Wrestling: Three-peat for unbeaten Mattituck
Immediately after the Mattituck/Greenport high school wrestlers polished off Center Moriches in a Suffolk County League VII dual meet Friday night, the Tuckers gathered together for a team picture.
Most of them held up their middle three fingers to signify the third consecutive undefeated season they experienced, winning the league crown as many times.
Needless to say, the Tuckers were quite proud of their accomplishment.
“Not losing a league dual meet in three years, it shows that we’re one of the top programs in Suffolk County and we can compete with the best and our No. 1 ranking in the state really shows on and off the mat,” junior Tim Schmidt said after the Tuckers made quick work of the host Red Devils, 67-12.
“Coming from a season back in my eighth grade year where were didn’t win much and just stepping it up the next year and winning three in a row, that’s huge for us,” junior Lucas Webb said. “We love that.”
Coach Cory Dolson loved that as well, but as well as his team has wrestled, he realized that winning the league was just a stepping stone for the Tuckers. They have greater goals, including winning the county title and sending as many wrestlers to the state tournament as possible.
“We have to stay motivated, we have to stay hungry,” he said. “We can’t just be satisfied beating these teams. We have to keep working hard. We have to keep getting better every day because our ultimate goal, we want to send a whole slew of guys to the states. We’re tired of just sending them there. We want guys to get on the podium. That’s what we’re looking for.”
The Tuckers improved to 7-0 in the league. Moreover, they continued their dominance via runaway results. They have surrendered only 57 points in eight league dual meets, a number that is outstanding, considering they accrued 67 in one meet alone on Friday. Center Moriches fell to 3-4.
“That’s one of the lowest we ever had,” Webb said. “The highest amount of points a team has scored against us in the league is 12 today. That’s awesome.”
Mattituck won 12 out of a possible 15 matches, eight by pins, two by default and two by decision.
The meet started with the 170-pound match, in which Schmdit won on a fall with 29 seconds left in the final period. Tanner Zagarino (195), Adam Good (220), Thomas Hoeg (113), T.J. Beebe (120), Tyler Webb (132), Lucas Webb (145) and James Hoeg (160) also pinned their opponents. Beebe’s pin of Kevin Farina with 24 seconds remaining in his match gave the visitors an insurmountable 46-6 advantage with six matches left.
“We came in here and we did what we were supposed to do,” Dolson said. “We have a talented group of kids on our team up and down. The results we have been getting, especially in our league, I’m not trying to be conceited or anything, but it’s kind of expected. We’re supposed to come in here supposed to do that to that to this team. That’s our ability level right now.”
Following suit for every league road dual meet, Dolson brought every wrestler — varsity and JV — to Center Moriches.
“In our league, there’s nobody close to the numbers that we have,” he said. “We have eighth graders on our team, we have seniors on our team. Everybody’s in there. It’s one team. We practice all together. So if you’re an eighth grade JV kid, you’re practicing with a 12th-grade senior kid. It’s one practice, one workout, one team really. We want everybody want to be a part of the whole atmosphere and everything.
“It just gets the next bunch of guys ready.”
Ready to continue a winning tradition.
