Hoshyla from Hampton Bays in 2:37 at 189. Finishing in
third were Cory Hubbard at 103 and Paul DiLandro at 140, while Brian Lagoumis (96), Michael Mercurio (112), John
Prudenti (130) and Alex Mazarakis (189) finished in fourth in their respective weight classes.
Dennis Hayes (112), Tom Comoroda (119) and Chris Lettieri (171) took fifth, and
Chris Squeri (125) placed sixth.
At last year’s tournament, the Hurricanes finished in second place as a team behind
Hauppauge, sending 12 to the finals and crowning five champions. The only one of those champions that remains on
the team is Broccoli, who won at 140 last season.
The Hurricanes will compete in the Hampton Bays Tournament on Saturday, going up
against the host team, Rocky Point, West Babylon, Smithtown West, Center Moriches, Mattituck and Long Island Lutheran
and Kellenberg. The Canes will compete in a dual meet tournament with Bayport/ Blue Point and Connetquot on December
23 at Connetquot High School.
