'Canes Host Annual Cory Hubbard Wrestling Duals; Barnabee To Represent Program in First-Ever Girls Wrestling Invitational

The Westhampton Beach wrestling team hosted its annual Cory Hubbard Duals on Saturday and everything went just about as expected.

Hosting some of the top teams in Suffolk County, the host Hurricanes defeated East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton in what was a very competitive match, 35-34, to place fifth. Patchogue-Medford defeated Bellport, 40-27, and now won the tournament three of the past five years since 2019; the tournament wasn’t held in 2021 due to the pandemic, and Miller Place won it last season. Miller Place defeated Sayville, 38-33, to place third on Saturday and Newfield defeated Hampton Bays, 51-18, to place seventh.

Westhampton Beach head coach Pete DeTore said it was another good tournament with some really stiff competition that helps push all of the wrestlers to their limits.

“We probably easily had some of the top 10 teams in the county. Bellport had just knocked off Brentwood this past week, so I definitely think we placed where we expected,” he said. “I was happy we were able to knock off East Hampton after they had beaten us at their tournament in the beginning of the season, so now we’re 1-1.”

DeTore said he has a love/hate relationship with wrestling East Hampton, the most obvious reason being that East Hampton head coach Ethan Mitchell used to be on the coaching staff at Westhampton Beach.

“We spend a lot of time together. Like before the match you could see our kids rolling around together, but it’s also good competition,” DeTore said.

DeTore said the match between the two teams came down to one bout at 110 pounds between Max Orr and Anthony Petersohn. DeTore said Orr did a fantastic job staying off his back to avoid getting pinned, something the Bonackers needed to win the match.

“He fought his heart out,” DeTore said of Orr. “We had bumped him up to 110 but Max wrestled off his back multiple times to not get pinned. Not quitting was huge for our team.”

Sal Fracapane, Bobby Stabile, Nate Brand and Bruno Maffei all went 3-1 on the day while Dylan Razzano went 2-2. Fracapane was given the team’s Most Outstanding Wrestler distinction for wrestling up a weight class on the day at 172 pounds. That included going toe-to-toe with Sayville’s Cody Lopresti, who placed sixth in the county last season at 189 pounds. Fracapane only lost, 7-6.

Fracapane had a huge win in the Hurricanes dual-meet loss to Hauppauge on January 4. Down 3-0 early, Fracapane wound up winning, 8-3, over Eagle Charles Olaechea. DeTore said Fracapane, the team’s only returning wrestler who appeared at counties last season, is gaining valuable confidence as he goes through the season that is only going to help achieve his goals down the road.

“We’ve been getting him prepared for leagues and counties, and emotionally he has that foundation from being in those tough matches,” DeTore explained. “He had two tough losses in the beginning of the year against Hills East and Connetquot so we’ve been talking about it a lot with Coach [Paul] Bass, who is always there to help us out when he can. He’s been working with Sal, trying to incorporate staying calm under pressure. Those tense moments in the matches at times, you really have to push and get away from the analytical part of wrestling.

“We’ve talked about trying to go too big too soon and how matches are won in the third period,” DeTore continued. “On Wednesday, he was losing, 3-0, and he wound up winning, 8-3, and we feel like that got him one step closer to where he needs to be going forward.”

Stabile and Brandi, captains of the team along with Fracapane, have been steady all season, DeTore said while Razzano, Connor Rodgers and Bruno Maffei have all very pleasant surprises in terms of how much they’ve improved over the course of the season so far.

Westhampton Beach, which is 2-1 thus far in a tough League V, had a busy week this week. After wrestling East Islip on Tuesday, the ’Canes hosted Rocky Point on Wednesday and will wrestle at Half Hollow Hills West this Friday at 5:30, all before competing in the Kujan Memorial Tournament at William Floyd on Saturday.

DeTore received word on Monday that Juliet Barnabee will represent Westhampton Beach at the first-ever New York State Girls Wrestling Invitational which is set for January 27 at the SRC Arena and Events Center. DeTore said the state received over 400 applications from girls around the state interested in competing in the event, and the state said it was accepting half of that number based on certain criteria such as wins and losses from throughout the season and other aspects of the sport.