Fox Lane wrestlers advance to dual-meet semifinals

Finn Guyder works for a pin against Mamaroneck. Jim MacLean Photos

Luke Ryan makes it look easy with a quick pin.

By JIM MACLEAN 

Every year the Fox Lane wrestling program loses some key wrestlers to graduation, but then every year the Foxes seem to start the year off with an impressive run in the Section 1 Division 1 Dual-meet tournament, despite having a bunch of new faces on the mat.

Maynor Argueta lifts an opponent for a takedown.

Once again, Fox Lane is moving on to the semifinals even though they entered the tournament as the No. 12 seed. The Foxes opened the tournament with an easy win over Mamaroneck, and then came an upset win over No. 5 seed Somers on Thursday, Dec. 11. Next up was a quarterfinal match on the road on Tuesday against No. 4 seed Mahopac, and the Foxes pulled off another upset win by a score of 41-34.

Now, Fox Lane moves on to the semifinals at No. 1 seed Yorktown on Thursday, Dec. 18, with the winner advancing to the finals and the chance to earn the Section 1 dual-meet title and move on to the state tournament.

“I didn’t see this coming, every year our team is always in the hunt,” admitted Fox Lane coach Anthony Rodrigues. “It’s all about the matchups, and we matched up really well with Somers. Today, we caught a break; at 190 their kid was either sick or hurt. Our kids know I will do anything it takes to win the match and we decided to bump everyone up.”

The strategy worked as the Foxes moved everyone up a spot in the top five weight classes, and the result was six-straight victories to rally from behind for the victory at Mahopac.

Fox Lane had taken an early lead after Maynor Argueta won his match by pin and Piero DiNicola won his match by tech fall at 17-1 to give the Foxes an 11-6 lead.

It was short-lived as Mahopac won the next five bouts to pull ahead by a score of 34-11, but then it was Fox Lane’s turn to rally. Finn Guyder got the rally started as he bumped up to wrestle at 175 pounds and scored a 16-10 victory to make it 34-14, and Luke Ryan then won by forfeit for the Foxes at 190 to make it 34-20.

The Foxes then got two big pins as Christopher Bloom bumped up to 215 pounds and won his match with a quick pin, and then Andrew Brauning bumped up from 215 pounds to heavyweight for a bout against an opponent that outweighed him by 60 pounds. It didn’t matter as Brauning wasted no time with a quick first period pin to pull the Foxes within two points trailing 34-32 with two matches left to wrestle.

“I told Andrew we were going to do it and bump him up, and said he’s a really big kid and you don’t want him to get on top of you with all that weight,” Rodrigues said of the Brauning match. “Andrew took him down right away and that’s when I thought we could win. Andrew has gotten a lot of early pins for us. He’s like the quiet assassin, he doesn’t speak and just works really hard and goes out and wrestles.”

That left it up to the final two matches at 103 and 110 pounds, and freshman Joe D’Alisa and Flavio DiNicola came through for the Foxes. D’Alisa scored a 9-4 victory in his match at 103 pounds to give the Foxes the lead at 35-34. And then Flavio DiNicola secured the victory with a win by pin to make the final score 41-34.

“The two matches of the day were at 285 and 103 and we got those, and then Flavio had to win his match,” explained Rodrigues. “Flavio is getting better and better, and Joe is only a ninth grader. Those two guys were in high stakes matches with all the pressure on them, and they both wrestled really well.”

To get to the quarterfinals, Fox Lane pulled away for a 47-31 victory over Somers last Thursday after the Foxes scored a 48-29 win over Mamaroneck to start the day.

Fox Lane fell behind 6-0 against Mamaroneck, but then Carmelo Iaciofano, Argueta and Piero DiNicola won matches by pin to make it 18-6. The Tigers won two matches to make it 18-17, but the Foxes then reeled off five-straight victories by pin from Steven Morales-Palacios, Guyder, Ryan, Bloom and Brauning to pull away for the win.

It adds up to an impressive start to the season for a young team.

“We have a lot of freshmen and there is going to be ups and downs,” said Rodrigues. “The match of the day was Carmelo, he was losing and he came back and pinned the kid and that changed everything.”

After wrestling in the semifinals and finals Thursday at Yorktown, Fox Lane will then compete in the Port Chester tournament Saturday, Dec. 20.