Thursday, October 1, 2026
Juniors Matt Swanson and Zachary Kornberg led a contingency of seven Lynbrook wrestlers at the Nassau Division I championships last weekend at Hofstra by reaching the finals in their respective weight classes.
Swanson, who competed most of the season at 132 pounds, bumped up a notch to 138 down the stretch and made quite a run before coming up short, 7-4, against Hewlett’s Lucas Pincus in the title bout last Sunday night. Kornberg was runner-up to Long Beach’s Tyreek Bromley, who took the 182-pound crown with a 10-4 decision.
“I’m very happy with how the team performed,” Owls coach Rich Renz said.
In addition to Swanson and Kornberg, the Owls had two others place in the top six of their respective brackets to earn All-County honors. Sophomore Joe Becker won five of six matches on the weekend and finished third at 106 pounds, while senior Anthony Arena placed third at 170. Swanson, Kornberg and Arena all won qualifying tournament titles on Feb. 7 in the seven-team event hosted by Plainedge.
Swanson, who dominated the qualifier and capped it with a 9-4 victory over Wantagh’s Jonathan Loew, was seeded No. 1 in the county championships and pinned his way into last Sunday’s semifinals with two quick wins the previous day. He then muscled out a 4-2 decision over Long Beach’s John Colletti in the semis.
“Pincus is a real strong kid and I think Matt did the best he could,” Renz said of Swanson, who is 38-4 and along with Kornberg has a legitimate shot at a wild-card invite to the state championships at Albany’s Times Union Center.
Kornberg, a 5-2 winner over Wantagh’s Nick Coppola in the finals of the qualifier, also took a thrilling semifinal at Hofstra last Sunday afternoon. Kornberg topped Elijah Rodriguez of Long Beach, 3-2, in a match Renz described as “very intense.”
Becker had more wins than any of his teammates on the big Hofstra stage, falling only in the semis to Syosset’s Marc Mansa, 10-5. Becker, who recorded pins in the second round and the quarterfinals, won two wrestlebacks to gain third place on the podium. “Joe wrestled unbelievable,” Renz said.
Arena competed in one of the toughest brackets in the county and went 4-1. Three of his victories were by technical fall, and the other a major decision. His only loss came to Long Beach’s Joe Giorlando in the semis. “It was great to see Anthony finish his high school career as All-County,” Renz said. “He’s been working hard a long time. He scored a lot of points in the tournament.”
