The Sewanhaka East wrestling team is comprised of student athletes from New Hyde Park Memorial and H. Frank Carey high schools. The 2009 / 2010 season started with much anticipation, the Beasts from the East were returning a strong team from the previous year.
The team was led by returning All-County Capt., Christian Dluginski, (Jr. NHP, 119lb), Capt.’s Kenny Richards, (Sr. NHP, 152lb), Oscar Rodriguez, (Sr. Carey, 160lb ), and Sal Manzo, (Sr. Carey, 130lb). The Team participated in tournaments at MacArthur H.S., Baldwin H.S., Valley Stream North H.S., and a double dual match at Carey H.S. where they finished a close 2nd to Chaminade H.S. They concluded their tournament season at Glen Cove and East Meadow.
The Beasts were in conference 1B and finished the year undefeated, beating Hicksville, Oceanside, Sewanhaka West, and Baldwin to capture the 1B title. The team playoffs were held at Uniondale H.S. where the team faced off against the Long Beach Marines.
The following week the Nassau County qualifiers were held at six separate locations, with Sewanhaka East competing at the Long Beach H.S. qualifier. The team wrestled against teams from Long Beach, Levittown Division, Valley Stream South, Glen Cove, Roslyn, Plainview and Roosevelt.
They finished in 3rd. place and sent 10 boys to the County Championships at Hofstra. All conference wrestlers that qualified for the County Champion Tournament where Milton Calderone at 112 lbs. (3rd place), Chris Dluginski at 119 lbs. (2nd place), Rob Zorn at 140 lbs. (3rd place), Kyle Anderson at 145lbs. (4th place), Kenny Richards at 152 lbs. (1st place), Jeff St.Macary at 152 lbs. (3rd place), Oscar Rodriquez at 160 lbs. (2nd place), Dave Johnson at 171 lbs. (3rd place), John Mert at 189 lbs. (1st place) and Greg Geotz at 215 lbs. (2nd place).
In February the boys were up against the Nassau County’s best, and the team finished in 18th place overall. Sewanhaka East had two wrestlers, Kenny Richards (4th place) and Chris Dluginski (6th place) finished the tournament with All County honors.
The coaching staff includes Mr. Bradley, Mr. McConnell and Mr. Romano. Also wrestling on the varsity team were Eric Vilchez at 96 lbs., Rob Annunziata at 125 lbs., John Humrich at 125 lbs., Kevin Fontana at 130lbs and Sean Magennis at 135 lbs.
