Kennedy sophomore wins wrestling title

Kennedy sophomore Robert Person never wavered, even as his early three-point lead in the 96-pound finals of the Nassau County Division I Wrestling Championships against Oceanside’s Rocco Candella was whittled to nothing last Sunday night. Instead, Person kept his composure, and more important, his focus, scoring four of the last five points in the match over the final two periods to emerge with an 8-5 victory and the Cougars’ first individual county championship since 2005.

“I just had to keep my mind in it and keep wrestling,” Person said after running his record this season to 40-1. “It definitely helped knowing what he was going to do,” he added, noting that the two had met a week earlier, with Candella on the short end of a 12-5 decision. “He’s a really tough kid and he came after me. I have a lot of respect for him.”

Person’s road to the finals as the No. 3 seed in the weight class was far from easy. He advanced to the championship round with a 6-4 decision over MacArthur’s Justin Cooksey in the semifinals, having pinned Massapequa’s Pat Nash at the 2:34 mark in the quarterfinals. His tournament began last Saturday with an 8-7 victory over Wantagh’s Kyle Quinn after Person opened up what appeared to be a commanding six-point lead. “After that [opening win] he got the cobwebs out,” Kennedy coach Brian DeGaetano said. “He was down 4-1 in the semis and didn’t lose his cool.”

In running up his career win total to 96, Person has demonstrated that he is far from the normal underclassman on the mats. Already a two-time All-County honoree — he took third last season — he advances to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at the Times Union Center in Albany Feb. 25-26. “He’s been big in tournaments and has a lot of experience,” DeGaetano said.

Person wasn’t the only Kennedy wrestler to earn All-County honors, as senior Bobby Krug (135 pounds) and junior Mark Accetta (215) finished fifth and sixth in their respective weight classes. Krug opened with a pin over Island Trees’ Matt Jimenez at the 2:20 mark, then snuck by Mepham freshman Louis Hernandez with a 3-2 decision. Consecutive losses to Christian Dluginski of Sewanhaka East and North Shore’s Dan Grabner (both by 4-3 scores) in the wrestlebacks, however, dropped Krug into a battle for fifth place. “[Dluginski] wrestled a very good tactical match and countered well,” DeGaetano said. “He was very smart and slowed the match down. I was very impressed by the way he wrestled.”

After the loss to Grabner, Krug rebounded by pinning Uniondale’s Devol Haye at the 3:40 mark of the placing round. “I was very impressed with the way he [finished],” DeGaetano said of Krug, who led Haye 6-0 before the pin. “He had a great season and just had two tough matches. Our team success — Bobby was largely responsible for that. We were conference champions largely because of his leadership.”

Krug finished his season with a 41-4 mark.

Accetta, meanwhile, laid the foundation for a strong senior campaign, capping a 22-16 record with three victories at the county championship. He opened the tournament with a pin just 33 seconds into his first-round match against Glen Cove’s Fabrisky Jean-Claude. He lost an 8-3 decision to Freeport’s Oscar Bruce, but rebounded in the wrestlebacks to pin Uniondale’s Elijah Shabazz at 1:33 of the first round, and then won a 5-1 decision over Lawrence’s Akil Mavruk. The win over Shabazz was particularly impressive in DeGaetano’s eyes.

“He went out and kept it close at 3-1,” the coach said. “Shabazz made a mistake and he pancaked him for the pin. It was unbelievable.”

Accetta’s tournament ended with a 5-1 defeat in the placing round to Greg Goetz of Sewanhaka East. “He was loose and he went for it,” DeGaetano said. “He rose to the occasion.”