Saturday, March 15, 2025
The decorated high school wrestling careers of Oceanside’s Jake Strianese and Jared Marine saw another chapter added Sunday evening when both seniors reached the finals of the Nassau County Division I championships at Hofstra University.
Strianese was runner-up to Hewlett sophomore Carlos Salazar at 124 pounds, while Marine finished second to Farmingdale junior Josh Kama at 190.
Strainese, Marine, fellow seniors Jesse Bittenbender and Santino Palmisano, and sophomore Chace Morris advanced to the state championships Feb. 28 and March 1 at MVP Arena in Albany. Marine placed eighth in the state last winter. Morris was county runner-up to Long Beach’s Brody Franklin at 131.
“This is the most All-County wrestlers our program has ever had in one season and the highest we’ve finished in team points,” Oceanside coach Brian Schoenfelder said. “It was a great weekend.”
Strianese had a bye to the last Saturday’s second round where he defeated Bethpage’s Jake Ragusa by technical fall. In the quarterfinals, Strianese took an 8-3 decision over Clarke’s Richard King.
Sunday morning’s semifinal was a high-scoring battle that saw Strianese emerge with an 11-9 decision over Long Beach’s Gregory Walpole. Salazar nipped Walpole, 5-4, in last season’s 116-pound title bout and made it back-to-back county championships with a 7-3 decision over Strianese.
Marine was in cruise control Saturday and unlike Strianese, didn’t get a first-round bye. Marine started with a pin of Valley Stream South’s Ismael Ali-Barreto, followed with a tech fall of Syosset’s Max Glambosky, and capped opening day by pinning Port Washington’s Jivan Nakashian. He then worked past Wantagh’s Shareef McMillian in the semis, 7-3, before falling 14-2 to Kama in the title match.
Morris, seeded fifth, was nothing short of dominant on his road to the finals with two pins and one tech fall victory on Saturday, and a major decision over top-seeded William Grassini of Clarke in Sunday’s semifinal. Morris pinned Jericho’s Brad Safir in the first round and Farmingdale’s Sal Migliaccio in the second round.
Bittenbender was seeded fourth at 138 and showed plenty of resiliency after falling in the second round to East Meadow’s Matthew Motamedian, the No. 13 seed. Bittenbender put the loss in the rearview mirror and battled all the way back to qualify for states with six wrestleback wins to capture third place. Included in his rally was a pin of Motamedian.
In the third-place match, Bittenbender pinned Kennedy’s Vasilios Katranis in 1-minute flat.
“Jesse showed you have to put an early loss behind you and just focus on what’s ahead,” Schoenfelder said. “He’s top caliber and hopefully will do some damage at states.”
Palmisano made a nice run to the semifinals at 170 with a pin and major decision to secure his spot on the All-County podium, but he wasn’t satisfied. After falling in the semis, he rebounded to dominate Saurico Romero of Roosevelt (13-1) and Farmingdale’s Jovens Theodate (8-1) to punch his ticket to Albany.
“I call Santino ‘The Great Santini,’” Schoenfelder said. “He lost a tough semifinal but battled back for third. I’m not surprised.”
Strianese, Morris and Marine all entered the season with two All-County campaigns under their belts. Now they’re at three.
“Our senior group along with Chace has brought the program to another level,” Schoenfelder said.
