Blenk's Appeal of State Wrestling Championship Match Is Denied

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association denied the appeal of Westhampton Beach sophomore Lily Blenk, who along with her father, Arthur Blenk, and head coach Jakob Restrepo, asked officials to review evidence of a major scoring issue in her state championship wrestling match on February 27. The match has officially been decided, with Blenk placing second in the state.

Competing in the 120-pound match with Hickville’s Haley Gonzales at MVP Arena in Albany, Blenk quickly took a 7-0 lead in the match, then eventually led, 9-0, needing just one more point to end the match early via a technical fall. Instead, Gonzales caught Blenk in a headlock takedown and pinned her with 15 seconds remaining.

What the Blenks and Restrepo claimed in their appeal was that video footage clearly showed in the waning seconds of the first period that Lily Blenk was awarded a two-point takedown by the referee, but due to the scorekeeper at the head table being blocked by a person who comes out to count down the final seconds of the period for the referee, the score never changed from 7-0 to 9-0. When Blenk scored an additional two points in the second period, the score should have been 11-0, which would have effectively ended the match in a tech fall. Arthur Blenk provided a screen grab of the video footage to The Press proving this to be the case.

According to freestyle wrestling rules, in which the girls compete and is different than the boys folkstyle rules, the match is automatically stopped and a tech fall is declared when a wrestler is up by 10 points or more and that wrestler is declared the winner. In the boys folkstyle rules, tech falls are declared at 15-0.

In an email to Restrepo in response to the appeal, NYSPHSAA Executive Director Dr. Robert Zayas more or less said that the appeal needed to happen at the time of the infraction. The appeal was filed the weekend after the match occurred.

“Per NYSPHSAA regulations, the review of an official’s decision following a match, game, or contest is not permitted,” Zayas said. “Additionally, the NYSPHSAA appeal procedures state: ‘All questions and/or protests as to game/meet rules or as to the conduct of the game or meet shall be heard and decided by the game/meet committee established by that Section or State Sport Championship Committee as the case may be prior to play continuing; and all such decisions shall be final with no right of appeal. In any case, video may not be used to overturn an official’s decision, unless the rules clearly provide for the use of video (i.e., ice hockey, cheerleading, basketball, skiing, etc.). (May 2024)’”

As a courtesy, Zayas also said in the email, the state did review the video evidence that was provided.

“Though this does not impact the official’s decision or the outcome; in accordance with NYSPHSAA regulations, the results of the match cannot be revised or modified post-competition,” he said. “The video confirms that the on-mat referee awarded two points. However, in accordance with freestyle wrestling rules, these points must be confirmed by the chairman, who sits adjacent to the scoreboard operator. The video does not provide evidence that the chairman granted these points.

“It is important to note that any concerns regarding score discrepancies must be brought to the attention of the officials at the time of the issue,” Zayas added.

Arthur Blenk was not thrilled with the state’s explanation. He said the appeal had nothing to do with a referee’s decision on the mat but had more to do with the scorekeeper, and/or chairperson, missing the two-point takedown.

“Zayas refused to hear the appeal and nobody at NYSPHSAA has any intention of making it right,” he said. “Zayas, in my opinion, is refusing to address the issue at all. An effort to frame this as a ‘review of an official’s decision’ shows he entirely misses the point. We are not asking for a review of an official’s decision. In fact, we are in total agreement with the official. We ask only that all the points be awarded, be tallied.”

Arthur Blenk added that a protest by the Hicksville coaches about the same scoring sequence in question precluded Restrepo and anyone else from protesting the fact that Lily’s points were not counted.

Westhampton Beach Athletic Director Jason Cohen said it was an unfortunate outcome and that he feels bad for his student-athlete. While the appeal was more pursued by Arthur Blenk, he said, Cohen did speak with Zayas and understood why the result wasn’t going to be overturned.

“Every postseason contest, down at the section level or up at the state level, sets a protest committee where whatever protests there might be, it has to be done right there on the spot,” he explained. “That’s been in place for as long as I’ve known. Any protests that need to take place in the postseason have to be done immediately, onsite. During the regular season, protests can be challenged after the conclusion of the contest, and in some cases even days after. But in the postseason, it has to be immediate.

“Unfortunately, we don’t really know for sure where the misstep happened,” Cohen added. “We do know for a fact, and we have video of it, that the official on the mat signaled for two points. But what the video does not show is if the chairman at the table called it or did not call it. That view was blocked so we do not know what took place at the table with the chairman.”

Arthur Blenk, reluctantly, said in the best interest of his daughter and his family he is going to move past the issue. It was a very successful season for his son, Dylan, who was the first league champion in six years for the Hurricane wrestling team, and his daughter who was nearly the first-ever state champion, for any gender, in program history.

“We are a wrestling family,” he said. “I don’t want any trouble for my kids, but I want Lily to get what she earned and New York State screwed up.”