LoHud.com Wrestling: Nanuet shuffles lineup, tops Edgemont for title

VINCENT Z. MERCOGLIANO

SCARSDALE ? Despite being the defending champions in Division 2, the Nanuet wrestling team came into Monday?s Section 1 Dual Meet tournament championship feeling a bit slighted.

The Golden Knights were considered by many to be the second-best team in Division 2 after Edgemont ? a team that returned its entire lineup after placing second in the section last season.?Hearing that they were the favorites really made us determined to beat them,? junior Dan Breit said. ?Even though we lost four kids (who qualified for states), we had a lot of young potential that we knew was going to give us a boost over a lot of teams.?

With its 49-32 win over the Panthers in a matchup that had been anticipated all offseason, Nanuet proved it still deserves to be considered the cream of the crop.?Both teams were a little depleted today, so I don?t know if you can call this a true championship,? Nanuet coach Carmine Serra said. ?But we?ll take it.?

Sophomore Chris Kim

The buzz before the match even began was the absence of key wrestlers from each side. Most notably, Nanuet was without multiple state-qualifier Anthony Calvano and Edgemont was missing two of the Aslanian brothers, Tyler and Trey. All three were out sick.The Panthers took advantage of Calvano?s absence from the get-go. Not having him forced the Golden Knights to move some guys around, and the result was four wins in the first five matches from 126-152 pounds to give Edgemont an early 20-4 lead.

?We expected that,? Serra said. ?A couple of our guys there were replacement kids, and they were wrestling some of their tougher kids. … We told our heavier weights, you guys are going to determine how this goes, and they responded.?

Nanuet?s fortunes began to turn when Mike Buhlmann defeated Oliver Oks at 160 pounds due to an injury default. That was considered to be one of the biggest swing matches of the meet, but Buhlmann earned his team six points when Oks hurt his right knee.Next up, Peter Smith pulled off a dramatic pin of Chris Kim with just 24 seconds remaining in the final period. That cut Edgemont?s lead to 20-16, and then the Panthers forfeited three of the next four matches to give Nanuet a commanding lead

?When you give up 24 points in forfeits, and then injury default another weight, that?s a tough dual meet to win no matter how you perform,? Edgemont coach Peter Jacobson said.

The most exciting match of the day came at 220 pounds. Danny Kornberg has been a force in that weight class so far this season for Edgemont, while Breit is one of the Golden Knights top wrestlers at 195. In order to avoid giving up too many points to Kornberg, Serra made the wise decision to bump Breit up.

?My coach mentioned it to me,? Breit said of wrestling Kornberg. ?I realized that I had a pretty good shot of going against him. I just had to take my shots and watch out for his throws. … It?s a little difficult because he has nearly 30 pounds on me, but it was going to help my team a lot if I beat him.?Breit maintained a one-point through the first two periods, and then managed to counter enough of Kornberg?s shots in the third period to pull out a 7-4 decision. With the Aslanian?s missing at 99 and 113 pounds, respectively, Breit?s win effectively ended Edgemont?s chances.

The win puts the clear target on Nanuet?s back for the rest of the season, but Serra does not plan on letting his lose sight of its ultimate goal ? winning another section title.?We?ll yell at them tomorrow and tell them that they?re doing something wrong and make them run extra,? he said with a smile.