Top Sports Stories 2015: A wrestling golden era for Tuckers
The Mattituck/Greenport/Southold high school wrestling team is approaching dynasty status.
After having never won a Section XI team championship before, the Tuckers made a breakthrough in 2013 with their first Suffolk County crown. They followed that up with a second one in 2014 and a threepeat in 2015. That goes along with three straight undefeated league seasons and six league titles altogether.
Not bad.
To show how far the Tuckers were ahead of the rest of the Suffolk Division II field, look at the final tournament point standings: The Tuckers racked up 292 points. The second-place team, Port Jefferson, was far behind with 143 1/2.
The Tuckers sent eight wrestlers into the finals, more than any other team, and half of them came back with individual county crowns. Another seven Tuckers were third-place finishers.
Picking up their second straight county titles were Jack Bokina at 99 pounds, James Hoeg at 160 and Adam Goode at 195. Tanner Zagarino also made it to the top of the podium in the 170-pound weight class.
“We did what was expected,” said Zagarino, who pinned all four of his opponents in 5 minutes 20 seconds for the tournament’s award for the most pins in the least time. “I think we could have wrestled a lot better. We could have gotten a lot more people upstate, but for how we did, I’m proud of us.”
One of those county champions, Bokina, finished fourth in the state tournament.
The Tuckers went 16-7 and finished the season with a string of 23 consecutive team wins in league competition.
Tuckers coach Cory Dolson said he can’t compare the three county titles. “They’re all great, man,” he said. “You know, winning is fun and we want to keep doing it. Winning doesn’t get old, man.”
Photo Caption: Tanner Zagarino of Mattituck/Greenport/Southold, a Suffolk County Division II champion at 170 pounds, received the county tournament’s award for the most pins in the least time. (Credit: Daniel De Mato, file)
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