Marines win Baldwin Tournament

With its three returning All-State wrestlers leading the way, Long Beach captured the Bruins Cup Tournament in Baldwin Dec. 10 after finishing second in its host event to start the season.

“Good stuff,” Marines coach Ray Adams said. “We improved in a week’s time. We always have a hard-working group of kids. We worked on some weaknesses at practice and it translated into wins on the mat.”

Long Beach finished atop a stacked field at Baldwin with 306 points, edging Sachem East, St. Anthony’s, and Longwood, the No. 1-ranked team in New York State. “I thought we got off to a decent start in our own tournament, finishing second behind Wantagh, and this is a big early statement,” Adams said. 

The Marines had six individual finalists, including five champions. Junior Steven Sewkumar topped Oceanside’s Rocco Candela in the 106-pound final, senior Krishna Sewkumar beat Freddy Dunau of St. Anthony’s for the 113-pound crown, senior Mark Raghunandan (120 pounds) beat East Meadow’s Vinny Pannulo, senior Dylan Palacio (160) took care of Longwood’s Eddie Jennings, and senior Pete Amabile pinned his last three opponents to win at 275.

Krishna Sewkumar, Raghunandan and Palacio are returning All-State grapplers, finishing fifth, second and third last season. Sewkumar and Palacio also took home Nassau County titles.

“We’ve got some accomplished kids and a pretty strong lineup overall,” Adams said. “One of our goals is to win a county title, which is something we did two years ago, and try to win a state title. These guys know what it takes to get there.”

Also in the Baldwin Tournament, senior Oral Allen (126) finished runner-up, seniors Josh Lopez (182) and Matt Gray (113) placed third, and sophomores Jaemen Connelly (99) and Glen Rutherig (220) turned in fine efforts to finish fourth.

In the season-opening Battle at the Beach Tournament Dec. 3, Wantagh ran away with the title and the Marines were a distant second, 331 points to 195. Kellenberg was third with 146.5.

Long Beach had four individual champs that day as well. Steven Sewkumar topped Vinny Skokos of Nanuet in overtime, Krishna Sewkumar bested Kellenberg’s Patrick Skinner of Kellenberg, Raghunandan toppled Chris Vono of Kellenberg, and Palacio handled Ekow Eshun of Long Island City on the way to earning the Most Outstanding Wrestler award.

Raghunandan and Palacio, who was third in the state as a sophomore, are getting looks from Division I colleges. “They’re still in the process of figuring out what they want to do,” Adams said. 

Adams said the Marines will be tested in league matches by East Meadow (home, Jan. 11) and MacArthur (home, Jan. 18), and in between they’ll head to the prestigious Eastern States Tournament Jan. 13 at Sullivan County Community College in upstate Liberty.

Others the coach is counting on to contribute are Freddy Medina, Anthony Posada, Rich Tagliambe, Josh Romero, Liam Fitzpatrick, Joe Bosco, Walter Ulloa and Zamar Allen.