Fox Lane's Rodrigues Takes Third in State Wrestling Meet

Fox Lane's Steven Rodrigues and Mahopac's Justis Flamio had one of the best rivalries in all of Section 1 this year.

Wrestling in the 125-pound division, Flamio beat Rodrigues three times during the regular season. Then Rodrigues reversed his fortune with a win at sectionals. And after Flamio received a wild card to the state tournament, the two met again in the Division I state semifinals.

This time Flamio won 7-2 en route to a second place finish, leaving Rodrigues to battle back for third place.

"Everything went well all year, I basically dominated everyone up until I had to wrestle Justis," Rodrigues said. "I thought I did everything I could to win but I ran into a good kid and he happened to wrestle a better match that day."

Rodrigues, who finished second in the state tournament last year, again fell just short of his ultimate goal. Still, no Section 1 wrestler besides Flamio did better than Rodrigues' third-place finish.

"I was a little disappointed," Rodrigues said. "It was a decent season for me-nothing went really well and nothing went really poorly. Third place is not what I wanted but it was a decent year overall."

Rodrigues comes from a wrestling family–his father is an assistant coach at Fox Lane and his uncle is legendary New Rochelle coach Jim Guccione. He started wrestling when he was 6 years old and also played both baseball and wrestling until ninth grade. After his freshmen year, he solely focused on wrestling.  

"I love the tenacity of it and the individual aspect," Rodrigues said. "You can't blame anyone but yourself. In wrestling you make or break your career."

"Also in baseball if you're not born with a great arm your career is limited, but in wrestling you can be a very unathletic kid and make yourself into a great wrestler through hard work."

Since their weight has always been similar and they both wrestle at the same club (Iowa Style), Rodrigues has also been wrestling with Flamio since they were young, which added another dimension to their state tournament meeting.

"I kind of knew I was going wrestle Justis again in the semifinals," Rodrigues said. "I wrestled really well on the first day, I was feeling good, and my mindset was good. Things just didn't fall into place."

Rodrigues would go to the state tournament growing up, and his dream was always to be a state champion. With Flamio graduating this year, Rodrigues will have one more chance next season, and that will provide plenty of motivation over the spring and summer.

"If I continue to lift and get stronger and work in the offseason, I think I'm going to win next year," Rodrigues said.