Grapplers Dominate At Oceanside!

Brian Defliese is doding a great job stuffing this boy's head!

You would think it was a full-scale robbery, seeing how much precious metal the GC Grapplers Youth Wrestling Tournament Team made off with last Sunday at the annual Oceanside Tournament! By day's end, 13 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze Medals graced the necks of ALL 18 Grappler Tournament Team members.

The Grapplers' performance was nothing short of total DOMINATION, with 42 WINS out of 49 matches, including an unprecedented 28 (that's Twenty-Eight!) PINS! Outrageous!! (And one of the losses was a "Grappler vs. Grappler" finals match, in which obviously someone had to lose.)

The 3rd & 4th grade Midget group committed grand larceny as ALL 8 boys won ALL their matches and ALL grabbed the Gold! (Oh, yeah, they had 13 PINS out of 16 bouts!). Outstanding job, Midgets: Andrew Wood (pin; pin), Alex Wood (pin; pin), Timmy Schmelzinger (pin; pin), Johnny Simmons (pin; pin), and James Sullivan (pin; pin)! Lex Pinkiert, Quinn O'Rourke, and Andrew Toback each had one PIN as well.

The 5th & 6th grade Novice group came into town to continue the slaughter, as all 11 boys each dominated their 3 matches in 8-man brackets. Jack Reina, Eddie Gillespie, Quinn Knauer, Tom Cozier, and Matty Schmelzinger won all of their matches to grab Gold. Schmelzinger and Cozier are both so freakishly strong that they PINNED in all their matches! (Cozier does his business so quickly that our photographer wasn't able to get a shot of him; "Hey, Tom, drag it out a bit next time so we can get your picture in the paper!")

Danny Simmons did the "Gazoni" to PIN his opponent in his 1st match.

Danny Simmons and Louie Hernandez each won their first matches with PINS, then proceeded to win big in their second matches on points. Simmons wound up against fellow Grappler Tom Cozier in the finals . . . . Danny got the SILVER. Hernandez got a raw deal in a suspected referee mistake with points and took SILVER in the finals. (Louie's dad has the whole thing on tape, and the "tape don't lie!")

Thomas Reina, Matt Greene, Brian Defliese, and Matt Jarvis won 2 out of their 3 bouts to take home a Bronze, and they EACH had a sweet PIN in one of their victories!

Jack Reina diligently working on one of his 2 PINS of the day.

Town Team Novice Brett Stewart made an impressive showing in his first-ever tournament, winning all of his matches and earning a Gold medal! Town Team Midget David Leary, also in his first tournament, won Bronze. Keep up the great work, boys!

The Grapplers Tournament Team boys are turning it up a notch this week in practice as they prepare for the Nassau County NY State Qualifier this Sunday, Feb. 4th ! GO, GRAPPLERS!!

Matt Greene escapes out of referee's position - 1 point! Matty Schmelzinger completely immobilized his opponent; "He ain't goin' nowhere!" Brett Stewart works on getting some back points; Brett won Gold in his division in his first-ever tournament Golden "PIN Boys": John Simmons, Andrew Wood, Timmy Schmelzinger, and James Sullivan all pinned both their opponents to win Gold! Eddie Gillespie PINNED this dude!