Author: Mike Carey

This is the final week of the regular season! That’s right…the Section 9 Tournaments are Friday 2/14 and Saturday 2/15 for Division 1 and Sunday 2/16 for Division 2! Start planning your calendar for Sections!

This Week’s Schedule

Monday 2/3
Chester 72 FDR-Hyde Park 12

Tuesday 2/4
Middletown 34 Newburgh Free Academy 33
New Paltz 42 Wallkill 38
Red Hook 47 Arlington 33
Washingtonville 82 FDR-Hyde Park 0

Wednesday 2/5
Cornwall 44 Goshen 30
Eldred/Liberty/Sullivan West 42 Monticello 30
Port Jervis 64 Highland 15
Minisink Valley 82 Kingston 3
Monroe Woodbury 52 Pine Bush 21
Saugerties 60 Rondout Valley 24
Ellenville 36 Rondout Valley 30
Warwick 57 Valley Central 22

Friday 2/7
Multi-Meet @ Highland
Washingtonville 45 Goshen 34

Congratulations to the Coaches Gallagher, Hendershot, Potter, Byrne and the entire Minisink Valley wrestling team for winning the 2020 NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Championship! The Warriors completely dominated the competition outscoring their opponents 210 – 72 in their four dual meets on Saturday in Syracuse! This is the 2nd time since 2015 that Minisink Valley has finished #1 in NYS. The Warriors also finished 3rd in the state last season and 2nd in NYS in 2018. Minisink Valley has finished in the top 10 in NYS for seven consecutive seasons!

The Warriors made a statement in their opening dual of pool competition trouncing Section 11 power Commack 57-9. Commack received a wildcard birth into the tournament after finishing 2nd in the Section 11 tournament. They defeated favored Hauppauge in the semifinals but lost to Patchogue-Medford in the finals. Commack was a tough team but Minisink Valley had too much horsepower for them winning 12 of the 15 matches including pins by Zak McKernan (106), Zack Ryder (126), Jordan Suarez (132), Chris McLaughlin (170), Ethan Gallo (182), Carson Henry (195), and Adam Fenner (285). Nick Picariello also picked up a nice 3-1 win at 120 over 2X NYS placewinner Jake Eckerle.

In their other pool match the top seeded Warriors took on eighth seeded Lancaster from Section 6. The result was pretty similar to their opening round dual – the Warriors controlled the dual from beginning to end! This time, however, Minisink won 13 of the 15 matches and notched 8 pins in defeating Lancaster by a 64-11 margin. Picking up the pins for Minisink were Anthony Tresch (99), Zack Ryder (126), Jordan Suarez (132), Jaccob Gonzalez (145), Jace Hirsch (152), Ethan Gallo (195), Scott Geysen (220), and Adam Fenner (285). By going 2-0 in pool matches the Warriors advanced to the semifinal round where they would meet Section 2 power Shenendehowa.

The semifinal round began at the 106 pound weight class and a glance at the match-ups made it quite evident that this dual meet was going to be a battle! Shenendehowa won the first 3 matches and led the Warriors 14-0 after a technical fall victory at 120 by Stevo Poulin, the 2nd ranked 113 pound wrestler in the nation. The Warriors answered back with 5 straight wins and took the lead 26-14 after 152. Shenendehowa answered right back with 3 consecutive wins and recaptured the lead 27-26 after 182 and only four matches remaining! This was the only time this season that Minisink Valley has been trailing a dual to a NYS team after 11 matches! The Warriors responded and they responded with authority! Minisink swept the last four matches picking up 21 points and advanced to the finals with a 47-27 win over Shen!

The stage was set for a finals showdown between Minisink Valley and Section 3 champion and hometown favorite Fulton! The Section 3 team was wresting with a ton of energy and had a lot of momentum and local crowd support in their favor! The dual started at 113 and the Warriors quieted the crowd by winning 5 of the first 6 matches ending with an exciting, back-and-forth sudden victory win by Brian Lombardi at 145 giving the Warriors a 21-3 lead. Fulton then ripped off three straight wins and closed the gap to 21-16 going into 182. Minisink Valley won 2 of the next 3 matches before clinching the dual and the championship when Adam Fenner picked up a 1st period pin at 285 making the score 39-19 with only two matches left! Fenner, only a junior, picked up his 100th career win earlier in the day. The Warriors won at 99 and lost at 106 making the final score 42-25! Congratulations again to the entire Minisink Valley wrestling program!

