The Mineola High School varsity wrestling team has just gone through one of the finest seasons of any squad in Nassau County. While veteran coach Dan Guido enjoyed his squad's winter in the clinch, he still wonders what may have been.

The Mustangs ran up a record of 12-4 with three wrestlers earning All-County honors and six more named All-Conference.

"We defeated perennial power houses in Farmingdale and Long Beach. We also beat Chaminade, despite the fact that the Flyers have fours times as many boys enrolled in school as we do," said Coach Guido. "We accomplished this even though we had to forfeit three times every match, meaning we were behind 18-0 before we even started."

Guido also pointed out that had it not been for a number of mitigating circumstances and injuries, the team's record would have been better. "These injuries kept us from filling the required weight classes," he said.

Coach Guido gave his squad a great deal of credit for dealing with adversity and making the most of its talent. Here is a look at the members of the varsity wrestling team:

Eric Wong, Jr., 103 lbs., won 20 matches and was third in county qualifier.

Tom Grimaldi, sophomore, 125 pounds, won 22 matches and finished third in county qualifier.

Leandro Fenster, senior, 130 pounds, finished third in county qualifier.

Andrew Montanez, junior, 145 pounds, won 26 matches, including championship of East Meadow Tournament, finished second in county qualifier.

James Holubowich, sophomore, 160 pounds, won 22 matches and finished fourth in county qualifier.

Dan Harvey, senior, 140 pounds, finished fifth in Nassau County this year after a fourth place finish in 2001, had 33-4 record this season and completed his Mineola High School career with 93 victories.

Joe Selby, senior, 160 pounds, finished second in county finals, losing to Freeport's Carlos Patrick, who finished second in the state tournament. Joe had a record of 35-5 this season and completed his career with 84 victories, despite missing his freshman year because of injuries sustained in another sport.

Joe Cerulli, senior, finished 6th in Nassau County this season, was three-time qualifying champion and won eight different tournaments, was 30-5 this season and racked up 93 career wins.

Craig Gunder, senior, 152 pounds, finished third in Nassau County this season after being the county champion in 2001 and third in 2000; was 24-3 this season and had 94 career wins. Had Craig not sustained a shoulder injury at the end of the 2001 season, he may have repeated as county champion in 2002. The injury and subsequent surgery kept Craig inactive for nine months. He only resumed wrestling in early January. He only had about five weeks of wrestling prior to the county tournament and ended up losing 8-6 in the semifinals to eventual champion Rob Stubbs of McArthur. Craig defeated Stubbs last season. Gunder is the first three time All-County wrestler in school history.

Coach Guido didn't forget the other members of the team who worked hard all winter long. He pointed to sophomores Nick Rachell, Kyle Rosner and juniors James Wan and Steve Ricciardi, who wrestled well in the qualifying tournament, but missed making it to the county tournament.

Guido also said senior Ken Chin and juniors Chris Egner, Ricardo Cunha and Mike Gonzalez along with sophomores Rory Singer and John Boland and freshmen Joe Ricciardi and Jason Vega contributed to the successful season.

The coach is also looking forward to the return of 189-pound Adam Minsky, who missed the season because of a previous injury. "He would have been a tremendous help to this year's team," Guido said.

While the Mineola program will lose some very valuable seniors, next year's squad will also have several returnees who gained invaluable experience this year.