Rankings #6

Although our top spots remained unchanged, Rankings #6 has several changes as wrestlers are moving around trying to get themselves into a position for the best possible outcome in this year’s Section 9 tournaments. 

Our lowest weight class, 99 pounds, remained unchanged but Rondout Valley’s Ian Houck is right on the cusp of cracking the top 4.  Ian should fare well in the D2 tournament which is being held at Bard College this year.  It seems as though 113 may be the better weight for Middletown’s Pedro Rosales so we moved him to the #3 slot there behind Pine Bush’s Johnny Stramiello and Minisink’s Gerard Daly.  Daly beat Rosales 8-4 at the Gene Brigham Tournament this weekend.  Mike Feliciano from Highland re-enters the rankings at #2 at 106 filling in the slot opened by Rosales’ move with an impressive pin over #3  Jamie Pulver from Saugerties. 

There were no changes from 120-145 however that doesn’t mean we won’t see any surprises in the next few weeks.  We noticed that Sean Foschini has weighed in at 126. Will NFA double enter at 126 or is someone bumping to 132?  Speaking of 132, Foschini’s teammate Da’mani Burns pinned Monroe Woodbury’s PJ Smoot at 132 in a dual this week!  While on the topic of double entries…what is Warwick going to do at 145?  They have three legitimate contenders at 145 in Thomas Wightman, AJ Aeberli, and Ryan Ferro.  Will we see two at 145 and one at 152 or vice versa?  In either case, who goes where? Minisink’s Frankie Hernandez had another great weekend winning the Gene Brigham Invitational.

The top 3 slots at 152 remain the same but it was brought to our attention that Middletown’s Johnny Grandson has a victory over Monroe’s Brandon Lewis this year so Grandson takes over at #4.  Grandson’s teammate Christian Matos enters the rankings at #4 at 160 where Minisink Valley’s Nick Wentland is our new #3.  It seems as though NFA’s Kyle McGuire may go back up to 182 so we have put him at #2 there and we slid Washingtonville’s Bruce McLee into the #4 slot at 170.  Kingston’s Jake Wood has made the cut to 182 and all of a sudden, 182 has become a very tough weight class!  We have MW’s Nick McShea at #1, McGuire at #2, Wood #3, and Washingtonville’s Bryan Beyers enters the rankings at #4. 

There are still many questions remaining in our 3 upper weight classes.  Saugerties’ Robert Cuomo and Cornwall’s Erik Jessel have traded wins this year and they are at #1 and #2 respectively.  Defending Division 2 champion Dustin Mackenzie from Onteora sits at #3 while the #4 slot was extremely difficult to decide.  We have Middletown’s Juan Velazquez at #4 for this week based on his solid 3rd place finish at the Gene Brigham including an OT victory over MV’s Kyle Gainer.  Gainer has a wbf over Wallkill’s Garrett Betcher…Betcher has recently pinned Velazquez!  Maybe now that Kingston’s Wood has dropped to 182, his teammate Eliot Marzano will bump up and really muddy the waters at 195!

When Monroe Woodbury and Saugerties had a dual meet last week, we ranking “junkies” were hoping to get an answer to one of the most debated questions in Section 9 this year….Who is  #1 @ 220, Rob Kelly (MW) or James Bethel (Saug)?  I guess we are going to have to wait a few more weeks for our answer because Kelly was being rested and did not wrestle.  Bethel bumped up to 285 and pinned the 3rd ranked heavyweight Tyler Vervalin.  Isaac Serrano remains in the top spot at 285 while Washingtonville’s Sam Weinger holds the #2 spot.  Onteora’s Andrew Freidel has cracked the rankings and now sits at #4 at 285.

              #1                                     #2                              #3                                    #4
99:    Anthony Stramiello (PB)   Tyler Lynch (VC)          Jarred Greiner (MV)          Marco Vespa (MW)           
106:   Vinny Vespa (MW)           Mike Feliciano (High)  Jamie Pulver (Saug)          Isaiah Gut- Vera (Mid)
113:   John Stramiello (PB)        Gerard Daly (MV)           Pedro Rosales (Midd)     Kevin Kelly (MW)        
120:   Dylan Booth (PJ)              Evan Barczak (MW)       Austin Ingraham (High)   Matt Lopez (MV)
126:   Da’mani Burns (NFA)       PJ Smoot (MW)             AJ North (PB)                      Matt Rauch (RH) 
132:   Chris Truglio (MV)           Hussain Hasan (VC)       Sean Foschini (NFA)         Nick Sebesta (Wall)        
138:   Mike Raccioppi (MV)       Brett Johnson (Corn)     Joe Ginley (War)               Brandon Crespi (Wall)
145:   Tom Wightman (War)    Frank Hernandez (MV)    AJ Aeberli (War)              Dan Storer (Corn)      
152:    Alec Guevara (Wall)       Ryan Ferro (War)            Osman Hasan (VC)           Johnny Grandson (Midd)
160:   Dan Decarlo (PJ)             Mike Fekishazy (Wall)     Nick Wentland (MV)       Christian Matos (Midd)
170:    Tyler Blasko (Wall)         Quinn Zsido (Corn)          Tanner Sexton(PJ)          Bruce McLee (Wash)
182:    Nick McShea (MW)       Kyle McGuire (NFA)        Jake Wood (King)             Bryan Beyers (Wash)          
195:    Rob Cuomo (Saug)          Erik Jessell (Corn)          Dustin MacKenzie (Ont)  Juan Valazquez (Midd) 
220:   Rob Kelly (MW)               James Bethel (Saug)       Brandon Mascaro (Wall)   Troy Grant (NP)
285:  Isaac Serrano (NFA)        Sam Weigner (Wash)      Tyler Vervalin (MW)         Andrew Freidel (Ont)