By TONY BELLISSIMO
An outstanding season for Kennedy team continued as the Cougars won the qualifier hosted by Mineola and qualified 11 individuals for the counties in the process.
"Overall it was a very good day," Kennedy coach Brian DeGaetano said. "We did great, even though we had a couple of tough losses along the way. Any time you can qualify 11 kids for the counties, it's tremendous. We also had some kids that didn't place that contributed to us winning the qualifier."
In what was supposed to be a rebuilding season at Kennedy has turned into something special. A predominately young team (only two seniors) has continued the program's rich tradition. This was the Cougars' fifth qualifying-tournament championship in eight seasons under DeGaetano.
Juniors Rob Zemsky (96 pounds), Bobby Etri (135) and Brent Weiss (275) captured first place in their respective weight classes, while freshman Sam Pecora (96), sophomore Jared Ginsberg (103), junior David Molina (130) and senior Ilya Shcherba (215) were runners-up. Others finishing in the top four were junior Dave Friedberg (fourth at 103), junior Ian Schwartz (fourth at 112), senior Mike Peskin (third at 125), and junior Niko Pagiazitis (fourth at 130).
"I'm really proud of this group," DeGaetano said. "Having 11 guys at the counties should allow us to finish in the top 10."
Zemsky and Shcherba both earned All-County honors last season.
Calhoun had the distinction of being a part of the qualifier hosted by defending county champion MacArthur. However, despite the stiff competition, the Colts finished second behind the Indians in the team standings and qualified 10 wrestlers for the counties.
"It turned out better than originally planned," Calhoun coach Gregg Muscarella said. "I thought we'd qualify five or six kids, and we ended up with 10. We had six finalists, but only one winner."
The Colts' lone champ was defending county champion and state runner-up Greg Lawrence, who won the 171-pound class in convincing fashion. Lawrence's title win was the 100th of his high-school career and upped his record on the season to a perfect 33-0.
"Greg's done a lot of extra work on his own, and it has paid off," Muscarella said. "He has a good chance to return to the states, but he'll need to wrestle well to do it."
Returning All-County performer Steven Glaser was the runner-up at 130 pounds, while sophomore Mike Annibell (103), senior Robert Catalfomo (145), junior Anthony Tobia (160) and junior Dan Bowker (215) also placed second. Calhoun's other top finishers were sophomores Giro LaRocca (third at 96) and Tom Pagano (fourth at 119), senior Keith Bachman (third at 152) and junior Danny Yngstrom (fourth at 215).
Mepham finished in third place at the Massapequa qualifier and will send nine hopefuls to the counties, including qualifying tourney winners senior George Pacciano (125) and junior James Marzigliano (160).
"I was happy with the way we wrestled," Pirates coach Mike Muscara said. "George and James were very impressive. Both beat the top seed in their weight classes in the finals."
Freshmen Adam Starr and Steve Gurien both placed at 103 pounds by finishing second and third, respectively. Other qualifiers for Mepham are seniors Jon Gunther (third at 135), Jason Muscara (fourth at 140) and Chris Crescitelli (second at 145), junior Zach Brass (third at 189) and sophomore Mike Cymbala (third at 152).
The county tournament begins on Saturday at 11 a.m. The finals are on Sunday, beginning at 6 p.m.
