The Island Trees Wrestling team finished in sixth place at the tough Bruins Cup on Dec. 9. The tournament featured East Meadow and Long Beach, the No. 1 and 4 ranked teams in Nassau County, as well as three of Suffolk's top 10 teams. The Bulldogs were led by sophomore Matt Eberlein and senior Kris Buhagiar. Matt defeated Longwood's Victor Goady 11-6 in the finals to run his record to 9-0. Kris Buhagiar took second place, losing a hard fought 12-7 decision to Alex Santana of Bay Shore in the final. Other place winners were Peter Molino, fourth; Ever Reyes, fourth and Robert Nickel third. The team then traveled to the Valley Stream North Tournament on Dec. 16. The team was edged out by Suffolk's #4 ranked team, Sayville. The Bulldogs had the lead going into the medal round, but Sayville came through with five pins to take the lead. The team crowned two individual champions for the day. Senior Kris Buhagiar won his first title of the year. Kris defeated Chris Sgro 3-2 to take the title. Sophomore Matt Eberlein kept up the pace, winning the gold by crushing defending league champion Josh Mattana 12-4 in the finals. Matt is now 12-0 heading into the tough Long Island Challenge on Dec. 29. The Bulldogs put themselves in a great position to win after the semifinal round, huge performances were put forth by freshman Mike Alavanja and senior Jerry Franchino. Mike defeated defending league place winner Fracchini of Seaford 10-9 in a tremendously exciting match. Jerry Franchino won a 14-6 decision over Fisher of Seaford to earn his trip to the finals. Other finalists were Ralph Mirabella, Mike Molino and Bobby Nickel. Placing third and fourth were Billy Caldarera, Ever Reyes and Nick DeVecchis. The team has placed first, sixth and second in the first three Christmas Tournaments this year. The Bulldogs will be heading to the Long Island Challenge on Dec. 29 at Nassau Community College. The tournament will feature Islip, the No. 1 ranked team in the state and Levittown's own, the MacArthur Generals, six-time defending Nassau County Champs. The Island Trees Varsity Cheerleaders performed a near flawless routine at their first competition of the season at Hauppauge High School. The girls placed fourth out of 12 tough teams to compete with and secure themselves a place in the Long Island Championship competition held in February.

The boys Junior Varsity Basketball team matched up against MacArthur for the final round of the Levittown Tournament. The Bulldogs came out strong defensively in the first quarter, holding their opponents to only six points. The Dawgs eventually took a 29-24 lead into the half. After losing the lead briefly, the team regrouped to win the tournament by the score of 56-44. The high scorer was Bryan Verbitsky, who also received an All Tournament Award. Dan Schulz had 10 points and received All Tournament as well. The MVP Award went to Tommy Hart. Tommy finished the game with six points and continues to rack up the blocked shots and rebounds. It was a great team effort by all.

The Junior Varsity Lady Dogs Basketball team opened their league season with a victory over Manhasset. They came out strong in the first quarter by outscoring their opponent 14-4 and they kept up the aggressiveness throughout the remainder of the game. Scoring for the team was Meghan Carey with 14 points, Stephanie Rogers with seven, Anne Badolato with six, Renee Balvin, Rebecca Burleson and Michelle Giordano with four points each and Jessica Beissel with two points. In addition, Lisa Barenzano played tough under the basket as she grabbed down six rebounds.

The boys bowling team played Division this week. Some highlights of the game were: Nick Muccio with a 228 and Ed Noblesala with a 266. In addition, Nick Muccio made a 6, 7, 10 split. It was amazing! Most pros can't make that split.

Congratulations to the girls seventh grade volleyball team on their 4-1 win over Mattlin. Theresa Ambrosio started the match by serving an amazing nine aces in a row! Bridget Vilbig, Lauren Mongiardo, Katie Steinwall, April Rochon, and Kelly Marlow also had notable serving runs, while Allie Merrill, Caitlin Collins, Megan Acton and Kelly Durkin played well defensively.

The eighth grade Volleyball team came up just short against the always talented Berner M.S., losing 3 games to 2. After losing game 1, the girls rallied and won games 2 and 3. Lisa Indelicato was unstoppable, serving 7 of the final points in game 2. After getting her bell rung in the Hicksville game, Adrienne Varela played an outstanding game on serve and in the back row. In game 4, the Ladies were led by Justine Abramowski, Stephanie Brown, Megan Burns and Kaitlyn Interlandi. Then the team lost another close match against Mattlin. The girls started off slow, dropping the first two games, but stormed back, taking games 3 and 4. In the deciding game 5, the Ladies could not overcome the tough Mattlin servers. Taylor Tedeschi, Justine Abramowski, Lisa Indelicato, Kaitlyn McCoy and Michelle Fabis did a great job serving throughout the match. Outstanding play at the net by Alyssa Fazio, Kaitlyn Interlandi and Cory Scher.

The boys seventh grade basketball team defeated Bethpage on Dec. 18. The team was sparked by Anthony Leonick with 10 points, and Mike Gronenthal with outstanding guard play. Joe Howard scored six points, Jason Oder scored 13. Mike Gronenthal, J.T. Famularo and Matt Reilly each had four points. In their next game, the boys defeated Wantagh by the score of 49-39. The team was led by Jason Oder, who had 26 points. Joe Howard had seven points, while Matt Bowen, Tyler Byrne and Mike Gronenthal each had four.