Author: Mike Carey

Middletown HS will host a MAWA District Tournament on Saturday April 2.  Click on the link below for registration information.  Any questions about the tournament should be directed to the tournament director Jason Lichtenstein at jlichtenstein@ecsdm.org.

MAWA – Middletown District Qualifier

Highland Grad Signorelli Hired As Head Coach

After dropping their wrestling program approximately 40 years ago, SUNY Ulster has decided to re-launch a NJCAA wrestling program which will begin this fall for the 2016-2017 season.  The university has decided to tap into its local resources and has hired Justin Signorelli as Head Wrestling Coach.  Signorelli is a graduate of Highland where he was a 3X Section 9 champion.  After high school, Signorelli enrolled into SUNY Cortland where he was a 4 year wrestler and 2 year captain for the Red Dragons earning a Bachelor’s degree in Communications. Signorelli will be assisted by Rich Parete and Phil Brown at SUNY Ulster.

The biggest challenge for any new wrestling program is recruitment.  Any student-athlete who is looking to continue their wrestling career after high school now has another great option right here in the Hudson Valley!  I am confident that SUNY Ulster can fill their wrestling room on local talent alone!  Anyone interested in learning more about the new wrestling program at SUNY Ulster should feel free to contact Coach Signorelli directly.  He can be reached at coachsiggs@yahoo.com or 845.264.4581.

Congratulations and best of luck to Coach Signorelli and his staff!

All Locals Eliminated – 3 New York Natives Achieve AA Status

Although all wrestlers with local ties have been eliminated we still have three wrestlers who attended high school in NY that are still alive.  Congratulations to Nick Gwiazdowski, Dylan Palacio, and Steven Rodrigues for achieving All-American status!

NC State senior Gwiazdowski, a graduate of Duanesburg HS in Section 2, is the 2X defending national champion and has once again reached the finals at HWT.  His finals match is perhaps the most anticipated bout of the evening as he is slated to take on Kyle Snyder from Ohio State.  Snyder became the youngest US World Champion last year when he captured the 97 kg freestyle title in Vegas at the age of 19!

Cornell junior Dylan Palacio has earned All-American status at 157 pounds.  Palacio is a graduate of  Long Beach high school in Section 8 where he was a NYS champion and a 3X NYS placewinner.

Illinois senior Steven Rodrigues jumped up three weight classes for his senior campaign and it payed off!  He is now an All-American at 165 pounds after competing at 141 for the previous three years!  Rodrigues is a graduate of Fox Lane HS in Section 1 where he was a 2011 NYS champion!

It was a tough Day 1 for our local entries at the 2016 NCAA D1 Championships!  Only Logan Everett and Brian Harvey from Army and Billy Smith (High Point, NJ) from Rutgers are still alive in the consolation bracket.  Best of luck Logan, Bryan, and Billy….one match at a time!

141 – Logan Everett, Army
Rd 32 – Everett dec #10 Todd Preston (Harvard)
Rd 16 – Solomon Chishko (VA Tech) tf Everett 16-1

157 – Russell Parsons, Army
Rd 32 – Nick Brascetta (VA Tech) dec Parsons 9-4
Consie – Spartak Chino (Ohio) wbf Parsons :28 – Russell is out

165 – Mitchell Wightman, American (Warwick)
Pigtails – Cooper Moore (UNI) dec Wightman 9-4
Consie – Tyrel White (Columbia) dec Wightman 3-2 – Mitch is out

174 – Brian Harvey, Army
Rd 32 – Harvey dec Sean Mappes (Chat) 8-2
Rd 16 – Lelund Weatherspoon (Iowa State) dec Harvey 3-2

184 – Samson Imonode, Army
Rd 32 – Peter Renda (NC State) dec Imonode 4-2
Consie – Jeff Koepke (Ill) dec Imonode 6-5 – Samson is out

197 – Bryce Barnes, Army
Rd 32 – Max Huntley (Mich) dec Barnes 8-4
Consie – Josh Dasilveira (Ariz St) dec Barnes 4-3 – Bryce is out

285 – Billy Smith, Rutgers (High Point, NJ)
Rd 32 – Ross Larson (Oklahoma) dec Smith 8-4
Consie – Smith dec Ryan Solomon (Pitt) 3-0
Consie – Smith dec Patrick Gillen (Virginia) 9-4

Warwick’s Wightman, High Point’s Smith, Plus 5 Army Black Knights Set to Compete!

