East Islip Finishes Fourth at Huntington

                                    Redmen win three individual titles and win 14 medals

Sunday December 13, 2009
By Matt Ruler
 
 
The East Islip High School varsity wrestling team opened its season at the 39th annual Huntington invitational tournament on Saturday and finished in fourth place in the prestigious nine-team event. The host Blue Devils captured the team title with 257 points to take first place for the 27th time. East Islip scored 216 points and finished behind Kings Park (247.5) and Massapequa (233).
 
For the Redmen, Nick Ventiere, Alex Brown, and Andrew Slawson all earned championship trophies for the first time. Ventiere and Brown both took third last year, while Slawson was a runnerup.
 
Ventiere dominated the competition in the 130-pound weight class with two pins, a 5-1 decision, and a 9-3 decision in the finals over Eric DeAngelis of Center Moriches. “Nick wrestled really good for the first tournament of the year,” stated East Islip head coach Guy Leggio. Ventiere allowed only four points scored against him in four bouts. “He sets the bar high for himself and the rest of the team,” said Leggio.
 
Brown, the number one seed at 140 pounds, breezed to the finals with two pins after a first round bye. In the finals, Brown and his opponent, Nick Chicoine of Massapequa, battled through six minutes and were tied at one. Both boys scored escapes in the overtime periods to knot the score at two. Brown then scored a reversal in the rideout portion of overtime to win the title, 4-2. It is Brown’s first invitational tournament victory in his successful career. (He did win the League III title last season.) Brown finished second in two invitational tournaments and third in five others over the last two years. On his hard fought victory, “It’s great,” said Brown. “It’s really good.”
 
Slawson capped the evening by escaping in the fourth overtime period of the 285-pound bout to win 2-1 over Connor Murphy of Center Moriches. Slawson had decisioned his teammate, Daniel Hayden, under the same circumstances in a semifinal bout. “I felt alot of pressure today, being the number one seed,” said an exhausted Slawson. “But we work hard [in practice} and the coaches really train us, so it came out ok.”
 
The other finalists for the Redmen were David Dellavechia (112) and Nick Arma (189). Both lost to highly regarded opponents and took home silver medals. Both Dellavechia and Arma won three bouts before losing in the finals.
 
For East Islip, Tyler Conway (160) and Daniel Hayden (285) placed third in their respective weight classes. Both wrestlers lost overtime bouts in the semifinals, but rebounded to take home bronze medals. Hayden, only a freshman, pinned his final two opponents. “Hayden did a nice job for us,” said assistant coach Mike Longobardi. “He wrestled really tough.”
 
Kenny Risco (96 pounds) and Eric Vik (171) both took fourth place. Vik lost a 5-4 decision in the semifinals.
 
Perhaps the most shocking medal winner for East Islip was 96-pound freshman Justin Morena who won three bouts to take fifth place. Morena is in his first year of wrestling.
 
Senior Mike Hillenbrand won three bouts (two pins and a major decision) to take fifth place in the 215 pound class. He had not wrestled since he was in the eighth grade.
 
Kyle Shevlin (103) and Mike DiLiello (125) also took fifth for East Islip. Junior Tom Carew (135) took sixth place at 135 pounds. It was the first tournament that Carew has placed in on the varsity.
 
East Islip scored more points this year (216) than last year (201.5) in the tournament, but yet had one less placewinner (15-14). “We have a lot of things to work on,” said Leggio. “But we’ll be ok.”
 
With a few improvements here and there, East Islip will be more an ok.