Sorry about the late updates everyone. The finals didn’t start until 6:45 and I didn’t leave TZ until well after 9. When I got to the office my laptop decided it didn’t want to connect to the internet, so all the results I’d painstakingly typed out during the tournament had to be retyped. I called my roommate, who knows computers, and in the middle of our conversation the phone cut out and wouldn’t reconnect. God I hate technology.

Anyway, you probably want to hear about Counties. As you can see from the team key below, North Rockland won it over Suffern in what was, as predicted, a two-team race. Both had four champions. The difference was that two of North Rockland’s champs (Cristian Garcia and Jon Didio) won by pin, netting extra points. All four Suffern champs won by decision. Although I must say, when Asher Kramer, Justin Artrip, and Nick Oliveto won the first three finals and Julian Negri took the 130 belt, I though Suffern had a stranglehold. Then you look at the rest of the brackets and remember that Suffern’s middle and heavier weights don’t stack up to the little guys

So behind Garcia, Didio, Marc Diaz, and Joe Slane, North Rockland rolled. The Red Raiders are hot. The last three weeks they’ve won Shoreline, beat all area teams at Kohl (placed 4th overall), and won Counties.

A couple of interesting storylines. One was the dominance of Suffern’s lower weights. So extreme was it that Oliveto’s 112 finals opponent was teammate Dan Ventarola. They’d never met in a tournament before. It was a normal match; nobody pulled punches. As soon as it was over they stood up and hugged.

Another story was the upset of Clarkstown North’s Andrew Greenberg (119) by Nanuet’s John Morato. Morato scored on him early and was on his way to a decision when he pinned him at the 3:00 mark. It earned him MOW.

The best match of the finals was Matt Pragdat’s 2-1 quadruple-overtime win over Matt Mancuso. Pragdat tied the score at 1-1 with an escape with 22 seconds left in regulation. The Clarkstown South junior evaded several shots by Mancuso in OT, and told me after that his heart leapt every time Mancuso dove. Eventually came the fourth and last OT period. The 4OT rule is that the person who starts on the bottom has to escape or they lose. The person on top just has to keep them down and he wins. Pragdat got bottom. With about 10 seconds left (the period is only 30 seconds long) he got his feet under him and stood. Mancuso was holding on like someone was stealing his teddy bear. Pragdat’s legs were spinning as he pried Mancuso’s arm off. It came loose with seconds to spare. His spinning legs turned into a victory lap as he ran, instinctively, across the mat. As I said in my article for tomorrow’s paper, it reminded me of Shaggy and Scooby running away, where the legs go 100 mph but the body goes nowhere, then they suddenly bolt away. Zoinks!

The last thing that caught my attention was Garcia bouncing back nicely after losing his first match of the season last weekend. I get into that in my article so you can read it there.

Oh, Steve Ramos (152) of North should get a shout-out. He pinned all three opponents, two of them in the first round.

Rockland County Championships
at Tappan Zee High School
Team scoring and key
1. North Rockland (NRk) 223; 2. Suffern (Sf) 215.5; 3. Clarkstown North (CN) 149; 4. Tappan Zee (TZ) 132; 5. Nanuet (N) 119; 6. Clarkstown South (CS) 110; 7. Nyack (Nk) 95.5; 8. East Ramapo (ER) 73; 9. Pearl River (54).

