By: John Cable

If you weren't there, you are going to wish you were. The Canes went undefeated on their way to the title at the 2nd annual Cory Hubbard Duals tournament at Westhampton Beach High School. Eight teams were on hand to take their shot at the Cup. Two round robin pools of 4 teams culminating in a title match of each pool winner. Pool A consisted of Sayville, Valley Stream North, Newfield, and Westhampton Beach. Pool B included Hampton Bays, Bellport, Bayshore, & Longwood. The Hurricanes dispatched Newfield (63-21), followed by Sayville (60-24), and finally Valley Stream North (55-24). As expected, the title meet came down to Longwood and Westhampton Beach and it wasn't decided until the final match. Starting at 106, the Hurricanes jumped out to a lead which was eventually erased as the Canes had to travel through the middle weights and three county ranked wrestlers. The Hurricanes led by 4 at 28-24 going into the 220 pound match but were forfeiting at 285 pounds. That made the real score 30-28 in favor of Longwood with 2 matches remaining (220 pounds & 99 pounds). Junior Ed Ford was up against very difficult competition and was nearly pinned early. The match wound down with Ford trying to hang on and only give up a minor decision but 2 stalling points made the score 8-0 in favor of Longwood with about 5 seconds left. That margin would have made it only possible to tie and the tie breaker was in favor of Longwood. With under 5 seconds left, Ford got a takedown making the score 8-2 and the Hurricanes then trailed 33-28 with the last match coming up. Sophomore Tyler Skala with everything on the line, and in impressive fashion, pinned his opponent at 99 pounds at :32 of the 2nd period giving the Hurricanes the victory 34-33! The fans and team went crazy celebrating the victory. It was a great moment for Hurricane wrestling and the team! Congratulations to all the Hurricanes on their title!

The Hurricanes wrestled at Hills East Saturday and Sunday (12/28 &12/29) in the annual Individual tournament held there. The Canes were without varsity representation at over 1/4 of the weight classes (106, 138, 145, & 285) for various reasons. Even so, the team captured two titles and had 6 other place finishers.

Juniors Danny Strebel (132) & David Cable (126) both finished 5th in their weight classes and both placed in tournaments for the first time in their careers. Congratulations to both!

Senior Sean Ebrus (126), Senior Connor Glynn (120), and Junior Tom O'Shea (182), all finished 4th in their brackets! Well done gentlemen!

Sophomore Tyler Skala (99) finished 3rd and defeated the 6th ranked wrestler in Section Xi (Stefan Major from King's Park) in his 3rd place match! CongratulationsTyler!

Senior Matt Tobin (160) finished 2nd in his bracket with his only loss being to the #2 ranked wrestler in Section Xi. A very nice run for Matt!

Junior Dane Mendoza captured the title at 113 pounds in a very close match! Congratulations Dane! Nice run!

The match of the day turned out to be Senior Dan McClure's. Dan ranked third in Section Xi at 195 pounds, dropped into the 182 pound bracket and had to face the #1 ranked Section Xi wrestler at 182 in the form of G.Arcuri from Hills East. The team cheered so incredibly loud for Dan that it was almost deafening at times. The cheering was truly inspiring and apparently contagious as McClure cruised to the 182 pound title with a 5-0 victory and was awarded the tournament MVP for his outstanding performance. Congratulations Dan!

Our regular photographer was not at the tournament so if you have any photos you would like to share, please send them in! Awards ceremony pictures will be in the photos section short and on the Team Facebook!

The Hurricanes are off Wednesday but hit the mats hard heading into their own tournament on Saturday, The 2nd Annual Cory Hubbard Duals. We hope to see EVERYBODY there!

Westhampton Beach head wrestling coach Paul Bass has a philosophy when it comes to December matches.

During that time, he’s not as concerned about wins and losses, but rather is eager to see how his wrestlers perform individually, how they respond to adversity or handle themselves in underdog situations.

By that criteria, he was quite happy during the bus ride home from Center Moriches on Sunday afternoon after his squad went 5-2 in the two-day Center Moriches Dual Meet Tournament.

The Hurricanes lost to powerhouses Mattituck (55-18) and Brentwood (49-15) but had wins over Putnam Valley (52-29), Port Washington (70-13), host Center Moriches (72-12), Edgemont (78-11) and Smithtown East (63-15).

“I was really happy,” Bass said. “I thought we wrestled Mattituck and Brentwood really tough. Against Brentwood, we lost five matches by three points or less.”

Bass added that all of his wrestlers were competing up a weight class, a move he said was intentional going into the tournament.

“I wanted them to focus on wrestling, not on losing weight,” he said of his approach to the tournament, pointing out that once Christmas passes, the rules will allow wrestlers to hold an extra two pounds of weight, making certification at the weights they will stay at for the rest of the year a little easier.

