Wrestling

The mighty few

Shorthanded Eldred shows strong effort against Burke and downs Liberty for first win of the season

By RICHARD A. ROSS

ELDRED, NY — If you take the measure of a team only from its record, you might be apt to ignore Eldred (1-5), which got its first win of the season by besting winless and talented Liberty (0-6) on January 15. Eldred’s victory came after both teams had succumbed to John S. Burke earlier in the evening.

Lost behind the overall scores in all three matches is the fact that both Eldred and Liberty have fine wrestlers, just not enough of them. Numbers are about the same as last year at Liberty, and definitely down in Eldred following its most successful season in 2007, when Steven Geiger (125) and Sean Donnelly (145) reached the Section Nine Division II finals and ended up as tournament runners up. Brian Corcoran (125) wrestled back to take third in his weight class, as did Justin Smith (140).

Geiger and Donnelly graduated, but Corcoran, Smith and Geiger’s younger brother Jon are still on hand this year for head coach Jim Corcoran and his assistant Bob Moriggia. Eldred also has Connor Walton (96), Andrew Cole (189), Mike Noss (19) and Bobby Moriggia (235).

In Eldred’s match with Burke, four of its six wrestlers won by pins, including Walton (96), who pinned Burke’s Frankie Van Leeuwen in 56 seconds; Geiger (135), who pinned Burke’s Frankie DeCarlo in 4:34; Corcoran, who pinned Joe Sgamatto in 3:54; and Smith (145) , who pinned Robbie Roehrich in 14 seconds.

Eldred had to forfeit five matches for lack of wrestlers in those weight classes. Clearly the Yellowjackets suffer from a lack of quantity, not quality.

Liberty has similar problems. Last year, Coach John Lennon had a number of successful wrestlers make it to sectionals.

Vernon Wilson (152), Brandon Tompkins (160) and Ian Irwin (171) took third place in their respective weight classes at sectionals. Smith graduated and Tompkins is not wrestling this year. That leaves Lennon with Irwin and fellow senior veteran Justin Katz to lead his small squad, which also has standout Hector Torres (96), Ryan Zayas (112), Iraves Johnson (140), Travis Johnson (152) and Brandon Marshaw (152) on hand. Like Eldred, Liberty also has to forfeit matches for lack of wrestlers.

Torres pinned Van Leeuwen in 1:41 in the match with Burke. Irwin pinned Joey Ditizio in 1:07 and Johnson pinned Sgamatto for Liberty’s 18 points against the Eagles (3-4).

In the match up between Liberty and Eldred, Eldred won all of its matches, while Liberty garnered its 12 points by forfeits. Eldred’s Walton (96) pinned Torres in 1:12. Corcoran (140) pinned Johnson in :57. Smith (152) pinned Marshaw in :15. Noss (189) pinned Irwin in 2:20.

The other team scores were as follows:

John S. Burke 44, Eldred 30

Visit www.riverreportersports.com for complete individual results and pictures from the Eldred/Burke/Liberty matches.

Monticello tops New Paltz 54-28; Brugaletta takes first again at

Edgemont Tourney

EDGEMONT, NY ? A year ago, Monticello’s Vinnie Brugaletta was one of three Panthers to garner first place in their weight classes at the prestigious Edgemont Tournament frequented by 16 schools from both the private and pubic sector. Monticello took third place overall at the 2007 tourney.

Two of Brugaletta’s teammates, including Alexis Bruno (189) and Rodney Stickle (215), graduated, but Brugaletta returned on January 20 to defend his title (140) by taking first again. John Bowens (125) and Nef Leon (171) garnered third-place honors.

In addition, Monticello High School won the Eric B. Kantor Sportsmanship Award given each year to the team that displays the best team sportsmanship during the tournament.

On January 17, Monticello improved its record to 2-2 (1-1 OCIAA) with a 54-28 win over New Paltz. Panther winners included Jordan Papacharataiambous (130) by a pin, Jesse Levine (135) by a pin, Bowens (140) by a forfeit, Gio Laguna (145) by a forfeit, Brugaletta (152) by a pin, Anthony D’Abbraccio (160) by a pin, Leon (171) by a pin, Arthur Atanov (215) by a pin and Cory Waichman by a pin.