Sixth Annual Eastern States Wrestling Classic

Port Jervis captures its first-ever Eastern States Classic title

Sean Floor gets 100th career win besting Section Nine career wins leader D’Amato in semifinals

By RICHARD A. ROSS

LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY — Wrestling has always been an iconic sport at Port Jervis High School. The Red Raiders enjoy a second-place historical power ranking among Section Nine teams with their crowning of 68 sectional champions. Valley Central is ranked number one in that historical ranking.

Last year, the Red Raiders kept up their fine tradition as then sophomore Steven Butler (189) and junior Sean Floor (140) emerged victorious in the Section Nine tournament and sweetened the retiring moment of iconic coach Dave Simmons.

On January 11 and 12, Butler and Floor, now a year further along in their careers, paced their team to a storied win over other heavily favored schools, as Port Jervis won its first-ever Eastern States Classic title. A year ago, the team finished 31st in the tournament won by Islip.

Butler and Floor finished second in their respective weight classes as Port piled up 151 points to best second-place Shenendehowa (145) and third-place Timberline, NH (137). The tournament, which features the wrestling elite from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia and New Hampshire, is one of the high points of the wrestling season.

Held in the refurbished Paul Gerry Field House at Sullivan County Community College, this year’s tournament included grapplers from 63 schools. Organized by the Friends of Section Nine Wrestling and masterfully ministered by tournament director Jeff Cuilty of Newburgh Free Academy, the tournament limits the number of wrestlers from each school, thereby guaranteeing a slate of only the best of the best.

Floor drew strong accolades as he garnered his 100th career win with a 4-2 semifinal victory over Valley Central’s Mike D’Amato, the current Section Nine career wins leader. D’Amato reached that milestone with his 195th win in an opening-round victory over Sam Sheppard of Shoreham. D’Amato got win 196 by besting Paul Parsons of Bainbridge-Guilford-Afton, and victory 197 by downing JJ Andersen of Colonie before succumbing to Floor.

Floor beat D’Amato for the third time in his career in the semifinals before losing to Zach Clemente of LaSalle in the final. Clemente is the state’s number-one-ranked wrestler in the weight class. He bested Floor by a 12-5 decision.

Butler beat Conor Pryor of Ward in the semifinals before losing to reigning state champion Hunter Meys of Shendendehowa in the final by the score of 9-0. Butler broke a streak of 23 straight pins of opponents by Meys this season.

Port Jervis team co-captain Evan Muller reinjured the same shoulder he had undergone surgery on in the off season. The injury occurred in a second-round match against Ethan Williams of Burnt Hills. Muller had been off to a fabulous start this year. It is unclear whether the senior will be able to return to competition this season.

Other Port Jervis wrestlers picked up the slack following Muller’s loss. They included C.J. Floor (215), who garnered third place, and J.D. Zitone (285), who also came in third in his weight class. Matt Parlier (171) finished fourth and John Moriarty (103) ended up in sixth place.

Monroe-Woodbury sophomore Mike Vespa (103)

survived a comeback bid in the semifinals by Cam Sullivan of Timberlane, who roared back from a 9-1 deficit to nearly knock off the defending Section Nine champ. Vespa held on to win 17-16. In the final, Vespa easily dispatched last year’s state runner-up Luke Popolizio of Shenendehowa 7-2.

Teammate Jamie Franco (125), a three-time Section Nine champ, also emerged as a tournament winner by defeating Cornwall’s Drew Bloss 3-1 in OT, after besting Garrett Morabito of Susquehanna Valley High School in the semifinals. Franco lost to Bloss in OT a week prior. Vespa is 15-1 and Franco is 18-2. Both hope to bring a state title to Monroe-Woodbury.

Monticello’s Brugaletta and Bowens fare admirably

Teams in New York State are now permitted to split their teams and send others to compete elsewhere on the same day as meets like the Eastern States. While most of Monticello’s team was at Unatego, its two top wrestlers, seniors Vinnie Brugaletta (140) and John Bowens (135), were on hand for the Eastern States. Brugaletta wrestled his way back to third place in last year’s Section Nine tournament and Bowens took sixth there as well.

They are coach Ed Kaufmann’s remaining veterans from his exceptional team that graduated five seniors in June, including Section Nine runner up Alexis Bruno (189), Andres Diaz (119), Rodney Stickle (215), Jesse Campanaro (142) and Andrew Moss (152).

Brugaletta has been banged up somewhat since the Walton Tournament back on December 15, but the stalwart senior has wrestled through it. He defeated Scott Cleavland of Glens Falls 14-6 in the opening round before falling to Kevin Steinrunck of Wayne 16-8.

In the wrestlebacks, he beat Austin Fox of Webster Thomas 12-6 and Doug Fogle of Penfield 4-0 before succumbing to Victor Corondado of Harpursville by the score of 9-2. He has lost to Corondado before at the Colonie Tournament. Brugaletta finished the tournament at 3-2. Late in the match, it appeared that Brugaletta was hampered by the rib injury suffered earlier in the season.

Bowens defeated Dylan Lockard of Timberlane 8-1 in the opening round before losing to Shane Strumwasser of Massapequa 8-0 in the second round. In the wrestlebacks, Bowens topped Jared Knauer of Long Beach 7-4 before being eliminated by Jeff Marianetti of Wayne by a 7-0 decision.

Kaufmann misses his seniors, who provided outstanding leadership and modeled an exceptional work ethic last season. Their success did guarantee that the underclass members of the Monticello team would enthusiastically return. Others have come on as well, but the group is just beginning to realize what kind of work went into producing such talented athletes as last year’s seniors.

In addition to Bowens and Brugaletta, Kaufmann has a group of rising sophomores, including Jesse Levine (135), Anthony D’Abbrazzio (160) and Kyle Bennett (145). Monticello hosted New Paltz on January 16. The veteran coach expects to have his two seniors and hopefully others qualify for this year’s sectionals.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of Eastern States Classic pictures.