Thursday, October 1, 2026
This season is one of anticipation for the Clarke wrestling team, who captured the Nassau Division II title last winter and returned much of its roster, including all three individual county titlists from a year ago. So far, the results have met expectations.
The Rams, who are back in Division I this season, have competed in two tournaments thus far with respectable results. They finished fourth at the Battle at the Beach Tournament at Long Beach on Dec. 7 and followed that up with a sixth place showing at the Sprig Gardner Tournament in Bellmore a week later.
Defending county champ Justin Gonzalez (160 pounds) and junior Sebastien Mejia (152) both went a combined 8-0 in winning the tourneys, with the former earning the Ken Hunte Most Outstanding Wrestler Award at Bellmore. Sophomore Victor Rosario (124) also won the Sprig Gardner with five pinfalls in a combined time of 8 minutes, 30 seconds, the fastest mark among all wrestlers.
“I think we did a really nice job,” Rams coach Mike Leonard Jr. said. “We had a couple of guys out sick, so we had to sit a couple of our good wrestlers this weekend. We only put 10 guys in the [Sprig Gardner] tournament. We ended up with five in the finals, three champs and the most outstanding wrestler and the most pins in the least amount of time. So, if we’re putting half of the guys in the finals, I think we’re doing a good job.”
Junior Richard King, another defending county champion, was in the sick bay after placing third in the 124-pound bracket at Long Beach. Sophomore Bryan Araujo, who Leonard dubbed “a big part of the team”, also missed the Sprig Gardner with an illness after advancing to the 170 semifinals at Long Beach en route to a fourth-place finish.
Gonzalez had three pinfalls and a 17-1 technical-fall win over Calhoun’s Robert Bello to seal the championship, while Mejia nearly mirrored him with three pins and a 11-1 major decision victory over Nathan Wachter of Massapequa in that final.
“Justin did an awesome job keeping the pressure on,” Leonard said. “He beat two kids that were All County last year on his way to getting the guy in the finals, who was also a returning All County guy. And Sebastien Mejia, he beat two All County kids from last year. We knew what Justin and Sebastien, specifically, were capable of. Now we’re finally seeing it.”
Junior Marcus Rosario advanced to the 190 final in both tournaments with all six wins coming by pinfall. Senior Anthony Rivera had a tougher road to the 131 final with a two-point decision win and a tiebreaker victory in his first two matches before an 18-point major decision triumph.
Sophomore William Grassini, the third returning All-County titlist, had two pinfall victories and a 24-10 major decision win before taking two more matches in the consolation bracket to finish third. He was fifth at Long Beach.
Junior Jose Pacheco (170) finished fifth and senior Nicholas Barco (152) was sixth at Long Beach.
