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Southampton Press
December 16, 2004
Canes Take 2nd at East Hampton Tournament
By Kerry Monaco
The Westhampton Beach wrestling team crowned five champions at the Sprig Gardner
Tournament at East Hampton High School on Saturday en route to taking second place as a team. Hauppauge won the
tournament with 333 points, the Hurricanes took second with 310, East Hampton finished with 162 points and Southampton
finished with 80 points.
The Eastport/South Manor team competed in the Andrew Peers Tournament at Walt Whitman High School the same afternoon
but team scores were not kept at that tournament.
Westhampton Beach
The East Hampton Tournament normally has eight teams compete but four cancelled within the last week, leaving only
four in the mix. Due to the low number of teams, some weight classes were full, mostly the middle weights, while
others had just a handful of kids. The heavyweight class had just four entries while there were just two super
heavyweights.
“We saw some good things,” Westhampton Beach coach Paul Bass said. “We could’ve won the tournament. We were aggressive
and our conditioning is outstanding. We made some mistakes and had a few matches that we were winning and then
got overly aggressive and got caught. But overall I was happy. We were right there.”
Twenty Hurricanes finished in the top four at the tournament, 12 of those 20 making it to the championship bout
in their respective weights.
Nick Broccoli won the 140-pound title, Mauricio Molina took first at 145, Mike Gandolfo won at 171, Charlie Pendlebury
was the heavyweight champion and Jason Herrick was the super heavyweight champion.
Broccoli scored his championship with a 7-0 win at 140. Molina pinned his championship opponent in 2:39 to take
home the 145 title. Gandolfo pinned teammate Alex Mazarakis in 2:28 at 171 pounds, Pendlebury pinned his opponent
in 56 seconds and Herrick won his title with a pin in 2:44.
“Mauricio really dominated,” Bass said. “He won most pins, least time, with three in 4:44.”
Competing in her first varsity tournament, Sarah Bonilla, a freshman, finished in second place at 96 pounds. Bonilla
was pinned by Southampton’s only champion, Niko Gettling, in 3:26.
Scott Lagoumis took second after losing to Hauppauge’s John Senese, 9-2, in the 112 championship bout. Senese was
named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Joe Graf (130) and Jon Gress (135) were both pinned in their championship bouts while James Uresk (160) and John
Gillen (189) lost decisions in their championship matches.
Dennis Hayes (96), Tom Comroda (103), Don Finley (112) and Rudy Mistina (140) placed third in their respective
classes and Kyle Hubbard (125), Paul Dilandro (130), Julian Lee (130) and Steve Kobus (160) all placed fourth.
The Hurricanes will compete in the Connetquot Tournament on Saturday.
Eastport/South Manor
The Sharks competed in a tournament at Walt Whitman in which no team scores were kept but wrestlers did earn place-finishes.
The tournament was meant for teams to get as many kids in to wrestle as possible and prepare for the upcoming season.
The Sharks didn’t crown any champions but had three make it to the championship bouts in their respective weight
classes.
Chris Amato took second at 130, losing to Whitman’s Jimmy Caden, 8-0. Matt Barretta took second at 145, being teched
by Whitman’s Frank Meringola in 5:56, and Tom Englehardt lost a 6-2 decision to Steve Ambrogi from Harborfields
in the 160-pound final.
Chris Saul finished in third at 125 and R.C. Manion placed third at 189. Ken Cassara finished in fourth at 103
while brothers Billy and Christian Creed finished in fourth and sixth places respectively at 140 pounds. Christian
Creed was competing in his first-ever tournament.
“Overall, I would say not bad for our team, but we could’ve done better,” Eastport/South Manor coach Erik Lassen
said. “Some of our kids didn’t do so well, they weren’t consistent. But I was happy with how we wrestled.”
The Sharks have some time off over the next two weeks and will start up again at the Ward Melville Tournament on
December 28.
Issue Date: Southampton Press 12/16/04
Copyright, The Southampton Press
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