Three wrestlers from Sachem have advanced to the Doc Fallot Section XI wrestling finals on Wednesday evening at Walt Whitman High School.
The programs at Sachem East and Sachem North sent a combined 22 grapplers to the county tournament, which began Tuesday at Hofstra’s David S. Mack Sports Complex.
Sachem North’s Gio Santiago and Steven Mills, as well as Sachem East’s Jackson Mordente, will wrestle for a county championship Wednesday. Santiago is a defending county champion, while Mills was a runner-up last season. Mordente placed fifth as a junior last year.
Sachem East sent a program-record seven wrestlers to the semifinals, but only had Mordente advance with a victory. They’ll return six to the consolation finals Wednesday, which could prove big as they still lead the county in the overall team points. East has a narrow, 109-104, lead over East Islip after the first day. The Redmen have two wrestlers in the finals and four in consolations.
“It’s a very tough tournament with some great teams,” said Sachem East coach Sean O’Hara. “We wrestled real well early in the day, but had a tough round at the end. There is still a lot of wrestling left to go in this tournament. In order to bounce back to where we want to be we have to be pretty strong tomorrow.”
Through the semifinals, Santiago has put together the finest performance of any wrestler in the tournament: three matches, three pins, all in 3:04. He beat Jager Rebozo from Hills West in the 182-pound semifinal in a 45 second pin, his quickest match of the day. He’ll face Commack’s Dan Fiorvanti, who also has three pins, in the finals.
“Gio continues to dominate and did what he normally does and mowed through the competition,” said Sachem North coach Ray Pickersgill.
Mills will have a chance to win a county title as he takes on Nick Lupi in the 220-pound final. He advanced after beating Islip’s Ryan Hughes in a close match that kept his coaches anxious for all six minutes. He eventually won, 4-3.
“Mills had a few nail biters there,” said Pickersgill, “but he got it done.”
For Sachem East, the semifinals were a busy round. At any given time there were three Arrow wrestlers on the mat at the same time in their respective weight classes:
- Conor O’Hara lost to Hauppauge’s Chris Mauriello, 7-3, in the 132-pound semifinal.
- Jakob Restrepo was pinned by Kings Park’s Tom Venier in the 138-pound semifinal.
- Jackson Mordente won his 145-pound semifinal (see below).
- Michael Pistone lost, 10-4, to East Islip’s Erik Adon in the 152-pound semifinal.
- Mark Tracy was pinned by top-seeded Tyler Grimaldi in the 160-pound semifinal.
- Cristian Nunez lost, 10-7, to East Islip’s Chris Chambers in the 195-pound semifinal.
- John Vigh lost, 8-5, to Nick Lupi from Huntington in the 220-pound semifinal.
Aside from Santiago and Mills, Sachem North’s Michael Falcon also made it to the semifinals where he lost to top-seeded Corey Rasheed from Longwood on a pin in 33 seconds during the 152-pound semifinal.
Mordente had the most success of any wrestler from Sachem East on the first day. He rattled off a 1-0 nailbitter against East Islip’s Dennis Ferro in the first round, and then cruised to a 10-1 win over Lindenhurst’s Joe Justiniano in the quarterfinals and a 10-2 win over Newfield’s Brandon Aviles in the semifinals. Mordente will take on Connetquot’s Brendan Dent in the 145-pound championship.
“We knew he was going to be up against really tough competition,” O’Hara said. “He was wrestling to his strengths and has a shot to win it all.”
What to watch for during consolation finals on day 2?
- Sachem East’s Conor O’Hara and Sachem North’s Sean O’Hagan will wrestle one another in the consolation semifinals for a chance to place third at 132 pounds.
- Sachem East’s Michael Pistone and Sachem North’s Mike Falcon could meet each other in the 152-pound consolation final for third place if they win their semifinal bouts.
Consolation finals and championship finals schedule
- Location: Walt Whitman High School
- Consolation semifinals, 4:00-5:15 p.m.
