Clarke grooming future champs

The Clarke wrestling program has been successful in recent years by producing several county champions and even a state titleist. This season’s group is noticeably younger, but is there an heir apparent or two among them?
The Rams won their only dual match and finished among the top six in two tournaments to start the season, including a runner-up showing at the Mamaroneck Tiger tourney on Dec. 9 in which two grapplers placed first among the six that appeared in the championship round. Because of that, coach Mike Leonard Jr. is hoping that some early confidence and more experience will be a springboard for more success this winter.
“We’re a little bit young this year,” he said. “In years past, we were lucky to have some real solid seniors. This year, we’re solid, but we have a lot of ninth graders who are pretty good, tenth graders who are getting there, and some pretty tough eleventh graders. We’re working in the right direction.”
Freshman William Grassini (131 pounds) and junior Sebastian Barco (145) won their respective classes at Mamaroneck, with the latter doing it at the expense of twin brother Nick in an 8-0 victory. Sophomores Richard King (124) and Sebastian Mejia (152) and junior Justin Gonzalez (160) also advanced to the final and sophomore Marcus Rosario (190) finished third.
The Rams were sixth at the Sprig Gardner Tournament in Bellmore the previous week, finishing just one point behind fifth-place Bellport.

“The experience matters more than anything,” Leonard said. “Getting the mat time in, that’s really going to help us grow and just taking it back to the room, correcting what we’re doing wrong [and] taking what we’re doing right.”
Gonzalez was the lone Clarke finalist at Bellmore after recording a pair of pins in less than a minute before a dominant 19-0 technical fall win in the semifinals. He also had one of the Rams’ four non-forfeit wins in a 52-0 whitewashing of Lawrence on Dec. 15.
“He just has to get more mat time,” Leonard said. “He definitely doesn’t need to go back to the drawing board. He just needs to keep working hard and cleaning up a few things. By the end of the year, he’ll have those all cleaned up and be ready to go when the time comes in February.”
Mejia had numerous pinfalls in the two tournaments, many in less than a minute, and a 11-3 major decision win during the consolation final at Bellmore. The Barco brothers combined for five pinfall wins at Mamaroneck and each picked up decision victories to reach the final.
Grassini, who was a county champ as a seventh grader, enjoyed a nice bounce-back performance at Mamaroneck after finishing eighth at Bellmore.
King showed marked improvement at Mamaroneck, Leonard said, and Rosario had three pinfall victories in each of the tournaments to go with a 9-0 major decision win against Lawrence. Leonard is bullish on Bryan Araujo (160) after the freshman finished fifth at Mamaroneck and senior Anthony Arevalo (215) after his 36-second pinfall win against Lawrence.