Locals thrive in Sprig Tournament

Wrestlers from Kennedy, Mepham and Calhoun all turned in strong performances at the annual Sprig Gardner tournament, hosted by the Cougars Dec. 13 and the Pirates the following day. Kennedy finished second among the nine-team field, tallying 236 points (Hewlett led all teams with 262.5), while Mepham was fourth (207); the Colts took sixth (158).

Heavy on underclassmen, the Cougars were led by a pair of seniors—Ben Sather (113 pounds) and Roman Esposito (126)—who each earned individual titles with tight wins in their championship bout. Sather scored a two-point reversal on Mepham junior Joel Zambrano in the second round and held on for a 2-0 victory in the finals, while Esposito pulled off a throw with 15 seconds left for the only points he needed in a 2-1 win over Michael Macchia of Half Hollow Hills East. For Esposito, it was his first-ever individual title. 

Fourteen Cougars in all placed at the Sprig Gardner, including senior Matt Shane (170 pounds) and juniors Danny Arkow (160) and Aydin Kessler (182), who all finished second, junior Thomas Block (145), sophomore Matt Schwartz (152) and freshman Eric Brach (99), all fourth-place finishers. “We’ve got a nice crop [of wrestlers] that has come into the season with real good skills,” Kennedy coach Brian DeGaetano said. 

Mepham had five wrestlers advance to the finals, and two—seniors Louis Hernandez (160 pounds) and Matt Assael (152)—grab individual championships. Hernandez, a two-time All-County wrestler coming off an all-state campaign, knocked off Arkow, 20-4 in the finals, while Assael pinned South Side’s Lucas DerKatch at the 3:24 mark. Sophomore Tyler Althenn just missed toppling Chris Martinez of Half Hollow Hills East in the finals at 106 pounds, dropping in a 2-1 decision, while John Sherlock came up four points shy of Hewlett’s Oscar Revivo, 9-5, in the championship round at 138 pounds. “It’s still early and they’re learning,” Pirates coach Rich Anderson said. “But the kids wrestled better this week then last week. Every week we look to get better.”

For the first time in coach Steven Romano’s three years with the team, Calhoun had a pair of individual champions at the Sprig Gardner. Senior Thomas Fitzsimmons walked away with a 17-4 decision over Shane in the finals at 170 pounds, and senior Chris Johnsen won a 17-4 decision over Kessler for his first career title. “He controlled [the match] and got takedowns,” Romano said of Fitzsimmons, who survived a tough bracket to make the finals. “He really pushed the action.”

Among the Colts 10 place-winners were junior Matt Krause, who battled Hewlett’s Lucas Pincus, a returning All-County performer, in the finals at 120 pounds falling short in a 13-3 decision. Senior Dylan Goldstein won an individual title at 138 pounds on Dec. 7, when Calhoun wrestled at the Hank Parris Memorial Tournament at Plainedge and followed that up with a fourth-place finish at the Sprig Gardner, losing two matches by just a single point on the way to placing.