LoHud Wrestling Blog

While there are no Section 1 wrestling matches scheduled for Friday, we’ve got some big news from the private school ranks. Hackley senior Justin Seim broke the school’s all-time wins record with his 116th career victory in a 66-12 win at home over Stepinac. The Somers resident moved passed Andrew Friedman’s mark of 115 wins with an early second period pin of Chris Paladino in their 138-pound bout.

“To start the (second) period I went neutral and took him down,” Seim said. “He was leaning towards one side, so I went for the half nelson. I wanted to get it over as quickly as possible. We had probably the biggest crowd that we’ve ever had at a match, and it was an amazing feeling.”

Friedman was in attendance to congratulate Seim on his accomplishment.

“When I started out in 7th grade, I looked up at the board and it’s always been a goal of mine,” Seim said of the record. “Right after (breaking the record) I shook his hand and he congratulated me, which is a true honor. I’ve been looking up to him for awhile.”

Seim improved his career record to an impressive 116-15. He has yet to lose this season, and has been seeking out some quality public school competition. Next weekend, he will travel to Sullivan Community College with many other top local wrestlers to compete in the Eastern States tournament.

Here is the full box score from Hackley’s win:

Hackley 66, Stepinac 12
At Hackley
106 – Double forfeit. 113 – Stephen Zak (Ha) by forfeit. 120 – Sam Welch (Ha) by forfeit. 126 – Dan Shaw (Ha) pin Brandan Gray, :55. 132 – Chris Breen (Ha) by forfeit. 138 – Justin Seim (Ha) pin Chris Paladino, 2:17. 145 – Andre Newland (Ha) maj. dec. Liam Berry, 14-6. 152 – A.J. Revellese (St) pin Josh Terry, :39. 160 – Damis Yantopoulos (Ha) pin Chris Bernard, 5:45. 170 – Koray Euahan (St) pin Mark Byrnes, :50. 182 – Will Johnson (Ha) pin Arthur Foti, 1:26. 195 – Rodrigo Mejias (Ha) pin Anthony Fontanello, 4:54. 220 – Xavier Carmona (Ha) pin Oner Turhan, 3:51. 285 – Ben Jurcic (Ha) by forfeit. 99 – Double forfeit.

For tomorrow (Saturday), I’ll be covering the 48th annual Shoreline Invitational at New Rochelle HS. Wrestling will begin at 9 a.m., and I’m planning on getting there early afternoon in time for the semis. I’ll post results on the blog whenever there’s a stoppage and I have time to sit down on my computer, but I’ll have more immediate updates posted on Twitter. Follow me @vzmercogliano.

The finals are scheduled for around 5 p.m., but I’ll keep you posted via Twitter. I’ll definitely be taking some videos of a few intriguing finals matchups. It should be a fun day… Good luck to all of the wrestlers involved!