Semifinals
96 — Asher Kramer (Sf) pin. Matt Dillon (N), 28; Lucien Severe (ER) pin. Brian McLeverty (CS), 2:20. 103 — Mike Caputo (NRk) tech. fall Paul Fields (CN), 17-0; Justin Artrip (Sf) pin. Anthony Calvano (N), 4:58. 112 — Nick Oliveto (Sf) tech. fall Anthony Simini (NRk), 18-2; Dan Ventarola (Sf) dec. Nick Altomare (TZ) 9-3. 119 — Andrew Greenberg (CN) dec. Kervins Dor (ER), 3-2; John Morato (N) dec. Nick Giella (Sf), 14-7. 125 — Joe Slane (NRk) pin. JT Dale (CN), 2:54; David Bailen (Sf) maj. dec. Joe Lieberman (PR), 8-0. 130 — Chris Greeley (CN) dec. Greg Caneparo (N), 6-5 OT; Julian Negri (Sf) dec. Robert Henry (CN), 9-4. 135 — Udit Thakur (Nk) maj. dec. Dan Burgaleta (NRk), 6-0; Joe Maniscalco (TZ) dec. Mike Calabria (NRk), 8-3. 140 — Rob Kantrowitz (CN) pin. Bruce Rubin (CN), 2:42; Brandon Kafka (Sf) maj. dec. Tom Genovese (CS), 13-5. 145 — Matt Mancuso (NRk) dec. Phil Markin (CN), 5-3; Matt Pragdat (CS) dec. Dan Pragdat (CS), 2-1 OT. 152 — Steven Ramos (CN) pin. Matt Gonzalez (NRk), 3:35; Max Park (TZ) pin. Ethan Gomes (Sf), 5:17. 160 — Marc Diaz (NRk) dec. Chris Milliaressis (Sf), 7-0; Jose Vega (TZ) pin. Matt Freeman (NRk), :53. 171 — Sal Marchese (Nk) tech. fall Ron Ferman (NRk), 15-0; Gabe Guardarramas (TZ) pin. Mike Wagner (Sf), 3:33. 189 — Jon Didio (NRk) tech. fall Justin Vega (TZ) 16-1; Stephen Ramundo (N) pin. Joe Cummings (Nk), 4:49. 215 — Patrice Castor (ER) pin. Nick Ohrynowicz (CS), 1:16; Anthony Paratore (N) pin. Jimmy Emsworth (PR), 3:53. 285 — Cristian Garcia (NRk) pin. Nico Matos (CS), :35; Irmi Durandisse (Nk) pin. Berto Fijor (CS), 3:50.
Finals
96 — Kramer (Sf) dec. Severe (ER), 6-1; 103 — Artrip (Sf) dec. Caputo (NRk), 7-5; 112 — Oliveto (Sf) maj. dec. Ventarola (Sf), 12-4; 119 — Morato (N) pin. Greenberg (CN), 3:00; 125 — Slane (NRk) dec. Bailen (Sf), 6-0; 130 — Negri (Sf) dec. Greeley (CN), 7-2; 135 — Thakur (Nk) maj. dec. Maniscalco (TZ), 14-2; 140 — Kantrowitz (CN) dec. Kafka (Sf), 4-2; 145 — M. Pragdat (CS) dec. Mancuso (NRk), 2-1, 4OT; 152 — Ramos (CN) pin. Park (TZ), 1:13; 160 — Diaz (NRk) dec. Jose Vega (TZ), 7-1; 171 — Marchese (Nk) pin. Guardarramas (TZ), 3:09; 189 — Didio (NRk) pin. Ramundo (N), 2:54; 215 — Castor (ER) pin. Paratore (N), 1:14; 285 — Garcia (NRk) pin. Durandisse (Nk) 1:27.

Third place
96 — Dillon (N) tech fall McLeverty (CS) 19-3; 103 — Calvano (N) dec. Fields (CN) 8-4; 112 — Simini (NRk) maj. dec. Altomare (TZ) 10-2; 119 — Dor (ER) dec. Nick Giella (Sf) 5-1; 125 — Lieberman (PR) pin. Dale (CN) 2:08; 130 — Tom McGinty (NRk) tie Caneparo (N); 135 — Burgaleta (NRk) dec. Vinny Giella (Sf) 4-1; 140 — Genovese (CS) pin. Rubin (CN) 4:45; 145 — D. Pragdat (CS) dec. Markin (CN) 6-2; 152 — Gonzalez (NRk) dec. Gomes (Sf) 6-0; 160 — Milliaressis (Sf) dec. Freeman (NRk) 3-0; 171 — Tim Coyne (TZ) pin. Wagner (Sf) 4:52; 189 — Cummings (Ny) pin. Vega (TZ) 1:47; 215 — Ohrynowicz (CS) maj. dec. Matt Roeder (CN) 13-0; 285 — Matos (CS) dec. Fijor (CS) 7-5, OT.