The best season in Hewlett High School wrestling history will continue Feb. 25-26 when three Bulldogs will be in action at the New York State tournament in Albany.
Hewlett enjoyed a record-setting performance last weekend at the Nassau County Division 1 championships at Nassau Community College by placing 8 on the All-County podium (top six in each weight class), the most of any team, and finishing an all-time best third behind Wantagh and Massapequa.
Senior Josh Gendlin led the way for the Bulldogs by capturing the 160-pound title, becoming the program’s sixth county champion. He’ll be joined upstate by county runners-up junior Ariel Waldman (126) and senior Jacob Maiorano (285.)
“To say it was a great weekend would be an understatement,” Hewlett coach Stephen Jones said.
Gendlin, described by Jones as the “heart and soul of the team,” put on a dominant performance throughout the weekend and emerged with a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Joseph Mattaei in the finals Sunday afternoon.
Waldman’s road to the finals included a table-turning win over Long Beach’s Michael Berube a week earlier in the qualifier. In the quarterfinals on Saturday, Waldman took an 8-6 decision. He then came within inches of capturing a county crown, falling in overtime to Wantagh’s Ryan Arbeit, 6-4.
“Ariel’s getting better and better and more confident each day,” Jones said of Waldman, who needs two wins upstate to reach 100 for his career.
Maiorano was the No. 8 seed and pulled some eye-raising upsets on the way to the finals, where he was pinned in the third period by Westbury’s Romeo Turcios. Maiorano’s impressive road went through second-seeded Andres Valle of Lawrence in the second round (5-2 decision), No. 1 Jacob Menichini of Massapequa in the quarterfinals (3-2 decision), and fifth-seeded Vincent Petzhold of Plainedge in the semifinals, 4-2. “It was a heck of a run by Jake in a tough draw,” Jones said of Maiorano.
Sophomore Kirk Smith (fourth at 118), senior Jonathan Zenny (fourth at 152), seventh-grader Carlos Salazar (sixth at 102), sophomore Eric Gendlin (sixth at 110), and sophomore Oleg Daniloff (sixth at 172) also had strong performances that earned them the All-County tag.
Smith went 5-2 on the county’s biggest stage and secured All-County honors with a pin of Massapequa’s Matt Reehil in the consolation bracket.
Zenny overcame a 4-0 hole in the quarterfinals to pin John Wormian of Baldwin and secure All-County honors. After losing a tough semifinal, Zenny bounced back with an impressive 12-4 victory over Aaron Cho of Herricks and fell just short of qualifying for the state tournament.
Still a few years away from walking the high school hallways, Salazar showed the “grit and toughness of an upperclassman,” Jones said. The coach added Salazar won one of the most exciting matches of the county tournament when he defeated Jake Strianese of Oceanside in an overtime thriller with a late takedown.
Eric Gendlin defeated Rene Clemente of Farmingdale in the All-County round in convincing fashion, 8-1.
Jones said the biggest surprise was clearly Daniloff, who peaked at the perfect time.