Click here for every Minisink Valley box score from Saturday

With the Section 9 Championships only 2 weeks away, many of the local teams are idle this weekend as coaches are trying to allow their wrestlers to rest their aching bodies! That said, the action that is taking place this weekend is going to be awesome!!!

NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Championships @ SRC Arena in Syracuse
D1 champs Minisink Valley and D2 champs Port Jervis try to become the first Section 9 champs to win the coveted dual meet championship tournament!

Full Tournament Coverage

Minisink Valley Pool Matches – Mat 1
9:00 – Minisink Valley 57 Commack 9
10:45 – bye
12:30 – Minisink Valley 64 Lancaster 11

Port Jervis Pool Matches – Mat 8
9:00 – bye
10:45 – Colbeskill-Richmond 42 Port Jervis 39
12:30 – Clarke 51 Port Jervis 27

Semifinals
D1 – Mat 2: Minisink Valley 47 Shenendehowa 27
D1 – Mat 4: Fulton 45 Fox Lane 33
D2 – Mat 5: Mt. Sinai 41 Cold Spring Harbor 22
D2 – Mat 7: Falconer 42 Clarke 30

Finals
D1 – Minisink Valley 42 Fulton 25
D2 – Falconer 40 Mt. Sinai 39

All Minisink Valley Results
All Port Jervis Results

Jeff Cuilty Newburgh Duals
Locals Middletown, Valley Central, Wallkill, Warwick and host NFA lock horns with John Glenn (S11), Shoreham Wading River (S11), North Rockland (S1), Beekmantown (S7), and Natick (MA).

NFA went 5-0 and won their pool at the 2020 Jeff Cuilty Newburgh Duals. Newburgh’s 106 pounder Jackson Merli picked up career win #100 on Saturday!

NFA 65 John Glenn 15 “B”
NFA 49 Natick, MA 25
NFA 61 North Rockland 21
NFA 41 John Glenn 36
NFA 39 Shoreham Wading River 36
Shoreham Wading River 51 Warwick 27
Shoreham Wading River 75 Wallkill 12
Middletown 39 Shoreham Wading River 38
John Glenn 43 Warwick 31
John Glenn 60 Wallkill 24

Middletown went 5-0. And won the Pool A Championship!

55-21 over Natick Mass (#19 in Mass)
39-38 over Shoreham Wading River (#3 D2)
57-21 over North Rockland
49-33 over John Glenn
74-12 over John Glenn ‘B’

Middies improve to 20-3 on the season!

Justin Morales passed Phillip Mansueto for the all-time wins record (146). He is now at 151 wins!!!
Joseph Velazquez passed 100 wins and is now at 104 wins!!!

Justin also took home the MOW award!

Justin Morales, Joe Velazquez, Pablo Garcia and Moises Diaz all went 5-0.
Jayden Norris and Stephan Monchery went 3-0!

Coach Ken Baker Classic
Red Hook and Onteora head up to the Capital Region to battle in the always competitive Coach Ken Baker Classic.

Bernie Miller
New Paltz 70 St. Joseph’s By The Sea 16
New Paltz 72 Sleepy Hollow 12
New Paltz 61 Port Chester 21
New Paltz 63 Lakeland Panas 15
Brewster 53 New Paltz 33

Locust Valley Invitational
Fallsburgh/Tri-Valley is making a trip to Nassau County to wrestle in the Locust Valley Invitational!

