Marines crown seven champions
Win qualifier, send 13 to county tournament
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Long Beach's Adam D'Auguste
beat Jesse Pizarro of Division on the way to winning the 145-pound title at last Sunday's county qualifying tournament.
Ron Manfredi/Herald
Juniors Edisson Tigre-Borja and Nick Khoury highlighted a stellar performance by Long Beach in last Sunday’s county wrestling qualifying tournament at home.
Tigre-Borja pinned all four of his opponents on the way to winning the 130-pound title, while Khoury upset the top two seeds en route to finishing first at 135. All told, the Marines crowned seven champions and racked up 376.5 points to win the seven-team event.
“To have seven champions and six others qualify for the county tournament, I couldn’t ask for much more,” Long Beach coach Ray Adams said. “We benefited from being at home. We had a great crowd behind us, and I really think it made a difference in some cases.”
The Marines are one of five teams expected to battle for the county team title this weekend at Hofstra. Defending champion Wantagh, MacArthur, Massapequa and Uniondale figure to be in the mix as well. “Everyone we’ll have at Hofstra is capable of scoring a bunch of points to help us win,” Adams said. “It’s going to be exciting.”
Khoury made for plenty of excitement in the qualifier when he topped Division’s Mike Ruane, 8-7, the No. 1 seed, in the final. Ruane beat Khoury a week earlier, 8-2. “Nick set a goal to win the qualifier and was looking forward to a rematch with Ruane,” Adams said. Khoury, who is seeking a second straight All-County finish, edged Glen Cove’s Mike Iannetta in the semis, 4-3.
Tigre-Borja, who also earned All-County honors last season, didn’t have as eventful a day as Khoury. His four pins came in a total of 6:00. “Edisson was as sharp as anyone,” Adams said. “If he’s on his game at Hofstra, he’s got a good shot to win it all.”
Sophomore Dylan Palacio continued his march toward repeating as a county champion by dominating the field at 140 pounds. Palacio, who took Nassau’s 119-pound crown as a freshman, is 32-1 on the season.
Junior Adam D’Auguste took first at 145 pounds, beating Felix Perez of Division in the final, 15-5, and “is on target to do some big things at Hofstra,” according to Adams. D’Auguste seeks a second straight All-County finish as well.
The Marines dominated the lightest weight class, with sophomores Mark Raghunandan and Krishna Sewkumar meeting in the finals and freshman Steve Sewkumar taking third place. Raghunanadan beat both Sewkumars on the way to the title. “They could all place in the county,” Adams said.
Sophomore Oral Allen (112) enjoyed his best day of the season, Adams said. Allen won four matches and gave up only five points along the way. He edged Greg Haft of Plainview-JFK in the final, 4-3.
Senior Dequan Simmons was the last one standing at 171. He pinned his first two opponents and nipped Rob McNamara of Division in the final, 2-1.
In addition to Krishna Sewkumar, sophomore Matt Gray (103) and senior Oliver Astone (285) were runners-up. Mike Faraglia (fourth at 125) and Joshua Lopez (fourth at 160) also advanced to the countywide event.
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