Baldwin seeks health for playoffs

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The Baldwin wrestling team set expectations high after a promising first month of the season. However, in recent weeks, the club has been slowed down by injuries and weight class issues, and has struggled to replicate its December success.

This month, the Bruins have seen several key performers miss time, including team captain Armando Roman and key heavyweight Marc Castle. Because of this Baldwin has struggled in getting consistent production from parts of its lineup. 

“We’ve haven’t fared too well lately,” Bruins head coach Jim Murphy said. “We wound up losing a pretty close decision to Sewanhaka East, where I thought at full strength we would have had a much better chance. Our match at Island Trees didn’t go well, as we just didn’t match up well with them. We’ve been having some ups and downs, but we’ve wrestled East Meadow and Oceanside tough. It’s just a matter of getting our kids in the right weight classes.”

Despite some recent bumps in the road, Murphy believes his squad is still on track to achieve big things in the upcoming county playoff and tournament stages. 

“We plan on being healthier going into the playoffs,” Murphy said. “I would like for us to try and finish in the top ten in the county. I think we have the horses to do it. It’s just a matter of getting them in the right spots.”

With some of the regulars missing from Baldwin’s lineup, the team’s novice wrestlers have been given plenty of opportunities.

“We’ve gone with a lot of young kids, and they have been right their performance wise with some of the better guys in the county,” Murphy said. “Mat Kong has been wrestling real well at 126 and 132 pounds. Paul Wehr at 106 has been off the charts. And Abe Mitchel has started to come around and perform a lot better since he started wrestling up at 113.”

The Bruins’ emerging youngsters helped the team crown 10 individual champions at the varsity and JV level tournaments the school hosted this past weekend. At the tourney Wehr, Kong and 170-pound Kenroy Cummings were all standouts for the club. 

Murphy believes his wrestlers will be at their best come tournament time. Now the focus of the club is on cleaning up mistakes and making sure the group is ready to give a successful final push.  

“I have been disappointed by our inconsistency,” he said. “We have great performances by one or two individuals, then we lay some eggs. We just need to keep plugging away in practice, and keep going over the things we’ve been going over. We’ll increase the intensity level at practices, while decreasing the workload. We’re trying to peak for the end of the season.”

Next up for Baldwin will be an appearance in the Battle for the Belt tournament in Syosset. The event has been rescheduled to this upcoming Saturday, after being snowed out on Jan. 7.