Long Beach continues dominant season

The hardware is piling up quickly for Long Beach’s wrestling program, and it’s not even February.

In an 11-day span in January, the Marines captured the prestigious Union-Endicott Duals, long considered unofficial the New York State team championship, placed fourth in the 153-team Eastern States Tournament, and won the Nassau Conference 2A title with a 63-13 victory over MacArthur.

“I couldn’t be happier with everything we’ve done so far, but we still have a lot we want to accomplish,” Long Beach coach Ray Adams said. “The biggest part of the season is still ahead of us. Hopefully we can keep the ball rolling for another month.”

It was a little ironic, Adams said, for Long Beach’s final regular-season dual meet to begin at 220 pounds with junior Mark Rivera. Fourth in the county tournament last winter, Rivera provided the difference in a 34-31 win over Hilton (Rochester) with a last-second, come-from-behind 3-1 decision over John Fuino in the finals of the UE duals on Jan. 10.

“It doesn’t get bigger than what Mark experienced in a dual meet,” Adams said. “He came up huge, there’s no other way to describe it. He kept his composure.”

Rivera jump-started the win over MacArthur on Jan. 20 with a pin of Joseph Razza in 1-minute, 45-seconds. Long Beach had seven other pins, including two-time defending state champion Jacori Teemer, who bumped up to 132 from 126 and needed 4:48 to get the job done against Steven Szilagyi. Teemer, a sophomore, is undefeated at 31-0 and knocked off Peter Pappas of Plainview in the Eastern States Tournament at Sullivan Community College on Jan. 17.

“Jacori continues to be impressive,” Adams said. “There’s a lot of tough competition out there at 126, but he’s certainly capable of going all the way.”

Sean Bourne (126), Tyrese Byron (152) and Elijah Rodriguez (195) continued their big seasons with pins against MacArthur, while Matt Maquet (120), John Colletti (138) and Tyreek Bromley (182) all defeated All-County opponents. Maquet won by technical fall over Christian Doherty, Colletti took a 10-5 decision over Travis Cooksey, and Bromley rallied for an 8-6 overtime win against Sal Deluca.

“It was an electric atmosphere,” Adams said of the showdown for the conference title. “We had the jazz band playing, and all levels of our program including the Gladiators came to support us.”

In addition to Teemer, the Marines had Byron, Rodriguez and Charlie Spada (145) went undefeated in the Union-Endicott duals. Byron and Bromley placed sixth and eighth, respectively, at the Eastern States.

“If you place at the Eastern States, you’re right in the conversation for a state title,” Adams said.

Next up for Long Beach is the Nassau dual meet playoffs, featuring the top 24 teams in the county, this Friday and Saturday. The Marines are the defending champs and ranked No. 1, followed by Wantagh and Massapequa. The Nassau qualifying tournaments take place Feb. 6 at six locations, with Long Beach likely to host one. The county championships set for Feb. 13-14 at Hofstra.