Sports

Sachem Kid Wrestlers Earn All-State Honors

Future of wrestling programs at East and North is strong.

The kid wrestling programs at Sachem East and Sachem North finished the season in grand fashion at the New York State Youth Championships this past weekend. 

Leading the way was defending and now two-time state champion Jared Weinhaus from East.  After winning the state title in 2011 in the closest of matches, he dominated his weight class in 2012.

Joining Weinhaus as all-state were a few more East wrestlers in Trey McGowan and Nick Dedabo. Dedabo was an all-state bantam wrestler in 2011 and repeated the feat in the tougher intermediate group. 

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The programs followed up last years record performance at the Suffolk County Championships with another stellar effort. The counties, held in Rocky Point in late February, saw a lot of returning all-county wrestlers as well as some new faces that are making a name for themselves. The Bantam group from East crowned two champions in Weinhaus and McGowan.

McGowan led a strong contingent of Sachem wrestlers in the tough 50-pound bracket. Joining him as all county was North's JT Mankowich. North's Shea Mullahey competed at 50-pounds in his first championship and put on a great effort, lastly was another first timer, East's Kyle Price who came one victory short of all county but earning some impressive wins along the way.

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Bantam 55-pounder Justin McFaul earned his second trip to the podium in as many years with another all-county finish and earned his second trip to the state championship. Rounding out the bantam crew was tough first grader Connor O'Hehir who competed in his first championship and came away with a hard fought second place finish and also qualified for the state championship. 

The Intermediate divsion was led by Dedabo, Zach Redding and Brody Brown from East. Brown, a 2011 state champion took a very solid third with Redding and Dedabo both reaching the finals and falling in close matches for 2nd place finishes and qualified for states.   

Also qualifying for states was all-county returner Sawyer Matlat who put on a clinic at states and, while falling short of the podium, finished with three dominate victories and two very close losses. A great sign of the strength of the youth program was some new wrestlers from other sports that competed at the championships: Ben Wooley and John Zahra traded in their lacrosse sticks for a little while and earned tough victories at counties. 

Rounding out the intermediate group was Tyler Price. He was competing in his first championship, and lost a close overtime to the ultimate third place finisher. Price, who lost to this wrestler earlier in the year went right after him and scored the first takedown. A back and forth match ensued and only the others wrestlers experience was the difference, not the heart. 

The novice and schoolboy divisions rounded out the weekend with some standout performances.  Leading the way was three-time all-county wrestler Sam Matlat. He wrestled in the toughest division of the tournament and faced the top seeds throughout the day. A champion in most other weights and always in the coaches eyes, Matlat earned every bit of his third all-county trophy. 

Following Matlat were his good buddies, Brice and Logan O'Hara. The brothers continued the strong O'Hara wrestling tradition at Sachem with Brice qualifying for states and Logan earning his stripes in the schoolboy division.  

Rounding out the novice division was Sawyer Davis who battled his way to the podium for the second straight year and faced tough bouts throughout the day.  Also competing in the schoolboy division were two kids with solid wresltling pedigrees. Gio Merante following in the footsteps of his older brothers, Vin, Mike and Frank, (all high all-county wrestlers for East) took second. Joining Merante in competing at the schoolboy division was North's Chris Corr, whose dad was a three-time Catholic State Champion.


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