The Huntington wrestling team finished third in the Miller Place Scramble Invitational on Saturday. The Blue Devils compiled 416 points, trailing only Sachem East (842.5) and Miller Place (639) and ahead of Walt Whitman (392), Center Moriches (338), Comsewogue (312) and Plainedge (293.5).
Khari McNeil won the 285 lb. weight class championship, defeating Sachem East’s Joe Caggiano in overtime, 3-1. Ryan Mock placed second at 120 lbs., falling to Sachem East’s Tyler Murray in the finals, 6-4.
Aedan McDonald (3rd place at 106 lbs.), Sean Flick (3rd place at 99 lbs.), Aidan McCooey (3rd place at 170 lbs.), Ryan Stieve (3rd place at 195 lbs.), Robert Simon (4th place at 182 lbs.), Kerwhin Valette Toirac (4th place at 195 lbs.) and Charles O’Rourke (8th place at 113 lbs.) were among Huntington’s top performers.
Tucker Grabs Silver Medal in College Debut
Huntington alum Infinite Tucker won his heat and took second place overall in a field of 12 in the 60m high hurdles at the Reveille Invitational at Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon.
Tucker went wire to wire in 7.99 seconds. The college freshman was edged by Houston sophomore Amere Lattin by 14/100ths of a second. Lattin crossed the finish line in a blazing fast time of 7.85.
Tucker won county, state and national indoor and outdoor titles for the Blue Devils. He graduated last June with Huntington’s Class of 2016. He’s studying construction science at Texas A&M, which has won four NCAA Division I outdoor team titles since 2009.
Blue Devils Rally for Overtime Victory
The Huntington girls’ basketball team allowed a 10 point lead to slip through its collective fingers before staging a rally in the closing seconds to force overtime and then rallying again in the extra frame to finally topple visiting Deer Park, 41-37 in a non-league game on Friday night.
The Blue Devils used a 10-2 second quarter run to build a 21-13 halftime lead, but struggled to score during much of the second half. Trailing by three points with eight seconds remaining in regulation, senior co-captain Emma Petrizzi dropped a long shot from beyond the arc to tie the game at 32-all and send the contest into overtime.
Huntington once again fell behind in the extra frame before senior co-captain Anna Gulizio nailed a three-pointer and then sunk three shots from the free throw line to give the Blue Devils a four point victory before a crowd of about 125.
Gulizio led Huntington with 11 points. Petrizzi had nine points and six steals. Katie Seccafico added five points and seven rebounds. Nicole Leslie pulled down 15 rebounds and scored five points and Torre Palmer tallied four points. Abby Maichin (three points), Charlotte Maggio (two points), Megan Byrnes (one point) and Paige Lennon (one point) all came off the bench to score crucial points for the Blue Devils.
JV Girls’ Volleyball Gains Experience
The Huntington JV girls' volleyball team gained experience this fall.
The Huntington junior varsity girls’ volleyball team was led by freshmen Isabella Toscano, Peyton Kalb and Steliani Vlahos. Carrie Postel coached the squad, which was captained by sophomore Annabella Matheus and junior Myasia Gaskin.
“Isabella is an aggressive natural leader,” Postel said. “Being a setter is like being the quarterback of a football team.”
Kalb was also cited for her sharp play. “Peyton is a fabulous passer,” Postel said.
Vlahos also played a key role on the team. “Steli helped with her passing and setting skills this year,” Postel said.
Huntington compiled a 2-13 mark, but the real goal this season was getting as many players involved in the program as possible and establishing a strong foundation of skills for the future.
The 16-player team notched victories over North Babylon and West Babylon by identical 2-1 scores. The Blue Devils started playing noticeably better toward the end of the season.
“We had a lot of first year players,” Postel said. “I’m hoping that they all return next year. We worked a lot on the basics of the game and toward the end of the season, we started playing as a team.”
Toscano led Huntington in assists, averaging six per game. Kalb led in “kills,” with four per game. Vlahos was the team’s best server, averaging four aces per game.
“I’m hoping that we have a lot of returnees next year,” Postel said. “We are going to lose some to the varsity team.”
