Big finish for Lawrence foursome

Three Lawrence seniors capped their wrestling careers in style last Sunday at the Nassau Division I championships at Hofstra University.

Mohamed Chaudhry, Karl Ravilus and Isaiah Batts all went out on a winning note, capturing the fifth-place bouts to earn All-County honors along with junior Pankil Chander.

“Mohamed, Karl and Isaiah were part of our program for four years and it’s great to see them go out like this,” Golden Tornadoes coach Dom DelVecchio said. “They all got their hands raised one more time. It’s nice they’re able to say they reached the All-County podium and won their last match.”

Ravilus, the coach said, was the surprise of the bunch based on the draw in the 195-pound weight class. He took third in the qualifier tournament hosted by Massapequa Feb. 4 and faced a tough road on his half of the bracket in the county tournament. He edged past Uniondale’s Jordan Hamilton, 3-2, in the first round, upset Lynbrook’s Matt Mott, 10-2, in the second round, and worked overtime to upset Great Neck North’s Kevin Bichoupan, 7-5, in the quarterfinals.

“Karl avenged losses to Hamilton and Mott,” DelVecchio said. “He was solid all season for us and really came through at the end.”

Ravilus was stopped by top-seeded Rob Zorn of Sewanhaka East in the semis but bounced back to split a pair of wrestlebacks. His final match was a 7-6 victory over Hamilton.

Chander was another semifinalist. After winning the qualifier, he had a bye into the second round and promptly pinned Division’s Nicholas Carreras in 57 seconds to advance to the quarterfinals. A 7-2 decision over Syosset’s Eric Faimon moved Chander into the semis where he lost to a defending county champion, Robert Person of Bellmore-JFK. 

“Pankil was in the toughest weight class in the whole county,” DelVecchio said of Chander, who closed the tournament with an 8-3 win over Faimon. “He won 32 matches and lost only four all season.”

Batts, also a qualifying champion at 220 pounds, reached the semifinals of the county tournament with pins of Island Trees’ Paul Parada and Herricks’ Bill Rynne. After losing in the semis to Tom Sinclair of Island Trees, and his first wrestleback to Calhoun’s Jenard Rosemond, Batts rebounded to pin Rynne a second time to close the book on his career.

Narrow defeats were the story of Chaudry’s weekend. A qualifying champion at 126 pounds, he won four matches in the county tournament and lost 6-3 in the quarterfinals to Conor Sullivan of Plainedge, and 10-7 in a wrestleback to Jorge Barriero of Freeport. “Mohamed was one win away from All-County two years in a row, so it was great to see him get past that barrier,” DelVecchio said.