The LoHud Wrestling Blog

Brewster continued to show that it belongs in the conversation for top teams in the section with an impressive showing at the Eric D’Agnese tournament on Thursday. The Bears took first place overall, with six wrestlers capturing championships. They even had two championship matches in which teammates were facing off against each other, highlighting the growth of the program.

“In year’s past, we haven’t had that, so having depth is nice,” coach Tom Looby said. “If somebody gets injured, we have another guy that can fill in. It’s nice to have that in a format like this where we get to double enter in each weight class. A lot of our guys who were JV did a nice job of stepping up.”

The double entry allowed teams to travel with their JV squads as well, and it appears that Brewster has some young ones to watch out for. The Bears rattled off four consecutive wins from 96-119 to begin the finals, and that pretty much sealed the deal. Some performances of note came from defending section champ Mike Parise at 103 (he just always seems so under control), who notched a 15-0 tech. fall victory over Hen Hud’s Mark Grant; Nick McGill at 96, who pinned teammate Kristian Unti at 2:33; Harry Erickson at 160, who defeated Yorktown’s Tommy Murray, 10-2; and Liam Erickson at 112, who picked up a huge 12-4 major decision over Somers’ Dylan Realbuto.

Erickson and Realbuto have a pretty good rivalry forming. Erickson beat him twice last year, but got pinned when they met at sectionals. He came back strong to give the Bears a big win in a major swing match. Overall, Erickson is 3-1 against Realbuto.

Speaking of Realbuto’s, Brian (remember him?) was named the most outstanding wrestler of the tournament. He pinned Yorktown’s Joe Mastro in their 140-bout at 3:26 for the title. Mastro hung tough in the first period, but Realbuto adjusted in the second to get the pin.

“I knew he’s got squirmy shoulders, so I didn’t want to try my normal pin with a hammerlock,” Realbuto said. “I went to a cradle because I thought it would hold him better, and it did.”

The Tuskers finished second overall, swapping places with Brewster from last season, and had four wrestlers take home championships: Realbuto at 140, Brett Emanuel at 130, Rino DeVita at 152 and Dom DeVita at 215.

Another notable accomplishment came from Westlake’s Tony Ferranti. In his first match of the day against Salesian’s Mike Grossman, the senior earned his 100th career win with a pin at 2:15. Ferranti went on to win the tourney at 135.

“I was eyeing it from the beginning of my junior year,” Ferranti said of win #100. “I was only in the mid-40s at that time, so I knew it would be a stretch. But this year we’ve wrestled so much, I kept winning and sure enough, I got to it.”

Overall, coaches seemed to appreciate the format of the tourney because it allowed them to use more than one wrestler in each weight class. The result was two days filled with wrestling, and multiple opportunities to gain experience.

“The biggest goal is get kids a lot of matches,” Somers coach Dennis DiSanto said. “We were able to do that, and get quality matches. We accomplished those goals, and everybody is going home happy.”

Here are the full standings and results from the finals:

Team Key: Brewster (Brew); Byram Hills (BH); Hackley (Hack); Hen Hud (HH); Salesian (Sal); Somers (So); Yorktown (Yk); Westlake (West).

Finals –
96 – Nick McGill (Brew) pin Kristian Unti (Brew), 2:33
103 – Mike Parise (Brew) tech. fall Mark Grant (HH), 15-0
112 – Liam Erickson (Brew) major dec. Dylan Realbuto (So), 12-4
119 – Jimmy Duncan (Brew) dec. Tommy Gonska (Brew), 3-2
125 – Justin Seim (Hack) pin Kevin McDermott (HH), 3:09
130 – Brett Emanuel (So) pin Kevin Alba (Sal), 3:10
135 – Tony Ferranti (West) dec. Brandon Lynn (BH), 3-2
140 – Brian Realbuto (So) pin Joe Mastro (Yk), 3:26
145 – Steve Sabella (Yk) dec. Kyle McAlpin (Brew), 9-6
152 – Rino DeVita (So) dec. Nick Ghelarducci (Brew), 7-3
160 – Harry Erickson (Brew) major dec. Tommy Murray (Yk), 10-2
171 – Brady Condron (BH) pin Andrew Cullen (Brew), 3:54
189 – Bruno Albertassi (Brew) dec. Steve Martimucci (Yk), 6-4 OT
215 – Dom DeVita (So) pin Sean Realbuto (So), 3:27
289 – Sean Barry (HH) dec. Joe Simon (BH), 7-2

Overall Team Standings

1. Brewster, 225
2. Somers, 172
3. Yorktown, 134
4. Byram Hills, 59
5. Hen Hud, 55
6. Westlake, 44
7. Salesian, 30
8. Hackley, 25