The Glen Cove wrestling team got the season off to a great start. The JV team has hosted two multi team meets over the first weeks of the season. Solid teams from Locust Valley, Oyster Bay, Plainview, Syosset, Farmingdale, and Nassau County powerhouse MacArthur have brought almost 200 wrestlers to Glen Cove. All of the Glen Cove JV wrestlers have risen to the occasion. Wrestling tough for the Big Red have been Lee Smith, John Sebastiano and Mike Morrison. Several members of the team wrestled their way to their first win. These wrestlers are freshmen Dennis Seaman, Eli Gooden, Mike Kavanaugh and Max Schneider. Several of the Glen Cove JV wrestlers have dominated their opponents. Sophomore Brian Meyers and freshmen Erick Martinez, Roberto Perez and Drew Beisler have dominated the upper weights. These young wrestlers should provide Glen Cove with a solid varsity in the years to come.

The Varsity wrestling team led by senior captains Steve Sarmiento, Mike Smith and Jeff Rudloff has also gotten off to a great start. On Dec. 9 the Varsity competed in the Huntington tournament. This tournament has always been considered one of the toughest tournaments in New York state. The tournament had two returning New York state champions as well as four returning All-State wrestlers. There were too many all county wrestlers to keep track of. This year the addition of Canandegua, one of the best teams from the Rochester area, and Suffolk power East Islip made the tournament even tougher. Glen Cove was up for the challenge as the team placed fifth out of 11 teams and had six wrestlers receive medals. Steve Sarmiento, Mike Smith, Jeff Rudloff and Matt Hurwitz all wrestled their way into the semi finals but fell short of the championship match. Juniors Jose Martinez, Pete Loiodice and Jason Lee also scored for the Big Red. Senior Dave Paskoff and junior Charles McCullough made the finals but came up a little short. The Big Red always looks at this tournament as the measuring stick for the rest of the season. It is always a good indicator of how hard we will need to work to achieve the team goals. When the team finishes well in Huntington, it usually is a good sign for the upcoming season.

The team used Huntington as a springboard for the second week winning the first dual match of the season and capturing the Mamaroneck tournament title. After three very hard days of practice and a scrimmage with a rugged MacArthur team, the Big Red was ready for Sewanhaka. The team needed to be ready as we were without the services of juniors Jose Martinez and Marcus Bianconi. Jose is out with a minor injury and Marcus is set to return from a football injury. Without the two junior standouts in the line up, the team was forced to forfeit those weight classes. The team does not have a 103 pounder this year so that became a forfeit as well. Before the first match was wrestled, the Big Red was losing 18-0. Sophomore George Gooden got things rolling with an impressive pin at 112 pounds. Juniors Pete Loiodice and Jason Lee followed up with a major decision and a pin respectively. Seniors Steve Sarmiento and Mike Smith kept the momentum going with a :38 second pin and a 19-5 superior decision. Freshman Erick Martinez and sophomore Brian Meyers wrestled tough but lost matches to the wrestlers from Sewanhaka. Jeff Rudloff added a pin at 152 pounds. The team is looking to Matt Horwitz and Dave Paskoff to replace Dave Graziosi and Carmine Portaro who dominated the 189 and 215 pound weight classes for the Big Red for three years. It is very important to have two tough wrestlers to finish off dual matches. Matt and Dave rose to the occasion with both recording first period pins and nailing down the 44-30 victory. The dual match line-up is solid and we await the return on Martinez and Bianconi to strengthen it further.

The highlight of the early season was beating out 14 other teams and winning the Mamaroneck multi team tournament. Each year the team travels to Westchester to compete at Mamaroneck. The team gets the opportunity to see wrestlers from other parts of the state. Glen Cove responded well to the challenge as every wrestler in the tournament scored points and contributed to the win. The Big Red had four champions as Mike Smith, Jeff Rudloff, Dave Paskoff and Charles McCullough all took first place honors. Sophomore George Gooden also made the finals but had to settle for second place. Steve Sarmiento wrestled in the match of the day losing a close decision to Mike Josephson of Port Chester in the semi finals. Josephine is highly rated in Section 1. Steve wrestled back strong to take third place honors. Matt Hurwitz also had a good tournament taking third place. Both Jason Lee and Pete Loidice lost their first match but each won three more matches to take fifth place and score valuable points for the Big Red. Freshmen Roberto Perez and Erick Martinez added to the Glen Cove point total with pins in each of their wins. Lee Smith was also a key for Glen Cove scoring big team points.

