Sports

Sachem East, North Wrestlers Place at Long Island Tournament of Champions

Senior Frank Merante wins 220-pound title.

The first annual Long Island Tournament of Champions was held this weekend at Half Hollow Hills West High School.

Six Sachem East wrestlers competed with five bringing home medals. North had five wrestler place, including one finalist.

Sachem East Rundown

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Sachem East senior Frank Merante dominated the field pinning his opponent in the finals to claim the 220-pound crown.

Michael Pistone finished seventh at 140 pounds. Zach Nobre (160) and Anthony Messina (128) finished sixth. Jackson Mordente battled his way to a fourth place finish in a tough 134-pound weight class.

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Only talented junior Anthony Pistone who had to withdraw due to injury did not place.

Sachem North Rundown

Sachem North place winners were Matt Stallone (98 - 8th), Alec Ross (116 – 7th), Frank Napoli (122 - 6th), Mike McCarthy (220-4th), and Gio Santiago (176 - 2nd). 

"I thought guys like Stallone, and Ross did an excellent job, they weren't seeded in the top eight and wrestled above their seed, they have shown that they are names to look out for in the future," said Sachem North coach Pickersgill.

Napoli was one point from the finals and dropped a tough 4-3 semi final decision to county place winnner Steve Bulzomi from Connetquot.

"Frank has to take that next step, beating Bulzomi would have been huge for him, going into his senior year, it would have gotten him noticed,” Pickersgill said. “I think that took a lot out of him, he didn't seem to shake off the loss well and dropped his next two matches, but sixth is still a great accomplishment." 

McCarthy the lone senior from North to participate, did not disappoint avenging an earlier season loss to William Floyd's Shaq Faison, and gutting out an exciting quadruple overtime win over St. Anthony's Chris Auriemma. 

"Mike has really begun to come on since the last few weeks of the season,” Pickersgill said. “It’s a shame this was probably his last wrestling event, if I had him for another year, he could dominate."

Santiago sprung into the finals off a 6-5 decision over Hills West's Chris Golonowski to take on John Glenn's Nick Bellanza in the finals. Taking the mat under the spotlight in the finals was exciting as the sophomore All-County wrestler seemed to hold his own for the first minute and a half but got caught on his back for the fall when Bellanza hit him with a dump from a front head lock. 

"His inexperience came out there, I think the magnitude of the event hit him, and he didn't wrestle as free and easy as he usually does,” Pick said. “If he wrestled that match in the corner of the gym somewhere, he beats that kid 9 out of 10 times."

The prestigious event is only open to wrestlers who have placed in their league in Nassau or Suffolk or the CHSAA.

The inaugural event drew a lot of talent, with 56 league champions, 60 all-county wrestlers, 20 county finalists, and 10 all-state wrestlers from 62 different high schools.

"The tournament was a pretty big deal," said Pickersgill. "Only league and county place winners were allowed to enter unless you had a special exemption, so the quality was pretty high, you could have wrestled an all league opponent in the first round, an all county kid in the second round, and an all state kid in your next match, it was a hammer tournament."


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