- Consolation finals (3/4, 5/6), 5:30-6:45 p.m.
- Finals, 7:30 p.m.
How all Sachem’s wrestlers faired on day 1?
Sachem East
- Doug Iadanza (106): out-bracket win, first round loss
- Anthony Messina (126): first round win, second round win, wrestleback win and finally a loss in second round of wrestlebacks
- Conor O’Hara (132): first round and quarterfinal wins, semifinal loss, still alive
- Jakob Restrepo (138): first round and quarterfinal wins, semifinal loss, still alive
- Jackson Mordente (145): first round, quarterfinal and semifinal wins, still alive
- Michael Pistone (152): first round and quarterfinal wins, semifinal loss, still alive
- Mark Tracy (160): first round and quarterfinal wins, semifinal loss, still alive
- Tom Williams (160): out-bracket loss
- Zac Nobre (170): first round win, quarterfinal loss, wrestleback loss
- Cristian Nunez (195): first round and quarterfinal wins, semifinal loss, still alive
- John Vigh (220): first round and quarterfinal wins, semifinal loss, still alive
- Connor Farrell (220): first round loss
Sachem North
- Nick Perez (106): first round loss, wrestle back loss
- Chris Ladd (120): out-bracket loss
- Alec Ross (126): out-bracket loss
- Anthony Nunziata (126): first round loss
- Sean O’Hagan (132): first round loss, two wrestle back wins, still alive
- Matthew Marino (138): first round win, quarterfinal loss, wrestle back win and loss
- Mike Falcon (152): first round and quarterfinal wins, semifinal loss, still alive
- Bobby Turner (160): out-bracket loss
- James Schreck (170): first round loss
- Gio Santiago (182): first round, quarterfinal and semifinal wins, still alive
- Steve Mills (220): first round, quarterfinal and semifinal wins, still alive
- Ken Oberlies (220): Out-bracket loss
PHOTOS: Check out some images from the Section XI tournament
Original: The Section XI wrestling tournament is taking place at Hofstra University on Tuesday and the finals will take place on Wednesday at Walt Whitman High School.
With 24 wrestlers from Sachem East and Sachem North on the mats, there will be a ton of action to cover.
This year the tournament was already pushed back two days because of the blizzard that swept through the northeast last week. As a result of the schedule issues, Section VIII (Nassau) and Section XI are wrestling simultaneously on eight mats at the David S. Mack Sports Complex on Tuesday.
The finals and second day of the tournament will take place Wednesday at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington, N.Y. Hofstra needs the gym for its own events on Wednesday.
Tuesday will be a long day for everyone in the arena. Section XI has to cram in the first, quarter and semifinal rounds. Wednesday is reserved for the consolation finals, and the actual finals at 7:30 p.m.
Here’s the full schedule:
Tuesday, Feb. 12 (Hofstra)
- Weigh-ins, 7:30-8:30 a.m.
- Pigtails & Prelims, 9:00 a.m.
- Quarterfinals, 2:30 p.m.
- First round wrestle backs, 4:00 p.m.
- Semis and second round wrestle backs, 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 13 (Walt Whitman)
- Weigh-ins 2:00-3:00 p.m.
- Consolation semifinals, 4:00-5:15 p.m.
- Consolation finals (3/4, 5/6), 5:30-6:45 p.m.
- Finals, 7:30 p.m.
Through the first round, the only major loss for Sachem was North’s Sean O’Hagan, who will have a chance to wrestle back and place as high as third. North’s Gio Santiago, Steve Mills and Mike Falcon, among others, all registered early wins.
For East, Conor O’Hara, Cristian Nunez, John Vigh, and Jakob Restrepo all won early matches, as did a handful of other grapplers. Check back for full results with all names from all rounds.
Sachem Report is tweeting throughout the day @SachemReport, and will have a full recap with more photos later tonight and on Wednesday.
PHOTOS: Check out some images from the Section XI tournament
-Words and photos by Chris R. Vaccaro