Best of luck to Warwick Valley graduate Mitchell Wightman and to the 5 Army wrestlers who will be competing at the 2016 NCAA Division 1 Championships  at Madison Square Garden in NYC this weekend!  Wightman, a 2011 NYS champion who now wrestles at 165 for American University, is making his 2nd trip to the nationals.  He is a RS senior who wrestled previously for Carl Adams at Boston University before their program was dropped.

Army is sending Logan Everett @141, Russell Parsons @ 157, Brian Harvey @ 174, Samson Imonode @ 184, and Bryce Barnes @ 197. This marks the first time since 2008 that Army has sent 5 wrestlers to the NCAA’s.

Although not technically a Section 9 grad we will also keep an eye on Rutgers heavyweight Billy Smith.  He is making his 4th trip to the nationals. The RS senior was a 2011 NJ state champion for High Point Regional HS in NJ.  For those of you who do not know, High Point is located on the NY/NJ border – the district borders both Minisink Valley and Port Jervis.

Every round of this year’s tournament will be televised on either ESPNU or ESPN. Live brackets are also available on TrackWrestling.  Best of luck to all competitors!

The Friends of Section 9 held its annual end of the year awards banquet on Sunday night at Kuhl’s Highland House in Middletown.  The top 4 D1 and top 2 D2 wrestlers in each weight class were recognized for their outstanding 2015-2016 wrestling season.  There were also several “special” awards given out.  A complete  list of all the award winners is available by clicking on the below link.  Some of the winners included:

Troy Bouzakis Senior Wrestler of the Year – AJ Aeberli (MV)
Frank Tschan Team of the Year – Monroe Woodbury
FS9 Coach of the Year – Jason Lichtenstein (Middletown)
Mark Faller Coach of the Year – Kevin Gallagher (MV)
FS9 Person of the Year – Josh Conklin
Comeback Wrestler of the Year – Oscar Lainez (Middletown)
FS9 Most Courageous Wrestler – Kevin Morgans (ELS)
D’Aliso Scholarship – Gus Formato (Wallkill)

2016 Friends of Section 9 Banquet Award Winners

2015-2016 Season Highlights
2 NYS Champions
Ryan Ferro (Warwick) at 152
AJ Aeberli (Minisink Valley) at 160
Other NYS Placewinners
Ryan Ellefsen (Goshen) 2nd at 220
Joe Humphrey (Middletown) 3rd at 285
Kendall Elfstrum (Monroe Woodbury) 4th at 182
Charlie Johnson (Warwick) 5th at 138
Noah Curreri (Eldred/Liberty/Sullivan West) 5th at 152
Nick McShea (Monroe Woodbury) 5th at 220
Evan Barczak (Monroe Woodbury) 6th at 145
Liam Heslin (Chester) 6th at 160
Mike Fekishazy (Wallkill) 6th at 170
Theo Chazkel (New Paltz) 6th at 182
Team Accolades – Rankings According to NYSSWA
#2 D1 Monroe Woodbury
#7 D1 Minisink Valley
#22 D1 Wallkill
#28 D2 New Paltz
HM: Chester, Red Hook, Newburgh, Warwick, Onteora, E/L/SW
Coaching Honors – Awarded at 2016 NYS Tournament
Kevin Gallagher (MV) – NWCA Coach of the Year 2014-2015
Scott Hendershot (MV) – NWCA Assistant Coach of the Year 2014-2015

Let’s Keep The Train Rolling!
As a section we have made some incredible strides over the past few seasons….Let’s not stop!  The progress that we have made did not happen by luck!  Whether it’s in wrestling or in real life, hours and hours of hard work, sacrifice, and commitment will pay dividends.  Am I suggesting wrestling 24/7 for 12 months? Absolutely not!  Wrestling is a tough sport mentally and physically.  Allow yourself time to heal…Play another sport…Get a summer job!  However, that said, our goal as a section is to improve.  The only way that we improve as a section is by you improving as an individual.  Let’s be aware of some of the off-season training opportunities and tournaments that are open to us.

