Another Strong Campaign for Long Beach Wrestlers

Few programs on Long Island have been as successful at the wrestling team at Long Beach High School.

With 10 county titles over the past 30 years, the Marines have the right to claim their stake as the most accomplished program in Nassau.

Despite falling short of a repeat of last season’s county championship, the Marines won Conference 2A and numerous wrestlers had outstanding seasons. Long Beach took fourth place in the county and sixth in the state.

Ray Adams, in his fourteenth season as head coach, was happy with the team’s season, but believes there are better things to come.

“We didn’t achieve our goal of winning the county and state titles, but had a nice season,” Adams said. “We won the league, had three county champions, and had four qualify for the state tournament. Coming up a little short has made everyone hungry for next season.”

Senior Adam DeJesus (152-pound class), and juniors Krishna Sewkumar (103), Mark Raghunandan (103) and Dylan Palacio (145), all earned All-State recognition in 2011. The last time the Marines had four All-State recipients was 1982. All four made the trek to the Times Union Center in Albany last weekend.

DeJesus, a three-time All-County honoree, had a state title on his mind after winning the county title two weeks earlier. After defeating two opponents to advance to the state semifinals, DeJesus met Irvin Buck of Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, dreams of a state crown came to an abrupt end as DeJesus suffered a head injury early in the match and couldn’t continue. He finished sixth in the state.

Palacio, who made his third trip to the states, also had a strong showing. After breezing through his first two matches, the two-time county champion was narrowly defeated by Rocky Point’s Matt Ross 2-1 in the semifinal round. Palacio, who finished third in the state, will have to wait another year for a go at the elusive state championship.

The 103-pound class was where most of the drama for Long Beach took place. Raghunandan and Sewkumar, who are cousins, both advanced to the semifinal round. Sewkumar was defeated by Arlington’s Jimmy Duckham, but Raghunandan moved onto the final with an 8-2 decision over Amsterdam’s Brandon Lapi.

It looked as if Raghunandan was set to exact a little family revenge on Duckham, but things turned against Raghunandan late in the match. With 20 seconds left, Duckham, the No. 2 seed, was trailing 8-5. The top-seeded Raghunandan was on top, but Duckham reversed him for two points. Then, with time winding down, Duckham managed to put Raghunandan on his back for three points and the state title. Sewkumar finished in fifth place.

Long Beach’s success on the mat wasn’t limited to the All-State honorees. Senior Edisson Tigre-Borja, a three-time All-County wrestler, finished third in Nassau. Sophomore Steven Sewkumar had a 31-3 record and the No. 1 seed entering the county meet in the 96-pound class, but had an off day at the counties. Sewkumar won the league title, and was also the runner-up at the 9th annual Eastern States Classic.

Junior Oral Allen was the league champion at 119 pounds. Allen also recorded the most pins in the least amount of time with four pins in 7:16 at the county qualifier. Junior Joshua Lopez won the league title at 171 pounds. Freshman Jaemon Connelly was solid in the 96-pound class.

Others who qualified for the county meet were Matt Gray (112), Mike Kashyap (119), Kenny Campos (119), Anthony Posada (125), Richie Tagliagambe (125), Jake Kempinski (135), Nick Khoury (140), Liam Fitzpatrick (145), Marvin McMoore (152), Joe Bosco (189), and Pete Amabile (285)

Adams believes the team will be strong in 2012. “We have a lot of underclassmen returning next season,” he said. “We’ll continue our workouts, compete in tournaments, and look to get better. The boys are driven to have more success next year. Nobody is satisfied with this year’s performance.”