Tuesday 1/28
Warwick 46 Newburgh Free Academy 27
Middletown 69 Clarkstown South 18
Onteora 48 FDR-Hyde Park 18
Highland 33 Onteora 27

Wednesday 1/29
Port Jervis 84 Rondout Valley 3
Newburgh Free Academy 52 Pine Bush 32
Wallkill 87 Monticello 0
Minisink Valley 68 Washingtonville 13
Monroe Woodbury 73 Kingston 3
Highland 39 Red Hook 36
Middletown 58 Goshen 20
FDR-Hyde Park @ Valley Central
Onteora 60 Ellenville 18
New Paltz 48 Cornwall 28
Chester 72 Burke 6
Chester 48 Eldred/Liberty/Sullivan West 36
Eldred/Liberty/Sullivan West 48 Tri-Valley/Fallsburg 18

The field is set for this season’s dual meet championships which take place on Saturday, February 1, at the SRC Arena in Syracuse. Wrestling begins at 9:00 am! For those who cannot attend, the entire event will be streamed live on the NFHS Network plus round-by-round results will be posted here! Best of luck to all of the teams especially our local representatives – Division 1 champs Minisink Valley and Division 2 champs Port Jervis!

Advanced tickets can be purchased at GoFan.

The Field

Division 1 – Large Schools
Section 1: Fox Lane
Section 2: Shenendehowa
Section 3: Fulton
Section 4: Horseheads
Section 5: Spencerport
Section 6: Niagara Wheatfield
Section 8: MacArthur
Section 9: Minisink Valley
Section 11: Patchogue-Medford
Wildcard #1: Lancaster (Section 6)
Wildcard #2: Chenango Forks (Section 4)
Wildcard #3: Commack (Section 11)

Division 2 – Small Schools
Section 1: Nanuet
Section 2: Colbeskill Richmondville
Section 3: Central Valley Academy
Section 4: Tioga
Section 5: Palmyra Macedon
Section 6: Falconer
Section 8: Clarke
Section 9: Port Jervis
Section 10: Gouverneur
Section 11: Mt. Sinai
Wildcard #1: Cold Spring Harbor (Section 8)
Wildcard #2: Iroquois (Section 6)

Division 1 Pools (seeds in parenthesis)
Mat 1: Minisink (1), Lancaster (8), Commack (unseeded)
Mat 2: Shen (4), Spencerport (5), Chenango Forks (unseeded)
Mat 3: Horseheads (3), Fulton (6), Pat-Med (unseeded)
Mat 4: Fox Lane (2), N. Wheatfield (7), MacArthur (unseeded)

Division 2 Pools (seeds in parenthesis)
Mat 5: CS Harbor (1), Gouverneur (8), Iroquois (unseeded)
Mat 6: Mt. Sinai (4), Tioga (5), Nanuet (unseeded)
Mat 7: Central Valley (3), Falconer (6), Pal-Mac (unseeded)
Mat 8: Clarke (2), Port Jervis (7), Colbeskill-Richmond (unseeded)

Tournament Schedule

Mat 1 – Division 1
9:00 – Minisink Valley 57 Commack 9
10:30 – Commack 38 Lancaster 22
12:00 – Minisink 64 Lancaster 11

Mat 2 – Division 1
9:00 – Shenendehowa 52 Chenango Forks 20
10:30 – Spencerport 60 Chenango Forks 24
12:00 – Shenendehowa 35 Shenedehowa 30

Mat 3 – Division 1
9:00 – Horseheads 42 Pat-Med 34
10:30 – Fulton 55 Pat-Med 19
12:00 – Fulton 61 Horseheads 20

Mat 4 – Division 1
9:00 – Fox Lane 49 MacArthur 18
10:30 – MacArthur 43 Niagara Wheatfield 32
12:00 – Fox Lane 57 Niagara Wheatfield 12

Mat 5 – Division 2
9:00 – Cold Spring Harbor 47 Iroquois 21
10:30 – Iroquois 58 Gouverneur 24
12:00 – Cold Spring Harbor 56 Gouverneur 27

Mat 6 – Division 2
9:00 – Mt. Sinai 78 Nanuet 6
10:30 – Tioga 72 Nanuet 13
12:00 – Mt. Sinai 31 Tioga 29

Mat 7 – Division 2
9:00 – Central Valley Academy 44 Pal-Mac 42
10:30 – Falconer 51 Pal-Mac 31
12:00 – Falconer 45 Central Valley Academy 33

Mat 8 – Division 2
9:00 – Clarke 39 Colbeskill-Richmond 33
10:30 – Colbeskill-Richmond 42 Port Jervis 39
12:00 – Clarke 51 Port Jervis 27

