One Mattituck wrestler still alive after Day 1 at states
The New York State Wrestling Championships can be an unforgiving destination. The Mattituck/Greenport wrestling team, which sent a record seven wrestlers into the Division II tournament, experienced that in more ways than one Friday.
In the first round of the tournament, in consecutive matches on the same mat, two Mattituck seniors saw their season come to an end. Brian Pelan and Bobby Becker both suffered shoulder injuries and were forced to withdraw from the tournament, bringing an end to their otherwise stellar wrestling careers at Mattituck.
Pelan appeared to get the worse of it. He couldn’t continue his match against Jesse Manuel, who won by injury default at 132 pounds. Becker, at 138, finished his first-round match, a 16-0 technical fall against Tristan Rifanburg of Norwich, but he was forced to forfeit his wrestleback match.
While seven wrestlers entered the tournament Friday, only one will continue into Saturday on the second day of wrestling at Times Union Center in Albany.
Mattituck’s wrestlers combined to go 3-13.
Eighth-grader Jack Bokina had two of those wins Friday. He lost his first match before bouncing back to win two wrestlebacks. He won 4-0 against Shane Hetrick of Southwestern and then 9-4 against CJ Waltz of Central Valley Academy. He’ll need one win Saturday in the next round to guarantee a spot on the podium. He would need three straight wins to take third place.
Only one Mattituck wrestler won his first-round match. Freshman James Hoeg won 12-0 against Karl Linneman of New Paltz in the first round. In the quarterfinals he was pinned by top-seeded Andrew Shomers in 3 minutes 53 seconds. He led 4-3 late in the third period in his next wrestleback match against Jamie Griswold of Bainbridge-Guilford. But Griswold scored a takedown with about 10 seconds left to secure a 5-4 victory.
Seniors Christian Angelson (170) and Sal Loverde (182) and junior Adam Goode all went 0-2 in the tournament.
Click below for a live blog from the tournament:
