Baldwin's Cohen earns All-County

Junior captain Dylan Cohen’s run to the 140-pound semifinals highlighted Baldwin’s weekend at the Nassau County Division I wrestling championships at Hofstra.

Cohen, who took third in the qualifying tournament Feb. 5, won three bouts last Saturday and earned his way onto the All-County podium with a fifth-place finish. He upset second-seeded Mike Paccione of Mepham in the quarterfinals, 3-1, and dropped a hard-fought semifinal to MacArthur’s Brian Conrad, the eventual champion, by the same score.

“Once I got to the semis I wanted to win the whole thing, but I gave it my all and I’m happy with my performance,” Cohen said. “Being All-County was a goal of mine. It feels good.”

Cohen admitted he didn’t sleep well last Friday night in anticipation of the big event, but he came out strong Saturday morning and put away the jitters with a 9-1 major decision over MacArthur’s Anthony Cormace. In the second round, Cohen beat Garden City’s Dan Johnson via technical fall in 4:59, which brought him into the quarters against Paccione.

“He beat me by a few points earlier in the season,” Cohen said of Paccione, a qualifying tournament champion. “I really went after him this time. I don’t know if he was ready for me to be so aggressive and I capitalized on it.”

Cohen described Conrad, who edged Mike Nigro of Plainedge 6-5 in the finals, as “a really tough opponent.” 

Bruins coach Mike Robinson believed the semifinals and All-County honors were within Cohen’s reach. “I’m very happy for Dylan,” Robinson said. “He’s been to the county tournament the past four years and just lost a tough semifinal at the qualifier. His weight class was loaded with seniors. He wrestled smart and aggressive.”

Baldwin’s qualifying champions—junior Austin Valenti and sophomore Sal Trigona—ran into quality opponents last Saturday in the 119- and 103-pound classes, respectively. Valenti lost his only match to Pat Miller of Massapequa, 7-0, while Trigona pinned Farmingdale’s Casey Marlow before falling to Massapequa’s Joe Doria in the quarterfinals, 9-7.

“Austin and Sal had tough draws,” Robinson said. “Sal got a nice pin and gave Doria a battle in the quarterfinals. He was a win from being All-County and I’m sure it’s something he’ll strive for next season.”

At 125, the Bruins had a pair of county qualifiers in sophomores Quinn Knauer and Victor Robinson. Each won a match last weekend. Knauer went 1-2, beating Ricky Liang of Glen Cove, and Robinson went 1-1, with his triumph coming against Hewlett’s Rob Rosenberg. 

“It was a great experience for all our guys,” coach Robinson said. “We did a lot of maturing the past four months. We had a pretty young team and we’re really looking forward to next season. We’ll get everyone started right away with offseason workouts.”