Mike D'Angelo from Commack.

NEW YORK WINS JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL NATIONALS

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     New York State won the 26th annual NHSCA Senior Nationals at Virginia Beach, VA, with 165 points to finish ahead of  perennial power California (145.5), Virginia (131.5), New Jersey (124) and North Carolina with 95. New York's lone champion was Commack's Mike D'Angelo who edged Jaedin Sklapsky (Minnesota), 4-3, for the 138-pound national high school title. Finishing as runners-up for the NY group were Ben Lamantia (St. Anthony's) at 126 and Jordan Bushey (Peru) at 170. The Empire State  finished with 18 HS All-Americans including Long Islanders; Carlos Aucancela (5th at 113) of Brentwood, Eddie Matyka (5th) of Riverhead, Wantagh's Kyle Quinn (8th), both at 120, SWR's James Szymanski (5th at 126), a trio of 132-pounders: Nick Casella (5th) of LV, Jesse Dellavecchia (3rd) of EI and Sean Miller (8th) of Connetquot. Also earning AA honors were Sam Ward (7th at 138) of LV, John Glenn's Brandon Aviles (8th at 160) and David Hamil of Deer Park who won the bronze medal 182 pounds.

     NYS also won the Junior Division with 209.5 points to outdistance runner-up PA (184.5) and NJ (176). The Empire State crowned four champions; Tommy Cox (Deer Park) who had a solid 8-3 verdict over Kellan McKenna (New Hartford) at 106, Kellen Devlin (126) of Amherst, Hauppauge's Chris Mauriello , who defeated PA's Jimmy Saylor, 3-2, at 145 pounds and Alex Herringshaw (160) of Holland Patent.

     In both the Freshman and Sophomore Tournaments, NYS finished in third place but emerged with two national winners in the sophomore division. Locust Valley's Jonathan Gomez defeated PA's Jacob Dunlap, 3-1, for the 106-pound crown and Syosset's Vito Arujau  rallied to edge California's Jaden Enriquez, 11-10, for the 126-pound gold medal and was voted the tournament's OSW Award.