Daler Wrestling Crushes Comets, 75-6

Earlier this season, the  wrestlers set a goal to exceed their 20 dual meet wins from last year, and have met that goal before the season's end. Their latest victory has brought their record to 28-3 in dual meets with the core of the 2011 season still open for further improvement.

Thursday night, the Dalers hosted Hicksville High School, where the Comets were defeated on their opponent's home turf, 75-6. Farmingdale's strong competitors gave up just one match to Hicksville late into the meet in the heavyweight class.

Heroes: Only one Farmingdale wrestler was defeated by Hicksville, and according to Dalers Head Coach Ken Garcia, the team as a whole delivered an impressive performance on the mat. "Ben Rosen, Josh Jeannoute and Vincent Schultz, all team captains, were definitely key wrestlers today," Garcia said.

Currently holding the team's best record this season, Rosen has only lost one match. He faced off against Hicksville's Aaron Kusak in the 189 weight class in Thursday's meet where he pinned Kusak at 4:33.

Jeannoute has been wrestling well since the start of the season, according to Garcia, and remains consistent. In his match against Victor Ocasio, Jeannoute won by pin in less than one minute. Schultz, wrestling at 135, held a powerful lead throughout the match on his opponent, Sal Tornambene. Both sides were unable to reach a pin, but Schultz dominated 14-0.

Turning Point: The Dalers were a force to be reckoned with from the very beginning. Although the Comets never gave up in a match, they simply could not overcome the power and technique of Farmingdale, who held a compelling lead from start to finish.

Quotable:  "We wrestled very well tonight," Garcia said of his varsity team. "We still need to work on our conditioning, we should be able to wrestle the full six minutes better."

"Hicksville's always a real competition for us in all sports," the Farmingdale coach added. "We're strong this year and we have a solid team, they're a little younger but they have their strong years also."

Bottom Line: A majority of Thursday night's meet was very black and white: The Dalers' skill and experience was hard to overcome for the Comets. Hicksville was forced to forfeit three matches due to a lack of wrestlers, which gave an 18 point advantage to Farmingdale.

Even though they have had quite a successful season so far, the boys of Farmingdale still have significant competition ahead and will be facing one of their top rivals, East Meadow, next Friday. 

Who's Next?: Farmingdale will host Oceanside High School Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 5:30 pm.

"Oceanside usually has some tough guys on their team," Garcia said. "I'm not too familiar with the line up but it should be a good match."

Matches: (winner is bold, Farmingdale on left, Hicksville on right)

125 lb- Chris Phelps vs. Newman Sahebzada
130 lbs- Martin Chiquiruna vs. Shaun Sahebzada  PIN @ 5:46
135 lbs-  Vincent Schultz vs. Salvatore Tornambene
140 lbs- Harrison Rosen vs. Eric Staudter
145 lbs- Jovanny Concepcion vs. Taylor Williams PIN @ 1:04
152 lbs- Josh Jeannoute vs. Victor Ocasio PIN @ 54 seconds
160 lbs- Aaron Vasquez vs. Richard Waters  PIN @ 2:58
171 lbs- Farmingdale vs. FORFEIT
189 lbs- Ben Rosen vs. Aaron Kusak PIN @ 4:33
215 lbs- Farmingdale  vs. FORFEIT
285 lbs- Henry Rodriguez vs. James McCarthy  PIN @ 1:56
96 lbs- Danish Mundaya vs. Chris Feeney
103 lbs- Farmingdale vs. FORFEIT
112 lbs- Ahad Jawed vs. Jorge Quintinallo
119 lbs- Joe DePalma vs. Roger Martinez