Syosset Wrestling Falls in Playoffs

With the season coming to a close, wrestlers and fans were both in high spirits on Friday night at Farmingdale High School, where six local wrestling teams battled it out for a chance to advance to the semifinal round.

Of the six teams -- Kennedy, Syosset, MacAthur, Seaford, Carle Place and host Farmingdale -- the MacArthur Generals fought their way through three opponents and defeated Farmingdale in the final round, 38-33, and advanced to the county semifinals in the process.

"I think our whole team wrestled well tonight. I can't pinpoint just one all the way from our lightweights to our heavyweights," said MacArthur head coach Rob Paletta.

MacArthur and the Syosset Braves faced off in the first round, and as such a young team, the Braves knew it would certainly be a challenge to overcome MacArthur's experienced competitors.

"We're young, kind of new," Syosset head coach Mike Murtha said. "We knew we were going to take our lumps this year, but it's all part of rebuilding. Next week we're looking to qualify at Wantagh."

Syosset's Eric Faimon, 119, and Matt Beers, 160, both put the Braves on the board with big wins against MacArthur. Faimon defeated John Funes in a heated overtime battle, and Beers earned three points with his win against Donahue.

After the bout at 160, the Generals held a 42-6 lead and decided to forfeit the final four matches, bringing the dual's ending score to 42-30.

"We're very light at our heavyweights and we had a long road ahead," Paletta explained of their forfeiting. "We can't afford injuries. We need to be as fresh as possible, especially for Wantagh in the semifinals."

Though Syosset was done for the night, the Generals were just getting started.

The Kennedy Cougars, who had a bye in the first round, gave the Generals a run for their money, but came up a bit too short in the end of an exciting matchup.

The Generals picked up an early lead, but Cougar Richie Luxmore put his team on the board with a 6-0 win in the 119-pound weight class. Following Luxmore was Bobby King, who stood strong at 140. King, who is currently ranked third in Nassau County's 135-pound weight class, defeated MacArthur's Angelo Rella, who holds the first-place spot. Rella was left scoreless against King's eight points.

The final match, and arguably the most thrilling of the night, was between Kennedy's Robert Person and MacArthur's Justin Cooksey in the 96-pound weight class. Both Person and Cooksey are ranked within the top four in the county, and the fight was neck-and-neck until the end when Person lost 8-5 to bring the final numbers to 38-28 in MacArthur's favor.

The fourth-ranked Farmingdale Dalers, who also had a bye in the first round, definitely brought their 'A' game against MacArthur. The Dalers blew through the Seaford Vikings in the second round and came up against the Generals confident and ready to wrestle.

Just like the rest of the night, MacArthur took another early lead in the dual, leaving Farmingdale trailing by 12 points after only the fourth match. The Dalers eventually bounced back, but were still unable to take home the victory.

"Farmingdale wrestled tough, Coach Garcia does a great job," Paletta said. "It was 38-33 -- that's a pretty good fight."

The Generals managed to out-wrestle some of Farmingdale's most experienced men, and vice versa. Chris Perez defeated Vincent Schultz of the Dalers in the 135-pound weight class and Frank Medeiros overcame Josh Jeannoute at 152 with a score of 17-1. Ben Rosen of Farmingdale beat Joe Cataldo in a very close match, and Jovanny Concepcion triumphed over General Brian Conrad 5-3.

"MacArthur's pretty tough, and Cataldo's a very good wrestler," said Rosen, who is looking forward to the qualifiers next week. "I knew it'd be a tough match coming in but I was able to come out on top."

Editor's Note: Kennedy declined to comment after the match.