Westhampton Beach Wrestling Qualifies 10 For Counties; Hulse Repeats As League Champion

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Things were bound to change for the Westhampton Beach wrestling program after longtime head coach Paul Bass retired at the end of last season.

The Hurricanes hired a pair of new head coaches in Connor Miller and Andrew Petroulias, who were no strangers to the program, but new to their roles. And they had to deal with losing some key wrestlers to graduation, including All-American Liam McIntyre.

The changes seemed to have an effect on the Hurricanes, as they went 2-4 in League VI dual meets, but they showed marked improvement as the season wore on, and that continued this past Saturday at the League VI Championships at Islip High School.

Westhampton Beach has always shown, no matter how the regular season may go, a propensity at showing up when it counts during postseason tournaments, and despite all of the changes the program has gone through over the past calendar year, they managed to keep that trend going this past weekend.

Ten wrestlers qualified for the Suffolk County Division I Championships, which are this Saturday and Sunday at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood. Of those 10, five were league finalists, with junior Jackson Hulse repeating as League V champion at 170 pounds. Grant Skala (106 pounds), Will Zaffuto (120) and Gavin McIntyre (145), all juniors, and Jason Montagna (126), the team’s lone senior, all placed second. Juniors Joe D’Agostino (106), Jack Santora (113) and James O’Neill (152) and sophomores Aidan McKeon (160) and Erich Schaumloffel (220) all placed fourth.

Miller and Petroulias, along with Coach Bass, who was in attendance all day on Saturday, were beaming with pride at how well the wrestlers did.

“The kids really came out today and really competed hard, battled in those first two rounds, made some upsets. Some kids who maybe weren’t sure at the beginning of the year if they’d be in the county tournament are going to be there, so we’re super happy for them,” Miller said.

“The guys have come a long way,” he added. “From the first tournament in Sayville to today, they’re different kids. They’re wrestling a lot of kids they saw in that tournament again and we turned a lot of those results around. We don’t have year-round wrestlers all up and down the lineup, so it takes some time to knock the rust off and get the kids ready and work on some technique to put them in position to where they are now, so we’re real happy to see the growth over the season.”

Hulse, a county champion last season at 160 pounds, didn’t have a hard time reaching the 170 league final on Saturday. He pinned both of his opponents before going up against senior Kiernan Derway of Kings Park, and even in that match he took a 4-0 lead after the first period and was up 6-0 early on in the second, but Hulse seemed to get a little tired as the match wore on. Derway pushed a lot of the action in the third to score some points, but Hulse eventually won, 9-4.

Hulse admitted just minutes after his match that Derway was more athletic than he expected, and he may have underestimated him just a little bit. But he was happy with the final outcome. He also admitted that it’s been tough living up to expectations after being a league and county champion a year ago.

“It’s tough, not just physically, but mentally,” he said. “A lot of people have texted me … when I’m just trying to get my homework done, and it messes with my head a little bit.”

Miller and Petroulias both liked the way Hulse wrestled throughout the day, but would have liked to have seen him finish out the finals match strong.

“For most of the match, he was really dominant. He just has to stay focused at the end, because he’s a lot better than that kid. He should have put him down in the third period,” Petroulias said. “He has all the talent in the world, just getting him to harness all of that — I think being a county champ as a sophomore, there’s a lot of expectations that come on him. You just have to keep pushing him and make the most of it.”

McIntyre went toe-to-toe with Islip senior Francis Whitehouse, who is currently ranked third in the county and is a former county champion, but eventually lost, 2-1. McIntyre, like all of his teammates who reached the finals on Saturday, said he’s looking forward to possibly seeing Whitehouse again at counties.

Montagna had one of the most exciting finals matches with Thomas DiResta of Kings Park. Trailing, 5-1, Montagna quickly flipped DiResta to his back and nearly pinned him, but time expired in the first period. Montagna took a 6-5 lead into the second because of the move and after trading a number of reversals, DiResta, ranked third in the county, took a 9-8 lead into the third. Montagna tried to score in the final minute of the third period, but eventually suffered an 11-9 loss.

Montagna said that he’s often felt overlooked throughout the county, and he’ll be looking to change that this weekend at counties. He’ll also be looking to set a new program record for pins. He currently has 91, just one behind Liam McIntyre’s record, but what might be more impressive is that he’s done it with one less year of experience than McIntyre and his pin ratio to the amount of wins he has is through the roof. He has around 130 career victory whereas McIntyre was in the 170s.

Skala and Zaffuto both improved upon their third place finishes from a season ago and are excited to show what they can do at the county level this weekend. Zaffuto, who won the Sal DiFazio Tournament and finished second at the Kujan Tournament earlier this season, said it’s been a good season so far and he and his teammates hope to keep things going this weekend.

“We had a really good team atmosphere this year. We have a lot of guys coming back next year and we’re really excited for a good week ahead of us. We’re going to get a lot of hard practices in and we peak at the right time, so we’re ready to go. We’re going to be on our best shape — it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish — so we’re good to go for Saturday. Can’t wait.”