Mission accomplished for Marines

When Long Beach’s Adam DeJesus topped MacArthur’s Frank Medeiros, 7-2, in a 152-pound quarterfinal match last Saturday night at Hofstra, he secured a third straight trip to the Nassau Division I All-County wrestling podium.

But DeJesus was nowhere near done. He came back Sunday and finished the job, capping an emotional championship run with a 4-1 victory over Calhoun’s Jesse Bader in the title bout.

“I’ve been working toward this for a long time and wanted to win for my mom,” said DeJesus, whose mother Myra D’Auguste underwent caner surgery Jan. 28. “It’s a great feeling,” he added. “My mom is doing well and things couldn’t be better.”

DeJesus, a senior, was the third member of the Marines to win a title on Sunday evening, following junior Krishna Sewkumar at 103 pounds and junior Dylan Palacio at 145. They’ll compete in the New York State Tournament Feb. 25-26 at Albany’s Times Union Center.

“Adam has been through a lot with his mother the last three weeks,” Long Beach coach Ray Adams said. “It’s a special night for him and her, and I couldn’t be happier. He’s been in our program a long time and paid his dues. He’s an extremely hard worker.”

DeJesus, who rolled up 22 points in his first win last weekend over Jun Yoo of Jericho, got through a tough semifinal against Locust Valley’s Jack Dituro, winning 2-1. “Adam is a difficult kid to score against,” Adams said. “He came up big.” 

Palacio’s season-long dominance continued at the Mack Sports Complex. He’s 37-0 after knocking off Chris Sarro of Massapequa, 7-1, for his second county crown in three seasons. “I wanted to get that feeling back of winning a county title,” said Palacio, who was upset in the Nassau tournament last winter but earned a wild-card berth to the state tournament and placed third to achieve All-State status for a second straight season. “The road to a state title is never easy,” he added. “I’m going up there with a goal, but I know how important it is to take one match at a time.”

Palacio opened with a technical fall win over Valley Stream South’s Marco Sammarone, beat Mike Pizzirusso of Kennedy in the quarterfinals, 18-5, and Dean Shmuley of North Shore in the semis, 14-2. 

“Dylan learned a major lesson last year and wasn’t going to let that happen again,” Adams said. “Nobody brings more of a pace to a match than Dylan. He’s unbeaten and has a state title on his mind.”

Sewkumar turned the table on cousin Mark Raghunandan in the only title bout featuring teammates. Down 2-1 and with time winding down in the third period, Sewkumar got a pin with 37 seconds left to win the crown. There’s hope Raghunandan, a junior who beat Sewkumar in the 96-pound final last season, will get a wild-card berth to the state tournament.

“We just hugged and told each other ‘great match’”, Sewkumar said.