North boasts four wrestling champs

Valley Stream North coach Tom Maddock wasn’t exactly beaming with confidence heading into the second day of the Nassau Division II wrestling championships, even though the Spartans had six finalists.

“We pushed a bunch of guys through, but I wasn’t happy with the way we competed the first day,” Maddock said. “We weren’t as sharp as we were going into the tournament.”

That all changed for the better at Hofstra.

North crowned four individual champions and came away with five other All-County (top three in each weight class) finishes. It placed third in the team standings with 186.5 points behind Mineola and Oyster Bay. “I was thrilled with how it all turned out,” Maddock said. “We went 4-2 in the finals and 3-1 in the third-place matches. The kids really stepped up when they had to.”

Seniors Cyle Sicurella (130 pounds) and Chris Aumuller (135), junior Will Hunter (285) and freshman Justin Uslaner (103) won titles and competed in last weekend’s state tournament at the Times Union Center in Albany. Sophomore Jesse Oppenheimer (119) and freshman Kyle Miller (96) were county runners-up, while senior Amol Montoya (189) and freshmen Rob Kishun (96) and Nick Gonzalez (152) took third. Senior Kevin Hull (145) missed the event with an undisclosed illness after recording 18 wins.

Sicurella’s team-leading 26th victory of the season came against Wheatley’s Michael Affigne in the county final, 8-5. “Cyle sometimes made things more difficult for himself by being too cautious, but he was more aggressive in his last two matches,” Maddock said of Sicurella, who beat Carle Place’s Anthony Amalfitano, 1-0, in the first round and Mineola’s Matt Long, 5-3, in the semis. “He’s a hard worker and a county championship is something he really wanted to accomplish,” he added.