The Mineola High School wrestling team was a force in a couple of December tournaments. In the Ralph Jansson Tournament, the Mustang junior varsity came home with fourth place finishes by James Wan and Rory Singer in their weight classes. Third place honors were earned by Dan Guido, Ricardo Cunha and Kyle Rosner. Ivan Anania and Chris Egner notched second-place finishes while the Mineola JV team came away with three first-place finishers: Tom Grimaldi, Navied Bloorian and James Holubowich. Meanwhile, the Mustang varsity got a third-place finish from Paul Bispo and Dan Harvey. Eric Wong, Joe Selby and Raul Gonzalez earned second-place honors in the tournament. Hernando Gauto won his weight class and brought home a first. Late in December, the Mineola varsity took second place in the East Meadow tournament. The Mustangs finished second in the 12-team event. Craig Gunder brought home first-place honors. Gunder won his weight class with an exciting overtime victory in the finals. Meanwhile, Eric Wong and Hernando Gauto won second-place honors. Joe Cerulli, Joe Selby and Raul Gonzalez earned third-place awards while Adam Minsky took fourth place in his weight class. The junior varsity team also brought home honors from the East Meadow tournament. James Holubowich was a first-place winner, while Samir Hiranandaney and Ivan Anania took seconds and Tom Grimaldi and Nick Rachell won third places.

The basketball schedule was pretty light during the holidays. But, before vacation, the Mineola boys varsity hoops team won its opening round game in the Coaches Vs. Cancer Tournament in Carle Place. The Mustangs defeated New Hyde Park 72-58 behind 25 points from Dave Terezo. Eric Wooten added 17 points while John Murphy came through with 12. The Mustangs lost in the tournament' finals to the host Frogs.

The girls varsity basketball team went into the holiday break with a big come-from-behind 51-49 win over North Shore. Mineola found itself down 14 points at halftime. Senior guard Ashley O'Neill took over, scoring 10 of her game high 15 points in the third quarter that pulled the Mustangs to within six points by the end of the quarter. Mineola continued its defensive pressure and running into the fourth quarter. To complete the exciting evening, senior point guard Katherine Hock drilled a game-winning three-point buzzer-beater to give the Lady Mustangs the win. After no games during the break, Mineola opened 2001 with 34-31 Conference IV win over visiting Bethpage. The Lady Mustangs survived a frustrating offensive evening by clamping on the defense. Once again, Ashley O'Neill showed senior leadership in coming up with big points in an important spot. O'Neill dropped in both ends of a one-and-one with 1:30 remaining in the game to put Mineola up six points. Nine players scored in the win. Katherine Hock led with seven points, while junior Maureen Cloghessy added six and O'Neill had five. Here are a few more details from a couple of earlier games. Roosevelt rallied to beat Mineola at home 35-34. Sophomore Kristin McNally led the scoring that night with 12 while Maureen Cloghessy had 10. When the Lady Mustangs rolled to a 55-33 win at West Hempstead, eight players scored. Ashley O'Neill led the way with 15 points. Maureen Cloghessy added 13 and Katherine Hock had 10. The Mineola girls junior varsity basketball team continued its early season winning ways with a 30 to 28 win over Wheatley. Coach Christine Wiedman said great defense was played by Allison Carnabucci, Joanna Canning, Angelina Martinez and Denise Fitzpatrick. Liz Terezo was the scoring leader with 10 points. Melissa Hock added eight.

The Mineola boys varsity and junior varsity bowling teams continued to take on all comers in a rebuilding year. In three matches before the holiday break, the Mustangs garnered one win and took two losses. Defending league and county champion, Carle Place was too much for the young Mineola team. The Frogs won both the varsity and junior varsity matches 11-0. High game in the varsity match for Mineola was Vito Errico's 181. High games in the JV match belonged to Brian Saks with a 178 and 7th grader Anthony Trotolo with a 185 and 194. The Mustangs then lost 11-0 to Sewanaka and 8-3 in the junior varsity match. This time, Saks had the top game for the varsity with a 209 while Errico had games of 183 and 199. In the JV match, Trotolo, the 7th grader had a 627 series with games of 158, 201 and 268. Keith Masso also rolled a 160 for the junior Mustangs. The hard work paid off for Mineola. Right before vacation game a win over Roslyn. The varsity rolled to a 9-and-a-half to 1-and-half victory behind a 194 game from Saks and Peter Marson, who came through with a 179 and 194. The Mustang junior varsity notched a 6-5 win over Great Neck South as Anthony Trotolo had another big day with games of 167 and 164.