Blue Devil Matmen Ready for Season
State champion John Arceri will lead the Huntington High School wrestling team into battle this winter as the Blue Devils look to improve upon last season’s eighth place county and fourth place league tournament finish.
Arceri will be joined by All-State teammate Joseph Puca, league champion Kyle Mock and league tournament place-winners Ryan Mock, Ethan Dwyer and Khari McNeil. The group forms the core of the squad.
Varsity veterans Ryan Postiglione, Jared Leake, Charlie Ehrman, Will Thomas, Chris Bierd, Jon Canas and Charlie Gadson are also returning. Eighth graders Aedan McDonald and Sean Flick are expected to see action in the varsity lineup, too.
While most of the lineup is set, there could be some minor movement between weight classes depending on the dual meet opponent or specific tournament. The Blue Devils have one of the strongest lower and middleweight contingents in Suffolk and will look for those wrestlers to score as many points for the team as possible.
A three-time county champion, Arceri compiled a 42-1 record as a junior and is 143-20 over the past four seasons on the varsity. He is the only Huntington freshman to ever win a Suffolk wrestling crown and is one of only six Blue Devil grapplers to win three Section XI titles.
Puca returns to the mat after going 39-8 on his way to taking third in the county tournament and sixth in the state. Kyle Mock is back after going 36-4 and finishing sixth in Section XI.
Dwyer is coming off a junior year campaign that saw the teenager compile a 33-6 mark and finish second in the league tournament before narrowly missing All-County honors. McNeil went 24-13 last winter and finished fourth in the league at 285 lbs. He gives Huntington an anchor at the top of the lineup.
Ryan Mock (31-9), Canas (23-10), Bierd (13-6), Thomas (12-10), Ehrman (7-5), Postiglione (9-12) and Gadson (4-9) are all expected to be better than ever and add much needed depth to the Blue Devils’ front line.
Huntington is 71-23 over the past eight seasons. During that span the Blue Devils won the league dual meet title in 2008, were co-champs in 2009, finished third in 2010, 2011 and 2015, placed fourth in 2014 and fifth in 2012. The team finished fourth in the league tournament in five of those seven years, was second in 2010 and third in 2013.
“Our goal is the same every year; league, county and state championships,” third year head coach Travis T. Smith said. “The competition will be challenging, just like has been in past season. We’re expecting a strong work ethic from everyone on the team during every practice.”
Huntington tallied 86.5 points in last year’s Section XI Division I tournament to finish eighth in the team standings. The Blue Devils went 14-4 in dual meets (5-2 in league meets) and scored 140 points in the Suffolk League V tournament to place fourth.
A perennial state power for more than four decades, Huntington has found it difficult to fill out every weight class in recent seasons.
Huntington has compiled a record of 584-167-7 (.775) in 66 seasons of competition. The Blue Devils have won 31 dual meet championships, been second nine times and third in six other seasons. Huntington has also won 23 league/conference tournament titles, finished second 12 different times and third in 10 seasons.
Huntington has won nine Section XI team crowns, been runner-up eight times and third 12 times. The Blue Devils have finished in the top five of the county tournament 43 times and in the top ten in 56 different seasons.
Huntington won the New York State Intersectional Tournament in 1973, 1976, 1980, 2002 and 2004.
“We are always optimistic entering a new season,” Smith said. “We have some of the best wrestlers in the state and we intend to push them as far as they can go.”