Sachem East had a successful day at Saturday’s League I wrestling tournament. Four East wrestlers won the top spot in their weight class, and 11 wrestlers earned a berth in the county tournament next weekend by finishing in the top three, besting last year’s total of 10.
The Heroes: Winning the tournament overall at 119 pounds was Tyler Monsees. He took home the league title by beating Brentwood’s Marc Gonzalez in a close 2-0 bout.
Another of East’s four champs was Sean O’Malley at 145 pounds. He beat the league’s No. 1 ranked 145-pounder, Longwood’s Nick Hall, 4-3 after losing to him last week. For his efforts, O’Malley was also voted the outstanding wrestler of the tournament by the coaches.
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Rob Seder took home the league title at 152 pounds with his 6-4 win over Longwood’s Ricky Renck. Last week Seder fell to Renck, 7-2, and showed a tremendous turnaround with his 2 point win. He also defeated another opponent from Brentwood who had beat him earlier this year.
At 171 pounds, Frank Merante was East’s final champ of the day. He defeated Longwood’s Dylan Selbolt in a close 7-6 victory.
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The Turning Point: East went into the semi-finals with 12 wrestlers. They even had to hurt their own chances for every wrestler placing in the counties when two East wrestlers, 140-pounders Mark Tracey and Anthony Pistone wrestled each other. Pistone came out on top and finished second in the tournament overall after losing in the final while Tracey finished in fourth and will serve as an alternate in next week’s counties.
Also coming in second was Billy Merone at 135 pounds and Steve Casali at 189 pounds. Third place finishers for East include 103-pound Mark Florian, 112-pound Conor O’Hara, 125-pound Conner Messina, and 160-pound Zach Nobre.
Quotable: “It was a very competitive tournament,” said East head coach Sean O’Hara. “They wrestled very well and very balanced. They wrestled with intensity. All of our champions won by 2 points or less. We’d like to be more dominant, but winning close matches against tough opponent shows toughness and is a credit to them. Getting 11 guys to go to counties is a great performance. I like how no one backed down. Now we’re looking forward to county tournament next week at Stony Brook. We’ll keep working hard and be prepared to do our best.”
The Bottom Line: East did a great job of not only sending 11 guys into the semi finals, but having all of them earn county tournament berths. With the league tournament behind them, it’s back to work for Sean O’Hara, his staff and the 11 competing wrestlers. They’ll have their work cut out for them but O’Hara feels that a couple of guys have a chance of making the state tournament.
Key Stat: East finished it’s dual meet season last week with an overall record of 13-6. The team finished third in League I behind Longwood and Brentwood and finished ranked No. 13 in state overall and No. 6 in Suffolk county.
Who’s Next?: Next week’s county tournament will be held at Stony Brook University, on Sunday and Monday starting at 10 a.m. on Sunday for preliminary rounds, and 9:30 on Monday for the semi-finals and finals.
