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Southampton Press
December 26, 2005
Lessons Learned at Fallot Tournament
By Kerry Monaco
It was a learning experience for both the Westhampton Beach and Hampton Bays wrestling
teams at the Doc Fallot Tournament on Saturday in Hampton Bays.
Westhampton Beach coach Paul Bass found one positive in his team’s fifth-place finish: it should serve as a wake-up
call for his squad. The Hurricanes went six-for-six in the finals of the Sprig Gardner Tournament a week earlier
and took second place overall as a team, and Bass believes that this week’s middle-of-the-pack finish in Hampton
Bays might be just what his team needs early in the season.
“I think it was good,” Bass said. “You’re never as good or as bad as you think you are. It was a very tough tournament.
There are a couple of little things we need to correct and it’s good for this to happen at this time of the year.
After last weekend, it was a good wake-up call.”
Although his team finished near the bottom, placing eight out of 10 teams at the tournament, Hampton Bays coach
Rafael Lievano said he is happy that his wrestlers learned some valuable lessons at the competition.
“We were able to bring in all different types of competition that the guys haven’t seen before,” said Lievano,
referring to the different squads. “They got to see some of the better Division I teams in the county and that’s
what I wanted. It was a totally different level of competition and when you see that for the first time, it’s tough.
But now they know where they are, where they have to be and the adjustments they have to make to get there.”
Rocky Point won the tournament with 201 points, beating Riverhead by just three points. Smithtown West took third
(176 points), followed by West Babylon (167), Westhampton Beach (131), Kellenberg (118.5), Mattituck (92.5), Hampton
Bays (71), Long Island Lutheran (70.5) and Center Moriches (47). Smithtown West and Riverhead are ranked among
the top 10 teams in the county.
Unlike last week, the Hurricanes sent only two wrestlers to the finals and crowned just a single champion. Senior
Jon Gress won his second title of the year, needing just 46 seconds to pin Center Moriches’ Dan Himmelstein in
the 145-pound final. The team’s other finalist, Kyle Hubbard, was pinned by Kellenberg’s Ryan Fallot in 1:04.
Westhampton Beach had six additional place-winners. Cory Hubbard (103) and Nick Broccoli (152) placed third while
Paul DiLandro took fourth at 140. Scott Lagoumis (119) and Steve Kobus (189) took fifth and Sarah Bonilla finished
in sixth at 96 pounds.
Hampton Bays had three place-winners, all three of which were finalists. Junior Anthony Layman was the team’s only
champion, defeating Joe Booth from Long Island Lutheran, 4-3, in overtime in the 135-pound final. Booth was charged
with stalling with about five seconds remaining in the bout to tie the score at 3-3 and force overtime.
In the 140-pound final, Smithtown West’s Mike Larsen beat Bayman Dom Mustacio, 5-2, and Steve Kelly from West Babylon
edged Rob Hoshyla, 6-5, in the 189-pound final.
The Baymen will compete in the Ward Melville Tournament on December 27 and will open League VII action on January
4 against Southampton.
Eastport/South Manor Coming off a 61-0 rout by Islip, the top-ranked team in the state, the Eastport/South Manor
team found itself going up against another one of the county’s top teams, Bay Shore. And while the outcome was
still a loss, the Sharks managed to score points this week, falling 44-16 on December 14 on the road.
“They have a storied history,” ESM coach Nick Garone said of Bay Shore. “They’ve had some state champs, some county
champs. They are a good program. My kids wrestled well. You could see they wanted to win. These are the teams you
have to wrestle to make you better.”
Winning in his first-ever varsity match was Joe D’Esposito, who made the move up from the junior varsity team to
fill in for the injured Billy Creed. D’Esposito beat David Cummings, 5-2, at 145 pounds in the randomly-chosen
first match of the day.
ESM lost at 152 pounds and then senior Tom Englehardt dropped a difficult 2-1 decision to Tom Santana at 160 pounds,
in a match in which all three points awarded were due to penalties.
Matt Berretta dominated in the 171-pound match with an 8-0 decision, and Ercan Tutku followed with a 4-0 win at
189 pounds. ESM forfeited the 215-pound bout.
Perhaps the most exciting match of the day came from Alec Rosenberg at 96 pounds. Trailing 5-0, Rosenberg caught
Mike Colon and pinned him 3:13 into the match. That was the last win of the day for the Sharks.
ESM will compete in the Ward Melville Tournament on December 27.
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