By Stephen Sair
This past weekend Manhasset High School senior Nick Tannuzzo captured the Nassau County Wrestling title at the 120-pound weight class. Tannuzzo became the first Manhasset wrestler in school history to win a Division One county title.
The two day tournament took place at the Mack Arena at Hofstra University and featured the best wrestlers in Nassau County from 42 high schools. Tannuzzo entered the tournament as the number two seed in the weight class. Tannuzzo dominated his first two opponents on day one, winning both matches by pin. In the semifinal match, on day two, Tannuzzo defeated Christian Encarncion from Wantagh High School by a score of 4-3. Encarncion was a returning Nassau County runner-up from 2017. Tannuzzo trailed the entire match and was able to secure a late take-down with 10 seconds left on the clock to win the match and advance to the finals.
In his finals match, Tannuzzo defeated another county runner up from 2017, Port Washington’s Dan Gibson. Tannuzzo was able to pull out the win in triple overtime to capture the Nassau County Crown.
Tannuzzo’s current record on the season is 32 wins and no losses. He will be competing at the New York State championship tournament on Feb. 23 and 24 at the Times Union Center in Albany.
Also placing third in the tournament was senior Jared Gudino. Gudino dropped a hard-fought 5-4 decision in the semifinal round to the eventual champion. After his semifinal defeat, Jared was able to win his next two matches and finish in third place, which is All County. Gudino finished his high school career as a two-time All County wrestler and is the second wrestler in Manhasset school history to reach the Century Club. In order to qualify for the club the wrestler must earn 100 wins in his career.
The Manhasset wrestling team also had its highest place finish in history. The team came in 10th place out of 42 teams that participated in the two-day tournament.
2018 Nassau County Wrestling Championships Division 1 at Hofstra University, Feb. 10-11 results:
Team Scores
1. Wantagh ………………………………. 291
2. Massapequa ……………………… 264.5
3. Freeport ………………………………. 156
4. MacArthur ………………………… 148.5
5. Long Beach ………………………….. 144
6. Uniondale …………………………. 143.5
7. Bellmore JFK ……………………….. 121
8. Plainedge ………………………….. 107.5
9. Farmingdale ………………………… 100
10. Manhasset ……………………………. 82
