The Mighty Few
Ellenville Holds Sway Over Undermanned Burke and Liberty As All Three Teams Evince Some Fine Performances; A Few Aspiring Sectional Contenders Loom Large From Each Program
Ellenville 39, John S. Burke Catholic 23
John S. Burke Catholic 30, Liberty 16
Ellenville 48, Liberty 12
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Photos at: www.sportsinsights.smugmug.com
Scenes from a night of compelling wrestling (clockwise) Burke senior Brian Leahey (138) continues his undefeated dominance with a pin of Ellenville's Kyle Conner. Defending Section Nine champion Andy Martinez (182) of Liberty pins Ellenville's Javier Cortez. Liberty's Luis Rivera (113) pins Burke's Martin Nowak. Liberty's Matt Rourke (152) puts up a tough battle before being pinned by Ellenville's Ethan Lonstein. Ellenville Coach Merrill Conner counsels his son Kyle after a losing match. Conner went on to win the nightcap. Burke's wrestling motto is "Non Vox, sed votum" which means, not the words but the deeds. Liberty and Ellenville show their colors as well. Liberty's Vinny Webbe(132) pins Ellenville's Willie Bruce
LIBERTY, NY—“These are the times that try men’s souls,” noted founding father Thomas Paine and indeed those words aptly describe the realm of small school wrestling. To be sure, each match is a trying affair as athletes are often pitted against adversaries who are strong, skilled and well-coached.
But the most trying aspect may well be the insufficient numbers of wrestlers that coaches have to go to war with.
With the preponderance of athletes in the already limited talented pool heading off in winter to play basketball or join the indoor track leagions, high school wrestling coaches like Ellenville’s Merrill Conner, Burke’s Dave Predmore and Liberty’s John Lennon are hard-pressed to find a sufficient number of wrestlers to fill out all of the weight classes.
With Ellenville’s illustrious record in indoor track and Liberty’s annual battle therein that usually places them second to the Blue Devils, a lot of potential wrestlers are making their presence felt as runners, jumpers and particularly as throwers. Football players often move on to track in winter.
The rigorous nature of the sport warrants toughness, intense focus and arduous training and it comes with its requisite collateral effects including cuts, bumps and bruises and occasionally even broken bones.
If you don’t put in the work in sports like indoor track, the worst thing that can happens is that you will lose in your event, whereas in wrestling, you can get brutalized or overmatched in a New York Minute. With parents and friends looking on, sometimes that’s even worse than leaving the mat battered and bruised.
Lennon has been coaching at Liberty for 31 years continuing his relationship with the program which he began as a wrestler for the Tribe. Lennon was second in Section Nine when he weighed in at 138 back in those days when it was far tougher. There weren’t two divisions then. You literally had to beat everybody.
Lennon has only six wrestlers in the fold this year. He had seven but one of his young wrestlers, a promising 170 pound contender, quit due to parental concerns about potential injury in the sport. Truth be told, kids are far more resilient than one might imagine and the rigors of the sport not only make them tougher, they are apt to build character, perseverance and fortitude for life’s coming challenges.
Still, out of Lennon’s six, three made it to the finals at the Walton tournament including Luis Rivera (120), Vinny Webbe (132) and defending Section Nine champion Andy Martinez (182). Martinez is a heavy favorite to successfully defend his title. He is currently 14-3 and undefeated against Section Nine opponents. He lost a pair of matches at Eastern States and another in an earlier tournament.
Lennon figures Rivera and Webbe will make it to sectionals too, and if he maintains his focus, Dylan Blackwell (113) could join them there. Also showing great toughness on this night was Matt Rourke (152) in an epic battle he staged against Ellenville’s Ethan Lonstein. The latter won by a pin in 5:32.
Small numbers are also a problem for Burke. Predmore has seven wrestlers in the fold that includes undefeated senior Brian Leahey (138) and Daniel Martin (113), two wrestlers Predmore feels can make some serious inroads in sectionals.
Leahey did a fine job of controlling Ellenville’s Kyle Conner, eventually pinning him in 5:50, while Martin pinned Joe Smith in 2:53.
According to Predmore, viewing the season in terms of head to head performance, the Eagles have only been vanquished once and that was against powerful Rondout Valley. They bested Ellenville 4-3 in this tilt in head-to-head matches. Still, with only seven wrestlers ready to battle, Burke has to yield 42 points and can only hope that some of those will be subtracted as no contests when the opposing team also has no one to go in those classes.
Conner counseled his son Kyle after the match, offering suggestions and strategy as well as pointing out the places where Leahey evinced the upper hand. He lauded the work of Luis Arango (152) in his pin of Burke’s John Longo in 3:30. “He’s starting to come around. It’s a good time as sections are coming up,” he noted.”
With so many forfeits by Burke and Liberty, Conner noted that “It’s tough to get your guys up for a match when you’re only wrestling five or six guys. At 10-7 overall, the Blue Devils are faring well given the fact that they have new wrestlers in the fold. That said, Ellenville which is in Division II-A is winless in that realm.
Conner expects Kenny Krygier (160) to make sectionals and eventually have to duke it out with Austin Weigel from Red Hook. “Sectionals will be tough and even now you an almost set the sectional line up.”
“Right now our biggest problem is having more competition in practice as far as my lighter weights are concerned.” Conner, who wrestled for Ellenville up until his graduation in 1984, has been coaching the sport for the past seven or eight years as part of his 12 years coaching tenure that includes football and baseball.
Predmore’s take on the match was “We did pretty well but some of our kids are still making the same mistakes they’ve made since the beginning of the year. There are definitely matches we should have won. Getting pinned in a match when you’re up by three or four points is inexcusable,” he noted.
“We hope to make a bit of a name for ourselves this year,” concluded Predmore. That aspiration is emblazoned on Burke’s warm up shirts in the latin words, Non vox, sed votum, which means not the words, but the deeds.
Here are the results of two of the matches. I am awaiting the results of the Liberty-Burke match won by the Eagles 30-16. I’ll add them to this story later.
Non-league: Ellenville 39, Burke Catholic 23
99 pounds: no contest; 106: Jon Candelaria (E) won by forfeit; 113: Daniel Martin (BC) pin Joe Smith 2:53; 120: Miguel Candelaria (E) d. Martin Nowak 10-6; 126: Greg Avery (E) pin Bert Cohan 3:48; 132: Kurt Hefner (BC) pin Dylan Bonitz 2:26; 138: Brian Leahey (BC) pin Kyle Conner 5:50; 145: Jack Ehret (BC) won by forfeit; 152: Luis Arango (E) pin John Longo 3:30; 160: Chris Maerling (E) won by forfeit; 170: Javier Cortes (E) won by forfeit; 182: no contest; 195: no contest; 220: no contest; 285: Kyle Cox (E) won by forfeit.
Ellenville 48, Liberty 12
99 pounds: no contest; 106: Jon Candelaria (E) won by forfeit; 113: Joe Smith (E) pin Dylan Blackwell 2:17; 120: Miguel Candelaria (E) pin Luis Rivera 3:48; 126: David Lonstein (E) won by forfeit; 132: Vincent Webbe (L) pin Willie Bruce 1:44; 138: Kyle Conner (E) pin Ethan Porter :48; 145: no contest; 152: Ethan Lonstein (E) pin Matt Rourke 5:32; 160: Ken Krygier (E) won by forfeit; 170: no contest; 182: Andrew Martinez (L) pin Javier Cortez 3:15; 195: no contest; 220: no contest; 285: Kyle Cox (E) won by forfeit.
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