2:30 – Semifinals
D1 – Mat 2: Minisink Valley 47 Shenendehowa 27
D1 – Mat 4: Fulton 45 Fox Lane 33
D2 – Mat 5: Mt. Sinai 41 Cold Spring Harbor 22
D2 – Mat 7: Falconer 42 Clarke 30

6:00 – Finals
Division 1 – Mat 2: Minisink Valley 42 Fulton 25
Division 2 – Mat 7: Falconer 40 Mt. Sinai 39

All Minisink Valley Results
All Port Jervis Results

Wizard Duals @ Washingtonville
Arlington 66 Saugerties 21
Petrides 57 Saugerties 27
Highland 52 Saugerties 36
Saugerties 60 Beacon-Haldane 24
Washingtonville 66 Saugerties 15
Washingtonville 76 Beacon 12
Washingtonville 68 Highland 17
Washingtonville 44 Petrides 39
Arlington 39 Washingtonville 39 – Arlington wins by criteria

Mahopac Wrestling Caruso Tournament
Middletown crowned 5 champions and scored 241.5 points to take home the team title at the Caruso Tournament. First place honors went to Justin Morales (106), Joe Velazquez (170), Brian Giacchi (195), Armel Duke (220), and Stephan Monchery (285). Jakoy Harvey (182) and Moises Diaz (126) both placed 3rd for the Middies. Pine Bush’s Tommy Askey continued his incredible year winning the 152 pound weight class with a pin and two technical falls. Askey was also selected as MOW for the tournament. It is his 3rd title at Mahopac and his 2nd time winning MOW. He remains undefeated for the season. Pine Bush finished 7th in the team race and had two other finalists is Rey Ortiz (99) and Gabe Galarza (138). Rondout Valley was also at the tournament and had one finalist in Lucas Ospina at 113.

Ridgefield Challenge @ Ridgefield, CT
Monroe Woodbury’s Jordan Brown defeated John Jay Cross River’s Luca Duva 12-3 in the finals and took home first place at 99 pounds at the Ridgefield Challenge.

Edgemont Tournament
New Paltz came in 3rd place in the team race and had 5 wrestlers finish in the top 3 including 145 pound champion Aiden Cuppett who notch 4 pins on his way to the title! Other top 3 place winners for New Paltz were Cole Cuppett (3rd @ 106), Levi Wyns (3rd @ 152), Logan Michael (2nd @ 182), and Evan Jansen (3rd @ 285). The Edgemont Tournament also has a Girl’s Division which included 36 wrestlers! FDR-Hyde Park’s Alexa Liguori came in 2nd place in her pool going 2-1 with two wins by pinfall!

Kingston 40 Red Hook 33

Congratulations to Minisink Valley head wrestling coach Kevin Gallagher for reaching a coaching milestone last night as he recorded his 500th career win in the Warriors 75-4 victory over Valley Central! Gallagher is now one of only five coaches in NYS history with 500 or more coaching victories. He joins retired Cornwall coach Don Blaine as the only coaches to notch #500 while coaching in Section 9. Blaine, who finished with 529 career victories, was in attendance for Gallagher’s milestone win. Legendary HOF coach Joe Bena began his coaching career at NFA however the vast majority of his 674 wins were at Section 2 programs Niskayuna and Duanesburg. Coach Gallagher reached this historic win only a few weeks after his long time assistant Scott Hendershot picked up career win #400.

Gallagher, a 1977 graduate of Minisink Valley, began his coaching career in Middletown in 1983 where he served as coach for 2 seasons. He left Middletown to coach Division 1 college at his Alma mater Wagner for six seasons where he coached three NCAA qualifiers including his brother Matt who is currently the head football coach at Section 4 power Maine Endwell. One of his other NCAA qualifiers, Joe Burke, went on to become a 3X All-American. Gallagher’s other NCAA qualifier was Rondout Valley graduate Dan Sanchez who was one match away from reaching the podium. Gallagher left Wagner in 1991 to return to teaching physical education and coaching at the prep school level. He took over as head coach at Section 4 Oxford Academy in 1992 and stayed there until taking the head coaching position at Minisink Valley in 2000. Let’s take a look at some of the incredible accomplishments of Coach Gallagher’s career!

