Season Ends At County Tournament For Westhampton Beach Wrestlers

For the first time in quite a while the Westhampton Beach wrestling team didn’t have anyone qualify for the second day of the Suffolk County Division I Championships, held this past Saturday and Sunday at Bay Shore High School.

Whether it was due to bad luck, poor seeding, injuries or other various reasons, things simply didn’t go the Hurricanes way, and while head coach Pete DeTore was not upset with his wrestlers one bit, it was tough for him to not see them, the majority of them being seniors, achieve more.

“That’s just life, and we talk all the time about how wrestling is a precursor to life, how you can do all the right things and still fail, so it’s a great life lesson,” he said. “I’m still proud of everything they did throughout the season, I just wished they got a little bit more.”

DeTore had numerous examples from counties on how things didn’t go his wrestler’s way, starting with his 126 pounder Luke Citarelli. In his first round match, Citarelli hit a crossface against Michael Giugliano of Miller Place that inadvertently caused his nose to bleed, so much so that the match had to be stopped multiple times just to stop the bleeding. Each wrestler is given a finite amount of time before he or she is either deducted points or eventually forced to forfeit the match if it’s profusely bad. DeTore felt as if the rule, or time, was bent in favor Giugliano, who went on to defeat Citarelli, 7-5, and eventually placed third in what was arguably one of the deepest weight classes in the county.

“Luke is naturally very physical and has an intense personality. It’s just the way he is and he’s sort of developed a reputation in the county and people take it the wrong way,” DeTore explained. “He is not one bit the type of person they think he is, they don’t see him behind closed doors and it’s unfortunate there seemed to be all this judging from the outside.

“Every time Luke would get ready to get going and score some points, the match would have to get stopped for blood and that took Luke out of his mentality and it allowed the other kid to catch his breath and compose himself,” he continued. “We’re not trying to win off of blood time but the rules are the rules for a reason and I just think that if it was the other way around it would have been different. It’s just unfortunate the way it panned out. Luke put a lot of time and effort into the sport and he loses that one match and he’s done. He can’t wrestle back or anything.

Citarelli was one of seven wrestlers at the county tournament for the Hurricanes. Randy Cabrera competed at 138 pounds and suffered a lower back injury in practice on Friday, the day before the tournament. It was kind of a freak accident in what was the lightest practice day of the week when a group of teammates landed on Cabrera. To his credit, Cabrera won his first round match, 7-5, over Brentwood’s Brandon Reinoso. But then he lost in the quarterfinals to Islip’s Zach Miller, who went on to place second, then lost to Walt Whitman’s Jensen Offerman in his first wrestleback match to end his tournament.

Connor Gormley (145) won his first round match, 7-2, over Miller Place’s Jacob Sasso but was pinned by Hauppauge’s Frank Volpe, who placed third, in the quarters. Gormley had a very good match in his wrestleback round with West Islip's Mason Barany but ultimately lost, 8-6, in sudden victory overtime.

Sal Fracapane (152), the only underclassmen in the tournament for the ’Canes as a junior, wrestled tough in his first round match but suffered an 11-7 loss to Smithtown East’s Joseph Visciano. Aidan McKeon (160) lost his first round match to Sayville’s Kenneth Lopresti. Dom Jurgel (172), who was the team’s lone league champion, suffered a hard fought 7-1 loss to Anthony Bartolotto of Miller Place, who went on to place fifth. And Mike Hempfling (215) lost his first round match to Edwin Morales of Centereach.

DeTore admitted it’s going to be tough seeing all of his senior wrestlers graduate this June but he’s excited for the future with what looks to be a young but dedicated and highly motivated group coming up.

“It’s tough seeing those guys leave but it’s kind of the nature of the beast,” he said. “I’m proud of all of them. Where they were in the beginning of the year to where they are now, they’re much more stronger individuals who all have so much more character and that’s what’s most important. You can be hard on yourself but this sport makes you deal with a lot of emotions and you learn how to deal with things when things hit the fan.

“After watching the middle school kids last week, I was very surprised with the grit those kids have, their willingness to push through every situation and every scenario,” DeTore added. “The technique isn't there but that’s okay, that’s something we can continue to work on. But that willingness to push through, that’s something that we were trying to get our varsity kids on board with at the beginning of the season, so it’s great to see that those kids have that so early and that’s what I’m really excited about.”