Hurricane Wrestlers Win Multiple Matches at County Division I Tournament

The Westhampton Beach wrestling team may not have any boys heading to the New York State Championships next weekend, but head coach Jakob Restrepo said it was still a fruitful Suffolk County Division I Championships for his team, since all of his wrestlers won at least one match, and in most cases, multiple matches.

Carmine Esposito, a junior, was one win away from reaching the all important “blood round,” where a victory there would have ensured him at least a top-six placement and All-County honors. The junior began the tournament, which was Saturday and Sunday at Stony Brook University, with a close 6-5 victory over Bellport junior Braydon Cipp, but then lost his next match, 14-0, to Huntington junior Vincent Pupillo, who wound up placing sixth in the county.

Esposito won via a 16-0 technical call over William Floyd senior Antonio Martin in his first wrestleback match, then defeated East Hampton senior Justin Prince, 12-6, before being pinned by West Islip senior James Rogler, ending his tournament run. Rogler went on to place fifth in the county.

“He got caught in a funky scramble position and got pinned by Rogler,” Restrepo said. “Carmine, he won some matches over some kids he lost to either earlier this season or previous years. Just some things didn’t go his way in two of his matches. But it was good for him, and all of our wrestlers, to grab some wins at the county tournament, and I feel a lot of them are one step away from making that jump that they need to make.”

Dylan Blenk (108 pounds), the Hurricanes’ lone League VI Champion a week prior, competed in the tournament along with sophomore classmates Darren Cangelosi (116) and Andrew Lewis (190), and the only senior competing in the tourney for Westhampton Beach, Dylan Razzano (152), all of whom were league finalists.

Blenk won his first match of the tournament convincingly in a 16-1 tech fall over East Islip sophomore Ty Strychalsky, but then he lost an 8-1 decision to Smithtown West sophomore Evan Margolis. He defeated West Islip sophomore Joe Gorman in a 13-5 major decision in his first wrestleback match before losing, 7-1, to Longwood sophomore Joshua Bender.

Lewis reached the quarterfinals of his 190-pound bracket. He defeated Half Hollow Hills East senior Aaron Owen via a 16-0 tech fall in the first round, then pinned Sachem North junior Logan Spinella with just two seconds left in the match. After losing a major decision to eventual county champion and Commack senior Brady Curry, Lewis lost his one and only wrestleback match to William Floyd junior David Gonzalez.

Razzano pinned Patchogue-Medford sophomore Chris Tacuri at the buzzer in his opening-round match, then lost to Bellport junior Jason Nichols that sent him to the wrestleback portion. In his first match there, he defeated Deer Park junior Brandon Bailey in a 23-6 tech fall, but then lost a major decision to Sachem North senior Logan Williamson.

Cangelosi defeated his first-round opponent, East Islip sophomore Marcos Quinones, in a 13-2 major decision, but then lost a 7-3 decision to Bellport sophomore Thomas Smith and then another 7-3 decision to Ward Melville junior Jaden Baron.

Restrepo, who’s little brother Sano Restrepo, an eighth-grader at Sachem East, placed sixth in the county, said the county tournament proved once again it can be quite daunting.

“Every person wrestling there is tough. They’re a top-four placewinner from their league, so nothing is ever guaranteed,” he said. “You have to go out there and carve your own path and go through the gauntlet at the center of the mat. But I think what our wrestlers learned this past weekend is that there are levels to the sport of wrestling, and in order to keep jumping those levels you have to do more than what you did the year before. If you did X amount of this work last offseason, you have to do X plus more the following offseason. As long as we keep following that formula, we’ll keep developing and keep getting better.”

With much of the core of his team returning, with Blenk, Cangelosi and Lewis currently being sophomores and Esposito a junior, and some promising freshmen and eighth-graders coming up, next season looks to be a promising one.

“They all just have to have a strong offseason, get into clinics, camps and tournaments,” he said. “The incoming eighth grade class has a bunch of tough kids and we’ll be getting them involved in the offseason and we’ll just be building up the room where we have a bunch of wrestlers who compete and train year round.”

The season is not over just yet for Westhampton Beach wrestling. Lily Blenk will be competing in the New York State Girls Wrestling Championships at MVP Arena in Albany on Thursday, February 27. Restrepo said Blenk, the twin sister of Dylan Blenk, is the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the 120-pound weight class and is expected to do well.