• 2018 NYSPHSAA Wrestling Hall of Fame
• 2015 NYSPHSAA Coach of the Year
• 2015 NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Champions
• 2018 NYSPHSAA Dual Meet Finalists
• Ranked to 20 in NYS for 17 seasons
• 61 state tournament qualifiers
• 20 state place winners
• 3 state finalists
• 2 state champions (AJ Aeberli, MV & CJ Hansen, Oxford)
• 7 Section 9 Tournament titles
• 4 Section 9 Dual Meet titles
• 500 career wins….and not done yet!!!

Tuesday 1/21
Suffern 49 Warwick 26

Wednesday 1/22
New Paltz 43 Goshen 32

Thursday 1/23
Saugerties 45 Highland 33
Warwick 78 FDR 9

Friday 1/24
Minisink Valley 75 Valley Central 4
MV Coach Kevin Gallagher picks up career win #500!!!! Congratulations Coach Gallagher!!!
Middletown 48 Pine Bush 29
Port Jervis 49 Red Hook 24
NFA 45 Kingston 28
Monroe Woodbury 71 Washingtonville 9
Ellenville @ E/L/SW
Burke @ E/L/SW
Chester 78 Fallsburg/Tri-Valley 3
Monticello @ Cornwall
Wallkill 68 Rondout Valley 18

Friday 1/17 & Sat 1/18

Beacon Bulldog
Section 9 crowned 8 individual champions and had 3 teams finish in the top 5 at the 2020 Beacon Bulldog Tournament! Bringing home gold for Section 9 were Andrew Marchese (Washingtonville, 113), Jacob Chenier (Kingston, 120), John Antonelli (Marlboro, 126), Dylan Burgos (Pine Bush, 145), Nick Paterson (NFA, 170), Graeme Knisell (Saugerties, 182), Stephon Holmes (Kingston, 220), and Freddy Garcia (Washingtonville, 285). Washingtonville placed 2nd as a team in the 17 team field which was won by Ballston Spa. Kingston finished in 4th place and a partial NFA team finished 5th!

Saturday 1/18

Phoenix Mid-Winter Classic
Goshen took 4th place as a team and had seven wrestlers finish in the top 6 of their weight at the 12-team Phoenix Mid-Winter Classic. Placing for the Gladiators were:
John Lamberty 4th @ 113
Jackson Brady 3rd @ 120
Eli Weinstein 3rd @ 132
Henry Villodas 5th @ 138
Isaiah Price 5th @ 152
Elijah Price 4th @ 160
Dom Siracusa 5th @ 195.

Sunday 1/19

Gene Brigham Invitational @ Minisink Valley Middle School
Minisink Valley absolutely dominated the tournament crowning 10 champions and having 12 other wrestlers place in the top 4! The Warriors amassed 392 team points outdistancing 2nd place Huntington (146.5 points) and 3rd place Burnt Hills (130.5 points) by over 200 team points. Red Hook had two finalists and finished in 5th while Burke had one finalist and came in 6th in the team race. The champions for Minisink were Nick Picariello (120), Zack Ryder (126), Jordan Suarez (132), Sean Savacool (138), Jaccob Gonzalez (145), Jace Hirsch (152), Andrew Filip (160), Chris McLaughlin (170), Ethan Gallo (182), and Adam Fenner (285). Ryder defeated Red Hook’s Matt Morris 3-0 in the finals at 126 and was voted MOW of the tournament. MV 220 pounder JC Cabrera recorded 4 pins in 3:17 and won the aggregate pin award.

Wallkill Duals @ Wallkill High School
Warwick tops previously undefeated Port Jervis 42-41 and goes 4-0 taking home the first place at the Wallkill Duals!

Warwick 4-0
Port Jervis 3-1
Wallkill 2-2
Cornwall 1-3
Mamaroneck 0-4

Wallkill 55 Cornwall 22
Warwick 42 Port Jervis 41
Warwick 37 Wallkill 36
Port Jervis 50 Mamaroneck 31
Port Jervis 49 Wallkill 36
Cornwall 43 Mamaroneck 36
Port Jervis 63 Cornwall 18
Warwick 46 Mamaroneck 33
Wallkill 45 Mamaroneck 39
Warwick 48 Cornwall 33