Post Season Tournaments – NHSCA Nationals in VA Beach and FloNationals in PA are awesome, but they are not for everyone.  Let’s be honest, not every wrestler is skilled enough to enter these events.  We have had NYS champs go 0-2 at Flo.  Let’s get out there and find a few events that will allow us the opportunity to improve.  NYWAY States were this past weekend… MAWAs are coming up…there are events out there, we just need to get out there and find them.

Friends of Section 9 Wrestling Club – Now in it’s 2nd season, the FS9 Wrestling Club is a great local option to improve your skills.  The tougher we make this room, the better S9 Wrestling will become – it’s just that simple.  If you are still worried about practicing with kids during the summer that you may be competing against during the season, well you just don’t get it – pardon my frankness.

2016 FS9 Wrestling Club Registration Form

Freestyle and Greco – Some of us need to step out of our comfort zone and embrace the international styles.  Trust me, spending a few months in the summer focusing of the the Olympic styles will make you a better folkstyle wrestler!  Polls are taken every year at the NCAA’s asking the competitors about the tournaments they entered while in high school.  Year in and year out, the tournament that the highest percentage of them attended ….Fargo, by a landslide!  Can they all be wrong?

Ferro and Aeberli Are State Champions!!!

Congratulations to Warwick Valley junior Ryan Ferro and Minisink Valley senior AJ Aeberli for capturing state titles at this weekend’s NYSPHSAA Wrestling Championships at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY!  Ferro was completely dominating in winning the title at 152 pounds.  His four wins came by pin, tech fall, pin and pin! Ferro was the only D1 wrestler who pinned his opponent in the finals!  Aeberli’s bracket was loaded and he needed to avenge the only two losses on his record this season in order to bring home the title.  After recording convincing victories in the prelims and the quarters, Aeberli defeated Adam Santoro from Fordham Prep in the semis by a 2-1 margin before topping Ricky Stamm from Levittown/Division 3-2 in the finals.  Both Stamm and Santoro

had defeated Aeberli at the Eastern States Classic back in January.

220 pounder Ryan Ellefsen was Section 9’s third finalist of the tournament.   The Goshen junior, who was defeated by Monroe Woodbury Nick McShea in the Section 9 finals and needed a wildcard to get into the tournament, had an incredible weekend!  He was absolutely domination in his first three matches!  After recording second period falls in the prelims and quarters, Ellefsen squared off with McShea for the third time this season in an all-Section semifinal.  The rubber match went to Ellefsen.  After mounting a big lead, Ellefsen was able to turn and pin McShea at the 5:16 mark to punch his ticket to the finals.  In perhaps the most exciting title match of the evening, Ellefsen was defeated by Walt Whitman’s Terron Robinson 9-5 and had to settle for the silver.

The Section 9 Division 1 team had six additional wrestlers place in the top 6 in their weight class.  Middletown senior Joe Humphrey’s only loss came to the champion, nationally ranked Edwin Rubio by a 5-2 margin in the semi, and he finished 3rd.  Monroe Woodbury finished in 6th place as a team and had three top 6 place winners.  Junior Kendall Elfstrum finished 3rd at 182 while fellow junior Evan Barczak took home 6th place.  After his semifinal loss to Ellefsen, Maryland-bound senior Nick McShea wrestled back to finish in 5th place at 220.  Warwick Valley had a second placewinner in senior Charlie Johnson who came in 5th at 138.  Warwick finished 10th in the team standings a few spots of Minisink Valley who finished 12th.  Wallkill’s Mike Fekishazy was Section 9’s other place winner.  The 170 pound junior took 6th place and became the first NYS place winner in his school’s history! Fekishazy could have potentially placed higher, however he suffered a concussion during his impressive 6-3 win over Section 1’s Stephen Lauro in the blood round and was forced to forfeit to the 6th place spot.  The Section 9 team finished 4th in the overall standings behind Section 11 (Suffolk County), Section 5 (Rochester area), and Section 1 (Rockland/Westchester area).

