Jamison Wins Suffolk Mat Title
Corey Jamison is one cool operator. The Huntington High School sophomore pulled off a series of tightly controlled matches with little room for error and captured the 113 lb. Suffolk wrestling title before a crowd of about 3,000 at Stony Brook University's Indoor Sports Complex.
Jamison won four straight bouts to claim his county title, much to the delight of head coach Kieran Mock. The fiery wrestler pinned Walt Whitman's Ryan Gioe in 1:21 in the opening round before topping Hills West's Zach Aal, 3-1 in the quarterfinals, Connetquot's Steven Bulzomi, 1-0 in the semi-finals and top seeded Eric Orellana of Brentwood in the finals, 1-0.
"Corey was tough as nails out there," Huntington assistant coach Travis Smith said. "He made it very difficult to score on him and just shut down his every one of his opponents. He did what he needed to do in order to win."
Huntington sophomore Anthony Puca also reached the finals at 285 lbs., falling to Smithtown West's Michael Hughes in a tough battle, 2-0. Puca earlier defeated Brentwood's Josue Iglesias in double overtime, 2-1, outlasted East Islip's Dan Hayden, 8-3 and nipped Northport's Jake Davenport in triple overtime in the semi-finals, 4-3.
"Anthony has come a long way this year and is right there with the best wrestlers in the county," Smith said. Puca is a small superheavyweight, weighing in about 50 pounds under the weight limit, but he is also quicker than many opponents and that speed has served him well.
Junior Nick Lupi finished third in the tournament at 220 lbs. Lupi pinned both Bay Shore's Shakoree Philip and Half Hollow Hills East's Rami Saad-El-Din in 56 seconds each, before dropping a controversial double overtime decision in the semi-finals to Commack's David Rubio, 4-3. Lupi was called for stalling with two seconds remaining in the bout. Rubio went on to win the county crown.
Lupi came back through the consolation bracket to pin Ward Melville's Pierce Curran in 2:22 and then top Connetquot's Kenny Drew in triple overtime, 3-2.
In other action for Huntington, John Arceri went 1-2 at 99 lbs. The eighth grader dropped a 3-0 decision to top-seeded Joe Calderone of Walt Whitman before topping Sachem North's Matt Stallone, 6-1. Arceri was knocked out of the tournament by West Islip's Travis Isgro, 3-2.
Senior Kevin Mendez was eliminated from the 132 lb. weight class when he lost an out-bracket match to Bay Shore's Luke Attisani, 6-3. Joe Puca lost two matches at 138 lbs. to get knocked out of that weight class. The eighth grader lost an 8-2 decision to eventual champion Malik Rasheed of Longwood and then dropped a 12-2 verdict to Cory Aschauer of Miller Place.
Huntington finished 11th in the Suffolk Division I team standings with 69 points. Only four points separated the Blue Devils from seventh place Sachem North.