A Quick 60
The Challenge
MSGVarsity.com Sports Talk
High School SportsDesk
Wantagh takes dual meet opener
Photo by Tom Liodice
It seemed appropriate that the top two wrestling programs on Long Island needed almost all night to decide its first dual meet of the season.
Wantagh earned its first dual meet win of the year and needed almost every one of the 15 matches to do it to defeat Brentwood, 41-28.
Brentwood jumped out to an early 10-0 lead after the meet’s first two contests. Eric
Orellanna got the Indians started off strong by pinning Michal Gianetti in the 113 pound match, followed by Michael Cardona defeating Kyle Foglietta via a major decision, 9-1 in 120 pounds.
However, Wantagh roared back with three straight victories to give itself a four-point lead -- two via major decision (Chris Araoz maj. dec. B.J. Jacson, 14-3; and Vinny Turano maj. dec. Marc Gonzalez, 11-0), while the latter came via a pin (Nick Vines pinned Diego Ramirez, 5:50).
From thereon in, it would be a battle of which team would blink first.
Brentwood and Wantagh would trade victories in the next four matches, which saw Wantagh take a 20-19 lead heading into the 182 pound contest in which match of the night honors went to Brentwood’s Mishael Romero and Wantagh’s Alex Wedel.
Following the first period in which Romero fell behind 2-0 and needed extra time to tend to a shoulder injury, Wedel upped his lead to 3-0 with just a period remaining.
As the third period started, Wedel allowed an easy escape to allow Romero to cut the lead to two points. But with momentum riding on Romero’s side, the Brentwood grappler found a way to take down Wedel with 20 minutes remaining in regulation to force overtime. And just thirty seconds into the extra frame, Romero took down Wedel to clinch what looked like an improbable come-from-behind victory and a 22-20 lead..
All the Brentwood momentum would be squashed however as Wantagh’s Chris Loew would gain a quick pin on Joshua Barksdale in 55 seconds into the 195 pound match to give the Warriors yet another lead, 26-22.
The Indians got the lead back at 28-26 following a forfeit victory in 220 pounds, but would see it slip away again. But this time, for good.
The Warriors saw what would be three team points double in size in the 285 poiund division as Steven English saw what would have been a 7-1 decision over Josue Iglesias turn into a pin with just five seconds remaining. What would have been a slim 29-28 lead turned into a 32-28 advantage that wouldn’t disappear for the duration of the meet.
