Clockwise from top left, Marvin Alarcon gets ready to roll his opponent onto his back for the pin. Luke Ryan controls on his way to victory over Yorktown. Piero DiNicola lifts a leg for a takedown on his way to victory. (Jim MacLean Photos) John Jay’s Ryker McCarthy battles in the 285-pound title bout at the Westchester County Championships. (Rob DiAntoni Photo)
By JIM MACLEAN
Both teams knew what was at stake, and both teams expected it to go down to the wire as Fox Lane wrestling hosted Yorktown on the mats Jan. 28, with a share of the league title on the line.
It was a close one, but Fox Lane prevailed as the host Foxes held on for a 36-34 victory and earned a share of the league title with Ossining.
Fox Lane earned that league title the hard way as the league featured tough teams top to bottom with a lot of close matches between the Foxes, Ossining, Horace Greeley, Yorktown and White Plains.
“It’s not easy to win this league, the toughest league in the section, and a lot of teams never win a league title, so we have to be proud of this,” explained Fox Lane coach Anthony Rodrigues. “Both teams seemed a little flat. Last weekend took a lot out of a lot of people and that was an emotional grind of a tournament. Everyone is banged up right now, but a lot of our kids have had a great year. The key now is finishing strong. No one cares who won in December.”
The match started off with Flavio DiNicola of Fox Lane taking to the mats for the first bout and scoring a 12-6 victory at 101-pounds to stake the Foxes to a 3-0 lead.
Maynor Argueta wasted no time winning his match at 116-pounds as he needed just 30 seconds to pin his opponent to give the Foxes a 9=6 lead.
That set the stage for Piero DiNicola at 124 pounds against one of Yorktown’s top wrestlers. It was 1-1 heading into the last minute of the match when DiNicola scored a takedown to secure a 4-1 victory.
“That was the match, Piero at 124, he loses that match and we lose,” Rodrigues said of DiNicola. “We knew that would be a close one and he got the takedown with about 30 seconds to go. Maynor was sick as a dog and he sucked it up and came through with a pin. Everything else went according to plan.”
Marvin Alarcon and Luke Ryan had both missed a few matches recently with injuries, but both of them were in the lineup and came through to help the team earn the win. Alarcon won his match at 145 pounds by pin, and Ryan scored a pin to win his match at 160 pounds to even it up at 24-24.
Fox Lane trailed 29-24 heading into the final three bouts, but the Foxes were in control with Barron Ransom coming up at 190 pounds followed by Alex Berisha at 215 pounds. Both of them won by forfeit to make it 36-29 and the Foxes closed out a 35-34 victory to finish as co-league champions.
Berisha wins third-straight Westchester County Championship
Both Fox Lane and John Jay competed in the Westchester County Championships on Jan. 25 at Sleepy Hollow High School.
As expected, Fox Lane senior Alex Berisha dominated on his way to winning his third-straight County Championship title at 215 pounds. Berisha scored a 13-3 major decision victory over Rocco Lore of Yorktown in the finals to win the crown.
Berisha has bigger goals in mind with the Section 1 and New York state championships coming up, but he admits it was a good week to help the Foxes earn a league title and also win a county championship of his own.“It means a lot for the team to win the league title, a couple of guys had some big wins, we didn’t wrestle our best, could have shown a little more energy out there, but it’s always good to come out on top,” Berisha said of the league title. “The county title shows all the hard work I put in to win it for the third time.”
Oscar O’Donnell-Powell also had a big day at the county tournament for Fox Lane as he finished second at 190 pounds. Alarcon finished in sixth-place 138 pounds for the Foxes.
John Jay enjoyed a good day at the county meet, finishing third overall as a team trailing only perennial champion Iona Prep in first and Somers in second.
The Wolves finished with 109 points overall, led by a pair of finalists who finished second. Ryker McCarthy made it a thriller in the last match of the day as he advanced to the 285-pound title bout and battled into overtime before falling 4-2 to Mason Dietz of Hen Hud.
David Corrales also advanced to the finals for John jay and finished second after falling to Dorian Hidalgo of Iona Prep in the 101-pound title bout.
John Jay had four other place finishers. Austin Omin finished fourth at 152 pounds. The Wolves had a trio of fifth-place finishers with John Aniello at 124 pounds, Jojo Kern at 160 pounds, and Jake Llanos at 170 pounds.
John Jay will host Fox Lane Friday, Jan. 31.