With the big team effort, Glen Cove was able to finish 35 points ahead of second place Goshen from Section 9.

Track is back. The Glen Cove Big Red Indoor Track and Field team had their first meet Friday, Dec. 15 at Farmingdale University. Many athletes competed for the first time ever. There were many very promising performances during the meet. The day began with Mike Biscardi running a new personal best in the mile with a time of 5:18.8 Teammates Manjit Singh (5:59.1) and Steve Filippone (6:15.2) ran their first mile ever. The next event was the 55 meter dash Rich Tarver ran 7.0 in the trials and then 7.0 in the finals of his first ever dash. Matt Lindenbaum ran 7.7, Jason Lindenbaum ran 7.9, Ben Lowell ran 7.8, Askan Zandieh ran 8.5, Jack Worth ran 8.1, Dan Cox ran 8.1 and Tony Condello ran 7.8. For the girls team Amanda Morretto ran 8.3, Akia Dean ran 8.1, Tiana Taliep ran 8.9 and Iesha Brown ran 8.7. In the 55m High Hurdles Tin Chin ran 11.0 and for the girls team Lucia Son ran 11.4. In the 100m run Allen Shin ran a 3:19.0 in his first race. Running the 300m was Miguel Quinones (43.9), Dan Bellissimo (43.0), Jose Kopito (46.8), Tin Chin (46.4), Tony Condello (44.2) and Akia Dean (49.2). The 600m saw Manjit Singh run 1:57.0 and Mike Biscardi run 1:45.0. Throwing the 12-pound shotput was Gurvansh Anand (26'), Will Ng (27' 11"), Brian Cavallo (29' 9"), Joe Kopito (30' 7.5"), Rich Tarver (36' 2.5") and John Mahoney. The next meet will be Saturday, Dec. 16 at the Armory.

Back to the Armory! The Glen Cove Big Red Indoor Track and Field team had their first meet at the New York City Armory on Saturday, Dec. 16. The boys ran in the morning, while the girls ran in the afternoon. For the boys team in the 1000 meter run Steve Filippone ran 3:26.4, Allen Shin ran 3:11.2, and Manjit Singh ran 3:30.1. In the 55-meter dash Rich Tarver ran 7.0, Ridge Beale ran 7.4 and Joe Kopito ran 8.3. In the shotput Sean Basdavanos threw 34' 8", Brian Cavallo threw 29' 11" and Will Ng threw 25' 7". Each thrower actually had better marks, but after the first throw was measured, only those throws over 40 feet were measured. In the long jump Dan Bellissimo leaped 16' 11" while Ridge Beale had a mark of 16' 1". In the 300m run Dan Bellissimo ran 42.6, Miguel Quinones ran 42.8 and Tony Condello ran 42.8. In the mile run Mike Biscardi ran 5:21.0. The 4x200m relay team of Ashkan Zandieh, Steve Fillipone, Joe Kopito and Dan Bellissimo ran 2.00.2.

The girls arrived and took over the afternoon. In the 55m hurdles Lucia Son ran a 11.4. In the 55m dash Akia Dea ran 8.2, Amanda Morretto ran 8.3, and Iesha Brown ran 9.0. Senior Liz Beisler ran an impressive 3:42.1 for the 1000m run, passing 10 people in the last three laps. In the long jump Akia Dean jumped 12' 4" while Jasmine Thompson leaped 11' 4". The two competed again in the triple jump with Akia jumping 30' 1" and Jasmine jumping 26' 6". The next meet will be the Nassau Coaches Holiday Relays on Friday, Dec. 22 at the Armory.