This year’s tournament was also a banner year for our rapidly improving Division 2 squad!  For the first time since the division were separated, the Section 9 small school team had three wrestlers place in the top six in their weight!  Eldred/Liberty/Sullivan West junior Noah Curreri made it all the way to the semifinal round where he dropped an 8-2 decision to 4X state place winner Dakota Gardner. Curreri wrestled back tough and finished the tournament in 5th place at 152 pounds.  Chester senior Liam Heslin dropped a 5-0 decision to eventual champion Cameron Swick in the opening round but battled all the way back to finish 6th at 160 pounds!  New Paltz senior Theo Chazkel was D2’s final place winner.  Chazkel went 3-3 on the weekend and took home 6th place honors at 182!

NYS Championship Finals

Division 1
99: Greg Diakomihalis (S5) dec Dylan Ryder (S11)  7-4
106: Adam Busiello (S11) dec Trey Wardlaw (S1) 6-1
113: Tommy Cox (S11) vdec Kellen McKenna (S3) 5-3
120: Anthony Sparacio (S11) dec John Devine (S2) 3-1
126: Jacori Teemer (S8) dec John Arceri (S11) 6-3
132: Vito Arujau (S8) maj dec Freddie Eckles (S6) 19-6
138: Yianni Diakomihalis (S5) maj Matt Grippi (S1) 13-5
145: Frankie Gissendanner (S5) dec Troy Keller (S6) 10-4
152: Ryan Ferro (Warwick) pin Justin Klein (S5) 1:49
160: AJ Aeberli (MV) dec Ricky Stamm (S8) 3-2
170: Louie Deprez (S5) maj dec Marcus Bisono (S11) 9-1
182: Kevin Parker (S2) maj dec Alex Melikiam (S1) 13-4
195: Christian Araneo (S11) dec Mike DiNardo (S1) 3-1
220: Terron Robinson (S11) dec  Ryan Ellefsen (Goshen) 9-5
285: Edwin Rubio (S11) dec Cameron Rohr (S5) 3-2 utb

Division 2
99: Jon Charles (S2) dec Jon Worthing (S2) 5-1
106: Orion Anderson (S2) dec Cahal Donovan (S3) 8-2
113: Matt Caccamise (S5) dec Austin O’Reilly (S3) 1-0
120: Dane Heberlein (S5) dec Theo Powers (S3) 5-3
126: Matteo Devincenzo (S11) dec Hunter Dusold (S8) 2-1
132: Kellen Devlin (S6) maj dec Ryan O’Rourke (S3) 9-0
138:  Brad Bihler (S6) dec Tanner Cook (S3) 4-3
145: Hunter Richards (S3) dec Ross McFarland (S3) 5-0
152: Kobe Garrehy (S4) dec Dakota Gardner (S6) 8-3
160: Cameron Swick (S6) dec Shawn Mosca (S8) 4-1
170: Alex Herringshaw (S3) pin Lyle Grant (S6)
182: Jake Peru (S6) dec Ian Chedzoy (S4) 5-2
195: Jack Buell (S3) dec Joe Benedict (S3) 3-1
220: Riccardo Dawkins (S3) dec Aaron Mann (S5) 5-3 2ot
285: Andrew Tanner (S3) dec Jacob Beckwith (S3) 2-1

