Bayport-Blue Point Wins Team Title, Crowns Six Champions at County Tournament

Bayport-Blue Point walked away with a team title at this year’s Division II Section XI Doc Fallout county tournament, scoring 359.5 points and crowning six champions.

The field was jam packed with Phantom wrestlers, with 11 of the 16 county final matches consisting of at least one Bayport grappler, and sometimes two.

“We had a great tournament,” said Bayport head coach Rich Reilly. “Our one and two seeds did a good job as I thought they would.”

Among Bayport-Blue Point’s county champions were Justin Underwood (112), Ryan Hake (125), Kyle McGovern (119), Kyle Underwood (130), Jeff Purdy (135), and Brandon Thomas (140 pounds).

Purdy, who is now 31-4 on the season, was name Outstanding Wrestler for Division II. Hake, Underwood and Purdy are also all returning county champions.

Thomas was one of a couple wrestlers with the unfortunate task of battling his own teammate, beating Ralph Fabiani, 10-3.

“When you wrestle a teammate you don’t want to go too hard, but you still want to win a county title,” said Thomas.

“I tell the guys to understand what’s at stake here,” Reilly added. “If you go out there and start wrestling too passive, that’s when you make mistakes.”

Thomas, who transferred from Sachem East prior to the season, may not have wrestled this far if he competed at Sachem in Division I.

“It’s a lot different,” he said. “I’m sure I could have came to counties, but I’m not sure if I would have had the same results.”

All wrestlers who placed will make an appearance at the New York State championship in Albany in two weeks.

Finishing in behind Bayport-Blue Point for total points was Center Moriches (200), (190), Port Jefferson (157) and Babylon (150).

Mattituck's Filipowski was named Champion of Champions and Purdy was named Most Outstanding Wrestler.

Section XI Division II County Champions

96: Nick Czelatica (Southampton)

103: Mike Menzer (Center Moriches)

112: Justin Underwood (Bayport)

119: Kyle McGovern (Bayport)

125: Ryan Hake (Bayport)

130: Kyle Underwood (Bayport)

135: Jeff Purdy (Bayport)

140: Brandon Thomas (Bayport)

145: Jeff Strider (Mattituck)

152: Sal Spitaleri (Center Moriches)

160: Tomasz Filipowski (Mattituck)

171: Chris Clark (Port Jefferson)

189: Brandon Lake (Mattituck)

215: Nick Brennan (Babylon)

285: Connor Murphy (Center Moriches)