Long Beach dominates qualifier

Qualifying 19 wrestlers for this weekend’s Nassau Division I championships at Hofstra puts Long Beach in prime position to capture back-to-back county titles.

The Marines dominated last Saturday’s seven-team qualifier in their own gym with 10 finalists and seven champions, including All-State juniors Mark Raghunandan (103 pounds) and Dylan Palacio (145). Long Beach, which had the first- and second-place finishers in two weight classes, amassed 421.5 points—167 more than runner-up East
Meadow.

“I’m pretty sure we never had 19  kids in the county tournament before,” Marines coach Ray Adams said. “It will allow us to contend for the title. We had 13 last season when we won it. It just shows the kind of depth we’ve got throughout the lineup.”

Raghunandan, who won an 8-4 decision over junior teammate Krishna Sewkumar in the finals, was named Most Outstanding Wrestler for the day and will take a record of 29-3 to Hofstra as he looks to repeat as a county champ. 

Palacio, a county champion two seasons ago who made the most of a wild-card berth to the state tournament last winter, remains undefeated in 2010-11. His 34th victory was a pin of Mepham’s Dan Tracy in the finals of the qualifier. “Most of Dylan’s wins came at 152,” Adams said. “He’s been great all season and he’s going to be real tough to beat.”

Junior Oral Allen (119) will be riding an impressive pin streak into the countywide event. He pinned all four opponents in the qualifier in a combined 7-minutes, 16-seconds, including East Meadow’s Matt Power in the finals in 5:40. Sophomore Steven Sewkumar (96) also capped his qualifying title with a pin, topping freshman teammate Jaemon Connelly.

At 135 pounds, senior Edisson Tigre-Borja turned the table on Mepham’s impressive freshman Louis Hernandez and won the qualifier with a 7-4 decision. Hernandez defeated Tigre-Borja 7-2 in the dual meet playoffs on Jan. 28. Tigre-Borja, a two-time All-County performer, has his sights set on the elusive title, Adams said.

The highest-scoring championship bout in the qualifier came at 152, where Long Beach senior Adam DeJesus bested Tom Gonzalez of Herricks, 12-8. DeJesus is seeking no worse than a third All-County finish at Hofstra.

Junior Josh Lopez also came up big for the Marines, who won the Conference 2A title but were nipped by Plainedge in the dual meet playoffs. Lopez, who was 14-12 during the regular season, emerged as the 171-pound qualifying champ with a convincing 9-2 decision over Kevin Ryerson of Herricks in the final. 

Senior Nick Khoury (140) and junior Matt Gray (112) settled for second place, juniors Anthony Posada (125), Marvin McMoore (152) and Pete Amabile (285) took home third, and juniors Mike Kashyap (112), Kenny Campos (119), Rich Tagliagambe (125), Liam Fitzpatrick (145) and Joe Bosco (189) were fourth. 

“You never know who’s going to step up,” Adams said. “We expect our big guns to come through at Hofstra, but every match counts.”