Section 9 Medal Matches

3rd/4th Place Matches
182: Evan Frank (S1) dec Kendall Elfstrum (MW) 5-4
285: Joe Humphrey (Midd) dec Mike Larm (S1) 3-1

5th/6th Place
138: Charlie Johnson (War) maj Connor Day (S6) 15-5
145: Connor Melbourne (S1) dec Evan Barczak (MW) 2-1 2ot
152: Noah Curreri (ELSW) dec Anthony Malfitano (S1) 3-2
160: Hammond Raes (S5) dec Liam Heslin (Chester) 6-2
170: Tyler Barnes fft over Mike Fekishazy (Wall)
182: Brett Finch (S3) pin Theo Chazkel (NP)  2:32
220: Nick McShea (MW) pins Will Bolia (S5)

Division 1 – Semifinals
152 – Ryan Ferro (War) pin Tristan Almeter (S6) 2:22
160 – AJ Aeberli (MV) dec Adan Santoro (C) 2-1
182 –  Alex Melikian (S1) dec Kendall Elfstrum (MW) 6-4
220 – Ryan Ellefsen (Goshen) pin Nick McShea (MW)
285 -Edwin Rubio (S11) dec  Joe Humphrey (Midd) 5-2

Division 2 – Semifinal
152 – Dakota Gardner (S6) dec Noah Curreri (ELSW) 8-2

Division 1 – Blood Round
126 – Jake Shore (S1) dec Kevin Kelly (MW) 8-5
138 – Charlie Johnson (War) dec Matt Swanson (S8) 1-0
145 – Evan Barczak (MW) maj Charlie Spada (S8) 9-1
170 – Mike Fekishazy (Wall) dec Stephen Lauro (S1) 3-1
195 –  Alex Bowen (S3) dec Garrett Betcher (Wall) 6-2

Division 2 – Blood Round
160 – Liam Heslin (Chester) dec Josh Farrar (S3) 4-2 sv
182 – Theo Chazkel (NP) dec Will Thompson (S5) 6-3
195 – Kevin Digney (S8) dec Kevin Morgans (ELSW) 4-2 utb

15 Section 9 Wrestlers Advance to Day 2! 

Congratulations to the 11 Division 1 and 4 Division 2 Section 9 wrestlers who have advanced to Day 2 of the NYS Wrestling Championships.  Section 9 advanced 6 D1 and 1 D2 wrestlers to Saturday morning’s semifinal round.  The remaining 8 wrestlers (5 D1, 3 D2) are still alive for placement in the consolation bracket.

Action will begin at 10:00 tomorrow.  The Saturday morning round is usually the most exciting round of the tournament.  The center mats will hold the semifinal matches while the consolation quarter finals – the blood round – will take place on the outer mats!   SectionIXWrestling.com will continue to post live updates on all of our Section 9 wrestlers.  Good luck boys…Let’s bring home some hardware!!!

Division 1 – Semifinals
152 – Ryan Ferro (War) vs Tristan Almeter (S6)
160 – AJ Aeberli (MV) vs Adan Santoro (C)
182 – Kendall Elfstrum (MW) vs Alex Melikian (S1)
220 – Nick McShea (MW) vs Ryan Ellefsen (Goshen)
285 – Joe Humphrey (Midd) vs Edwin Rubio (S11)

Division 2 – Semifinal
152 – Noah Curreri (ELSW) vs Dakota Gardner (S6)

Division 1 – Blood Round
126 – Kevin Kelly (MW) vs Jake Shore (S1)
138 – Charlie Johnson (War) vs Matt Swanson (S8)
145 – Evan Barczak (MW) vs Charlie Spada (S8)
170 – Mike Fekishazy (Wall) vs Stephen Lauro (S1)
195 – Garrett Betcher (Wall) vs Alex Bowen (S3)

Division 2 – Blood Round
160 – Liam Heslin (Chester) vs Josh Farrar (S3)
182 – Theo Chazkel (NP) vs Will Thompson (S5)
195 – Kevin Morgans (ELSW) vs Kevin Digney (S8)