Winter Season Wrap-Up: Teams Collect League, County Awards

Players for the Hasbrouck Heights winter teams collected the fruits of their labors recently for their work.

There were several Aviators who gained league honors in wrestling, boys basketball and swimming.

Wrestling sophomore Marc Mastropietro grabbed not only a first North Jersey Interscholastic Conference honor, but also an All Bergen County first team. Along with Mastropietro junior Alec Claudio was named to the first team All NJIC.

There were four Heights wrestlers on the second team: Matt Innis, Edward Cox, Ryan Paladino and Mauro Altamura.

On honorable mention All NJIC was Victor Arias.

For boys basketball, junior Joe Crabbe garnered first team All NJIC while sophomore Michael Schroback and junior Gabe Toledo. Sophomore Pat Dowd collected an All NJIC honorable mention nod.

It was a nice debut for the Hasbrouck Heights swimming program which was competitive throughout the season.

Kim Sembrano led the honors in swimming with All Bergen County third team in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. Sembrano also was named to the first team NJIC in those events to go along with the 200 medley relay team of Tina Messery, Sembrano, Raquel Cannarozzi and Alexis Diaz.

The Heights swimming team also had swimmers who were named to the All NJIC second team including Diaz at 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle along with Sean Connell in the 100 backstroke. Also the same swimmers, Sembrano, Messery, Cannarozzi and Diaz, as the 200 medley relay, took second team All NJIC in the 200 freestyle relay squad.

The honorable mention all NJIC team included Connell at 50 freestyle along with Messery (100 freestyle) and 100 backstroke.

Wrestling

Despite some injuries, the Heights wrestling team rang up a 15-11 record and will have most of its wrestlers returning for the 2012-13 season.

Head coach Craig Messery said, "I was proud of the kids of this season." He added that, "This year unfortunately we had a couple of injuries with concussions."

Looking back on the season, Messery points to a loss as the team's best wrestled dual match, a 35-33 loss in December at Rutherford. "They were a top 25 team in North Jersey and we should have beaten them," said Messery who added about some of the team's dual match losses. "We had a couple of matches that we lost by a couple of points."

Marc Mastropietro led the way for the 2011-12 Aviators and finishing eighth in the state at 113 pounds with a record of 40-6.

"He's a very determined young wrestler and doesn't like to lose," said Messery about his sophomore wrestler who was able to handle the pressure of the state finals in Atlantic City.

Alec Claudio finished with a 27-11 record at 152 pounds after wrestling at junior varsity last season. Claudio had started as a freshman. "He worked hard and came to all the practices last season," said Messery. "All of his work paid off this season."

Two of the up and coming wrestlers are freshman Mauro Altamura at 182 pounds and sophomore Kevin Torres at 220. Altamura was 28-8 on the season. "He was hurt at the beginning of the season and he is a motivated young man," said Messery.

The lone starter who will be graduating is Edward Cox, 145 pounds. Cox was 31-8 this past season. "He did a great job for us and one of the reasons we had a winning record," said Messery about his senior.

Another wrestler who had more than 20 victories was Matt Innis with a mark of 22-12 at 126 pounds.

Boys basketball

The Hasbrouck Heights boys basketball team finished 8-18 for the 2011-12 season. Almost the entire team will return except for one senior - power forward Mike Pasqualone.

In regards to the losses this season, head coach Mike Cebula said that his team would hit a dry spell somewhere during the game. "We had a stretch where we weren't scoring and the lack of rebounding really hurt us," said Cebula about most of the team’s losses.

He believes that the growing pains this season will turn into victories for the 2012-13 season that will see a new North Jersey Interscholastic Conference with four divisions instead of the six sub-divisions the last two years.

Heights will have most of the same teams that they faced in the NJIC Meadowlands including two of the favorites for next season - Wood-Ridge and St. Mary.

Looking back on the season the biggest victory came against Becton, 60-40, on Jan. 24 that ended the Wildcats hopes of making the Bergen County Jamboree.

In Joe Crabbe, the Heights head coach liked hope he became more 'aggressive' this season and led the team in scoring with 18 points per game or 461 total points. "He was much more aggressive and going to the basket," said Cebula. "The result was that he was getting to the free throw line. He had about 200 free throw attempts and I've never seen that before."

Mike Schroback, point guard,  averaged 13 points per game or 331 points. "He definitely improved on his decision making and defense," said Cebula. "He shot the ball better this season."

Gabe Toledo averaged nine points per game or 275 points, but it was other aspects of his game that helped the Aviators this season. "I just liked how he gave us another ball handler on the floor," said Cebula. "He took the ball pressure away from Joe (Crabbe) and Mike (Schroback)."

Cebula said that the team will be working out at summer basketball camps at William Paterson University and Cliffside Park High School. He added that he is hoping to attend a weekend basketball camp in Pennsylvania.