The Island Trees wrestling team finished in first place at the Knight Classic in Uniondale. The team placed 16 wrestlers in the top four in the tournament with eight wrestlers reaching the finals. The Bulldogs started off slow, but rebounded to send 17 wrestlers to the semi-final round. The Bulldogs finished with 340 points, outpacing eighth-ranked Uniondale by 97 points. The team crowned four individual champions, led by senior Joe Cusker, who defeated two-time defending Section I champ, Mike Murray 2-1 in the finals.

Senior Dan Eberlein ripped through his weight class to take the gold at 135 pounds. The 145-pound Kris Kellam used a variety of cradles to dispose of every opponent he faced on his way to the title. Using a lightning fast single-leg takedown, freshman Matt Eberlein started the finals for the Bulldogs with an impressive 11-4 victory over defending league champ, Victor Galeas of Westbury. Tom Santamauro, Joe Ambrosio, Chris Coradini and Julio Fuentes all had great tournaments and received silver medals for their runner-up finishes. Bryan Henriques recovered from a tough quarterfinal loss to finish in third place. Sophomore Tom Willoughby, junior Kris Buhagiar and senior Scott Smath also wrestled back to take third-place finishes. Freshman Corey Stimach, and juniors Jerry Franchino, Billy Caldarera and Bobby Nickel rounded out the scoring for the Bulldogs with fourth-place finishes.

103 - M. Eberlein (IT) dec. Galeas (WB), 11-4

112 - Sterling (U) pinned Fishman (A), 3:11

119 - Montgomery (S) pinned Santamauro (I), 3:09

125 - Cusker (I) dec. Murray (A), 2-1

130 - Fisher (S) dec. Gaebler (S), 7-3

135 - D. Eberlein (I) dec. Colontonio (S), 7-0

140 - Klotz (A) dec. Fuentes (I), 9-5

145 - Kellam (I) pinned Linares (VSS), 4:24

152 - Moran (VSS) dec. Coradini (I), 5-4

160 - Maurice (U) dec. Ambrosio (I), 4-3

171 - Bishop (VSS) dec. Asquino (S), 4-1

189 - Savarese (H) pinned Garcia (W), 5:27

215 - Burnett (U) pinned Lewis (W), 2:28

275 - Vergara (U) dec. Japngie (H), 403

MOW: Eric Burnett (Uniondale 215)

Knight Classic at Uniondale

Dec. 3

Team Scores:

Island Trees - 340

Unionsale - 243

Seaford - 226

Ardsley - 127

Westbury - 118

Valley Stream So. - 114

Holy Trinity - 106

West Hempstead - 70.5

Wheatley - 65.5

Kellenberg B - 4

It was a great job by the Girls' Varsity and JV Bowling teams on their wins over Plainedge. Excellent games were bowled by Amy Strickland and Nathalie Theran.

The 8th grade volleyball team won its first match 3-2 against Howitt. After losing the first game, the Lady Dogs bounced back and won the next two. Howitt won game 4, but I.T. rebounded once again to win game five 20-18. The entire team did a great job serving, especially Anne Badolato, Jessica Beiseel, Michelle Giordano, Sam Wierzbicki, Kaitlynn VanAlst and Dana Collelouri who ended the game with an ace!

A job well done goes out to the 7th-grade Girls' volleyball team on their hard-fought game against Howitt. Although the Lady Dogs were unable to clinch the win, each and every player put forth a solid effort to keep all 5 games in the match extremely close. Samantha Brand, Stacy Riley and Lisa Indelicato all had tremendous serving runs, while Justine Abramowski, Andrea Barbera, Sarah Kutzma and Whitney Dobladillo played notable defensive games. Stephanie Brown had her first official spike of the season, while Adrienne Varela blocked with the skill of a varsity player.

The 8th grade boys' basketball team opened their season with a loss to a tough Salk team. The team showed a lot of heart as they fought back from a 17-point deficit at the half to get within 7 points in the final period. Bryan Verbitsky led the way with 23 points and 5 rebounds. Anthony Wrightington added 10 points, Anthony Ciarmitaro had 7 points and 7 rebounds and Dan Barlett dropped in 4 points. In their next game against a strong Merrick Avenue team, they recorded their first win of the season. Overall, the team showed a tremendous commitment to defense and rebounding. Anthony Wrightington led the offense with 21 points and 3 rebounds. Rob Castillo had a tremendous game with 9 points and 11 rebounds and 5 blocks and Brian Verbitsky chipped in with 10 points.

The 7th grade boys' basketball team lost a close game against Salk 44-31. The team was led by Mike Witteck with 12 points, Tyler Walsh with 5 points and Casey Hastings with 4 points.