Clarke wrestles to third in Div. 2

Clarke senior Joe Truono entered last Saturday’s Nassau County Division II Wrestling Championships at Carle Place high school with a target on his back and one goal in his mind as the No. 1 seed at 170 pounds. He came out of the tournament the same way he entered it — at the top — winning an 8-3 decision over Oyster Bay’s Kevin Velasquez in the finals.

In running his record to 28-5, Truono also earned a pair of victories by pinfall on the way to the championship round. He will now compete at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament at the Times Union Center in Albany on Feb. 28-Mar. 1.

“He controlled the whole match,” coach Mike Leonard said of Truono, who also won an individual title at the Qualifying Championships one week earlier. “Everyone’s gunning for you and you’ve got a target on your back [as the top seed].”

Two of Clarke’s top qualifiers, junior Tyler Constantine (138) and senior Tom Stobe (120), battled significant injuries, yet still managed to earn All-County honors. Constantine, just one week removed from a serious shoulder injury, won his first two matches and advanced to the finals where he was pinned by Locust Valley’s Sam Ward at the 1:10 mark. Stobe, an All-County champion last year, meanwhile, wrestled with a broken hand, and after losing his first bout stormed back to win his next three matches and take third.

In fact, Stobe turned the tables on Locust Valley’s Jack DeNatale, who locked him in an early cradle when they met in the first round last Saturday, by taking a 12-4 decision in the consolation finals. “You couldn’t ask for better examples,” Leonard said, for his team, which loses just five seniors and returns more than a dozen underclassmen. “That’s the examples that we use. In the past we’ve had guys like that also. [In practice] they called [Tom] a machine because he just kept going.”

Sophomore Brandon Marohn, seeded second at 99 pounds for the tournament, also finished with All-County honors advancing to the championship round at 99 pounds before dropping a 15-0 technical fall. Sophomore Nick Normile finished second at 160. Anthony Buffolino, knocked off by Normile in the semis at 160, pinned Carle Place’s Ryan Hopkins at the 2:02 mark to take third place in the weight class.

Sophomore Marcos Mejia was among four Rams that finished fourth, a group that also includes senior Mike Urso at 182 and a pair of freshmen, Danny Garcia (220) and Joe Garcia (285).

At the Nassau County Qualifying Tournament, which Clarke hosted on Feb. 8, the Rams had seven individual champions, including sophomore Dillon Abbitello, who scored a late takedown against Mineola’s Milandip Toor to win the title at 145.