The Herricks Highlanders began their 2018-2019 wrestling season with an impressive 42-39 win against the Hicksville Comets on November 29, 2018.
The Herricks Highlanders are coached by Eric Goldberg, Thomas LaMaida and Robert Bianco. The Hicksville Comets are coached by Rich Carroll, who also happens to teach in the Herricks School District. The Highlanders had four decisive pins in the first period; 7th grader Joseph Manfredi (99) in his first varsity match, returning 8th grader Joseph Mattei (113), Quinn Gilhooly (132) and Co-captain Cole LaRock (152). The Highlanders also had an impressive second period pin by freshman Aaron Cho (126) in his first varsity match. Additional wins came from Sal Puliafico (138) and Co-Captain Daniel Mattei. Also wrestling were Daniel Fatahi (106), Kumel Arif (120), Marcus Osieczkowski (145), Marvin Lee (160), George Tsoumparriotis (182), Kelsey Alvarado (195), David Cabrera (220) and Nate Dowd (285).
In second man matches, all Highlander grapplers wrestled well, which included Danny Dunn (113), Roman Adil (113), John Pappas (120), George Liu (126), Kevin Chan (138), Rayan Abdolahzadi (138), Justin Chin (145), Davic Levassanr (152), Marco Delellis (160), Emeril Peratta (182) and Ash Multani (285).
Herricks hosted it’s 47th Herricks Invitational on Saturday, December 1, 2018. It was a great day of wrestling for all the teams that entered which included Hauppauge, Hempstead, White Plains-Sec 1, Southampton, Roosevelt, Fordham Prep-CHSAA, Midwood-PSAL and Lawrence.
The Highlanders had a successful day. Joe Manfredi won his first tournament as a 7th grader at 99 lbs. going 4-0.
Second place finishers included Joseph Mattei (113, 3-1), losing a tough match to a Suffolk all-county wrestler, and Co-Captains Cole LaRock (152, 4-1) and Daniel Mattei (170, 4-1).
At 138 lbs., Marcus Osieczkowski has shown a lot of promise and is knocking on the door to some final appearances this season. He took 3rd place.
Georgious Tsoumpariotis, a freshman, wrestled in his first varsity tournament and did not disappoint. He went 3-2 and came out with a 5th place finish.
Quinn Gilhooly (126) and Sal Puliafico (132) both went 3-2 and picked up 6th place finishes.
On the junior varsity side, there were impressive performances by Aaron Cho and George Liu who took 2nd and 3rd, respectively at 126 lbs.
Justin Chin and Kevin Chan have made huge improvements from last year. They both looked great and their medals validated their hard work; Justin took home gold and Kevin took 2nd at 138 lbs.
At 195 lbs., Kelsey Alvarado came away with 3 wins to place 5th and Zain Sohail earned 2 wins to place 6th.
Also wrestling varsity were Marco De Lellis (160) Marvin Lee (160), David Cabrera (195) Nate Dowd (220) and Ash Multani (285).
On December 4, 2018, the Herricks Highlanders (2-0) won their second match this season against the Island Trees Bulldogs 45-36. The Highlanders had decisive winning pins from Joe Manfredi (99), Joseph Mattei (113), Kumel Arif (120), Marcus Osieczkowski (145), Co-Captain Cole LaRock (160), Ali Shahid (170) and Co-Captain Daniel Mattei (182). Sal Puliafico won by decision at 138. A few of the Highlanders won tough matches despite being bumped up a weight class. Kumel Arif, who was bumped up to the 120 weight class, was down 9-0 in the third period when he hit a quarter nelson and pinned Scott Mills.
Hard fought battles but coming up short included Aaron Cho (126), who lost a 9-5 decision to a Division 2 county finalist from the prior year, Quinn Gilhooly (132), Justin Chin (152), Kelsey Alvarado (195), Nate Dowd (220) and Ash Multani (285).