“December, to me, is about learning and finding out who you are as a team,” Bass added. “We settle in in January.”

Bass pointed out that while his team did suffer two losses, it had a winning record in 13 of the 15 weight classes over the course of the tournament. 

“I thought we grew a lot as a team and grew in toughness wrestling against some good teams,” he said.

Matt Tobin (170 pounds) had a great tournament, going 7-0 with five pins. He scored 39 points in seven matches, impressive considering the max number of points a wrestler can score in seven matches is 42.

Alex Kravitz (160) went 6-1 with three pins, while four other Hurricane wrestlers went 5-2—Billy Campbell (182) had two pins; Dan McClure (195) had three pins; Edward Ford (220), a first-year wrestler, also went 5-2; and Sal DiBenedetto made weight at 285 for the first time this year, and also went 5-2 with two pins.

Before the Center Moriches Duals, Westhampton Beach beat Harborfields, 51-15, in a road match to open the League V dual meet season on December 16. Hurricane 99-pounder Cole Hempel scored an impressive 4-2 win over Justin Klei in his first varsity match. McClure (195) and Kravitz (160) won with pins, while Scott Rementer (152) had a major decision. Campbell (182), Tyler Skala (106), Dane Mendoza (120), Connor Glynn (126), and Sean Ebrus (138) all won by decision, while Ford (220), Matt Tanzman (113), and David Cable (132) won by forfeit.

Westhampton Beach was scheduled to face Connetquot, the returning League II champion, in a non-league match on December 23 and will compete in the two-day Hills East individual tournament on December 28 and 29. Westhampton Beach will host the Cory Hubbard Duals on January 2.

Original Article Here

Publication: The East Hampton Press & The Southampton Press

By Cailin RileyWesthampton Beach wrestling coach Paul Bass believes his team can be formidable in dual meets this season, a belief based on the potential he sees in some of his younger, more unproven wrestlers. But in the first outing of the season, it was the more experienced grapplers on the team who came through for the Hurricanes, leading to a fourth-place finish out of nine teams at the annual Sprig Gardner Tournament at East Hampton High School.

Westhampton Beach had three champions on the day—Tyler Skala at 99 pounds, Dane Mendoza at 113, and Dan McClure at 195—and a total of 11 finalists. And while those numbers were respectable, Bass said he wished the place-winners had been spread out more among the weight classes.

“Our top guys did well,” Bass said. “But some of the sophomores and juniors I expect to step up this season didn’t have a great day. If we’re going to be as good as I think we can be, they’ll need to step up.”
Skala had the most dominant performance of the day for his team, beating Mark Matyka of Riverhead by technical fall to win the 99-pound weight class. Before that win, Skala had two pins and a major decision.

Mendoza won easily in the final at 113, shutting out Longwood’s Ryan Pitre, 8-0. He had a pin and a major decision leading up to that victory. McClure faced the toughest competition of the day but looked strong throughout, Bass said. He got past East Hampton’s Axel Alanis—an All-County wrestler last season—in a 7-3 decision, where all of Alanis’s points came from escapes. McClure took Alanis down three times and looked strong, Bass said.

At 160 pounds, Alex Kravitz finished second, and Billy Campbell was also a runner-up, at 182 pounds. Matt Tanzman (113) finished third, while Jason Montagna was fourth at 99 and Jackson Hulse was sixth at 99, giving Westhampton Beach three place-winners in that bracket. Scott Rementer took fourth at 152, while Dan Purkis (113) and Tom O’Shea (182) finished sixth.

Longwood won the tournament, followed by Sachem North, Ward Melville, Westhampton Beach, Riverhead, Bayport/Blue Point, East Hampton, Hampton Bays, and Southampton. (Final points were not tallied as of press time).

Westhampton Beach was scheduled to visit Harborfields on December 16 for a non-league meet and will compete in the Center Moriches Duals on Saturday and Sunday.


Original 27 East Article

The Hurricanes traveled to East Hampton High School today to begin the season against 7 other teams in the annual Sprig Gardner Tournament. The Hurricanes battled hard and came away with some success and some areas to improve. Here is the breakdown of results:

Team - 4th

99 Pounds
1st - Tyler Skala
4th - Jason Montagna
6th - Jackson Hulse


113 Pounds
1st - Dane Mendoza
3rd - Matt Tanzman


120 Pounds
6th - Dan Purkis


152 Pounds
4th - Scott Rementer

160 Pounds
2nd - Alex Kravitz


182 Pounds
2nd - Billy Campbell
6th - Tom O'Shea


195 Pounds
1st - Dan McClure


Thank you to the many supports who made the trip. Once available, the photographs will be uploaded into the photo section of the site. Please feel free to send any you might like to share. See you next Wednesday at Harborfields for our first League V Match!