Bradshaw Wins Two Medals at Empire State Games
Former Huntington High School wrestling great Shaheim Bradshaw won silver and bronze medals at the Empire State Games in open division Greco-Roman and freestyle competition. Blue Devil alumnus Brian Lifson, who also competed, wasn’t as fortunate.
Bradshaw, who is a two-time All-American at SUNY College at Brockport, won the Suffolk wrestling championship and was second in New York State his senior year at Huntington under legendary coach Lou Giani. He has been one of the top college wrestlers in the country the past two seasons and is expected to challenge for the national title next winter.
Wrestling at 167 lbs. in the Greco-Roman tournament, Bradshaw easily turned back Kevin Sackett of the Western region, 6-0, 8-1 and then pinned Justin Hewitt of Adirondack in 1:08. In the finals, Bradshaw dropped an exciting 4-3, 3-7, 4-1 decision to New York City’s Cory Sands to finish second.
In 167 lb. freestyle action, Bradshaw won three of four bouts to finish third. He opened by shutting out Ephraim Berensheteyn of New York City, 6-0, 8-0, and then pinned Adirondack’s Tim Clarke in 2:15. Bradshaw lost to Western’s Trevor Chinn, 1-0, 3-1, but captured the bronze medal by edging Justin Hewitt of Adirondack, 9-2, 5-0.
Ironically, it was Chinn who stopped Bradshaw in the 2004 high school state finals, when he nipped the Blue Devil in a close decision. He is currently a student-athlete at Lehigh University.
Lifson took fifth place in the Greco-Roman 119 lb. division. He lost to Western’s Jamie Carpenter (6-0, 8-1) and Central’s Joseph Lanza (1-6, 5-3, 7-0) before taking a forfeit victory over Melvin Cooper of Hudson Valley. In the freestyle tournament, Lifson lost to Jonathan Soto of New York City (0-6, 8-2, 2-0) and then was pinned by Western’s Jamie Carpenter in 1:29.
The competition was held at Mount Saint Michael Academy in The Bronx. Westchester served as official host of the Games. Binghamton has been selected to host the 2008 Games.
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