The Glen Cove High School wrestling team started off this season with a bang. The junior varsity wrestled last week at home against 80 wrestlers from Sewanhaka, Valley Stream Central, Valley Stream South and Oyster Bay. This was a multi-team tournament during which Glen Cove wrestlers won 22 of the 29 matches. Winning matches for Glen Cove were: Nick DiScala, Jeff Oglesby, Matt Hurwitz, Marcus Bianconi and Gian-Carlo Caceres. Several of Big Red's wrestlers recorded two wins in the day. They were Kenny Engle, Jason Lee, Jose Martinez, Quincy Grant and Mike Petulla. Freshman George Gooden had a great day defeating three opponents.

Last Saturday, the varsity wrestlers opened the season with a great performance at the Huntington Tournament. With top programs coming in from all over New York, the Huntington Tournament is considered one of the toughest challenges in the state. The Big Red showed they were for real with 9 wrestlers receiving medals out of the 15 weight classes. Glen Cove also set a school record of having 5 finalists in the tournament.

Captain Jeff Rudloff fought his way to the 145 lb. final with hard-nosed wrestling the whole day. Jeff lost against a wrestler from Huntington. Dave Graziosi also wrestled his way to the finals with a technical fall over Bill Mortensen of Huntington and a 29-second pin over Cody Callahan of Massapequa. Dave lost a tough match in the finals to Andy Poust of Clarkstown South. Glen Cove crowned a champion at the 215-lb. class with Carmine Portaro taking first place honors. Carmine's semi-final win was a third period pin of Massapequa's Mike Phillips. In the finals, Carmine scored a 9-3 victory over Northport's Brett Roer.

For the first time ever, Glen Cove had two wrestlers facing each other in the finals of the tournament. Charles McCullogh and Dave Paskoff each made it to the finals of the 275 lb. class. Charles was able to catch Dave for a win and the championship after a heroic battle. There were other outstanding wrestlers for Glen Cove. Mike Petikas placed third with a 3-1 record for the tournament. Victor Hidalgo took sixth place honors after being sidelined with an ankle injury. Matt Hurwitz had a great day taking fifth place. Mike Smith may have been Glen Cove's most outstanding wrestler. Mike took third place in the tournament after three impressive wins over wrestlers who had garnered All-County honors last year.

Glen Cove wrestlers look forward to another successful season and head upstate next week for the Mamaroneck Tournament.