Gray-Fitzgerald Tournament 2023

MAT NOTES:

Defending team champion East Islip HS edged Suffolk County perennial power Brentwood HS in last years Gray/Fitzgerald Tournament held at Sayville HS. The annual tournament is one of the premier Holiday Tournaments on Long Island and features top teams; Connetquot, host Sayville, Nassau powers East Meadow and Locust Valley, along with Smithtown East and Eastport-South Manor.

The Redmen will be paced by all-county matmen, junior Logan Alfalla (138) and tough Anthony Avitabile , a bronze medalist now at 145 pounds. Also to watch is 2022 champion Rocco DeStefano at108, Dylan Aristides (131)and Nicholas Groneman in the 190-pound class.

The Indians are defending League I champions look to county champion Jason Euceda (37-2) at 116 and county placers, junior and highly-touted and MOW Jason Kwaak (36-3) at 152, Others are Chris Ayala at 215 pounds, along with standout Derek Lopez at 138 pounds.

The T'Birds return the Medina brothers, county medalist junior Julian Medina (36-6) at 116 and Jayden at 145. Also to watch will be League II runner-up Michael Kerr in the 131-pound bracket.

The host Golden Flashes have the middleweight tandem of state meet qualifier junior Leo Mongiello (30-5) at 145 and Dan Holahan at 152. Other top returnees are sophomore Ayden LaBella (101), Matt Reina (131) and freshman Javen Taff at 215 pounds.

The EM Jets have a pair of county finalists, Matthew Rodriguez at 160 and Joseph Arbitello (285). They also return all-county freshman Nicolas Rodriguez at 116 and Matthew Motamedian (131), along with BradyHohlman at 160 pounds.

Smithtown East points to a pair of all-county medalists junior Dylan Reinard (108) and reigning Gray/Fitzgerald champion Tyler Visciano at 131 pounds. Both are potential county finalists.

LV Falcons have Division II county finalist Charles Kelly (285), along with county placers; Justin Dvorak (145) and Jesse Firestone at 152 pounds.

The Eastport-South Manor Sharks have standout and county medalist Matt Pompeii, a possible county finalist at 285-pounds.

The Gray/Fitzgerald Tournament has two National-Hall-of-Fame coaches; Bill Santoro (46 years) of Connetquot HS with over 400 dual meet victories and Ralph Napolitano (30 years) of Brentwood HS. Other veterans include Sayville's Gary Pesko (29 years) and Mike Longobardi of East Islip. Longobardi took over in 2016 after legendary coach Guy Leggio retired from the coaching ranks. Longobardi led the Redmen to both the 2022 Suffolk County dual and tournament titles. Another Suffolk elite coach is David Cummings who always has his Smithtown East squad amongst the top ten teams in Section XI.

All these programs boast outstanding assistant coaches, certainly the amongst the best in Suffolk County; Connetquot has Anthony Melfi, Brentwood with legendary JerryGoodfellow, Smithtown East with Jack Truncale and the Espositobrothers;Joe at East Islip and Frank at Sayville. The Sayville Golden Flashes also added former NY state champion Matt Leshinger to their well-balanced staff.

In attendance at the tournament were former Amityville HS wrestling standouts; the Pappas twins, Pete, a 1969 Suffolk County champion and three-time placer, along with Tom, a two-time county finalist. Both attended the University of Maryland on wrestling scholarships.

New York State has approved a slight alteration of the weight classes for the upcoming 2023-2024 season as indicated below.

- CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL RESULTS -

101- Rocco DeStefano (EI) pinned Ayden LaBella (Say) 2:41

108- Joey Kokoakis (Conn) tech fall Ty Strychalsky (EI) 16-0

116- Jason Euceda (Brent) dec. Julian Medina (Conn) 7-2

124- Finnegan O'Brien (LV) tech fall Elijah Meyers (ESM) 15-0

131- Matthew Motamedian (EM) dec. Dylan Aristides (EI) 6-1

138- Tyler Visciano (SmEast) pinned Justin Dvorak (LV) 1:35

145- Anthony Avitabile (EI) pinned Leo Mongiello (Say) 1:07

152- Jason Kwaak (Brent) pinned John DeLaRosa (Brent) :51

160- Jaden Raynor (ESM) dec. Brady Hohlman (EM) 4-2

170- Matthew Rodriguez (EM) pinned Christopher Coleman (EI) 3:13