By STEVE SINISKI
³He took last year off and that shows what a competitor he is,² Clarke coach Mike Leonard said. ³The coaching staff knew he could do it all along.²
The Rams senior is simply a full-time athlete, who saved his best performances on the wrestling mats for last. On the heels of his first-ever County Championship, the 145-pounder won just one of his three matches at the state tournament but did have a clear chance to place within the top six of the weight class.
After dropping his first matchup of the tournament against Brockport¹s Matt Cinelli by pinfall at the 2:58 mark, Palmer (27-4 overall) rebounded in the wrestleback round. He scored an early takedown of Chaminade¹s Pat Doherty for a 2-0 lead, and controlled the entire way in the 10-5 victory.
³He was good and handled himself well,² Leonard said of Palmer¹s performance at the state tournament. ³The other guys were just better.²
The victory put Palmer in a win-and-in situation in the second wrestleback round as far as becoming an All-State wrestler. His next opponent, Minisink Valle¹s Cory Lempka boasted a 38-4 mark entering the match, but didn¹t have much, if anything, on Palmer. The battle started off in Palmer¹s favor, as he scored an early 4-0 lead when he put Lempka on his back in the first period. Early in the second period, however, Palmer was caught off guard, getting flipped for the pin at the 4:22 mark. ³He reversed [Lempka] on his back but then just got caught,² Leonard said.
Having never been an All County wrestler before, the stage at the Nassau Coliseum could seem completely overwhelming. The attendance total was tallied at nearly 18,000 for the two days of the tournament, and the wrestlers didn¹t get much advance notice on the style of their opponents. Scouting isn¹t done at nearly the same level as during the Nassau County regular season, so the wrestlers have just one option on how to approach each bout. ³You just have to wrestle your style and hope you¹ve trained better,² Leonard said.
Making Palmer¹s uphill climb to the state tournament even more impressive was the fact that he missed a chunk of the year because of injury. According to Leonard, the late-season surge was keyed by improved habits outside of the gameday action. ³He started working harder in practice and listening to the coaches and responding,² Leonard said. ³He never placed in the counties before and didn¹t win a tournament until the [County] Qualifier.²
