When Rocco Futia took his loss in the Section 9 Division I 118-pound semifinal, his opponent – Warwick’s Alex Greco – told Futia he’d get him a shot to the state tournament.

Greco won his title match and gave Futia his shot, and the Wallkill High School junior took advantage of it, pinning Minisink Valley’s Sofia Macaluso, clinching a berth in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament on Feb. 25 and 26 at the MVP Arena in Albany.

“It feels great,” Futia said. “I’ve worked so hard for this, and after my dream was crushed to be section champ this year, but I knew the next best thing was true second.”

Futia is one of five area wrestlers to qualify for the state tournament. The Valley Central Vikings are sending three wrestlers: Luke Satriano (102), Nick Weeden (110) and Sebastian Vidacovich (126). It is the first time the Vikings are sending multiple wrestlers since the mid-2000s.

“That’s awesome,” Valley Central coach Robert Leonard said. “The most we’ve had in the last 10 years is one guy at a time. We’ve got three guys going. It’s amazing.”

Pine Bush’s Braydon Pennell also won his true second match to clinch a berth in the state tournament.
The top two wrestlers in each weight class earn a berth at states this year, but true second matches became necessary if the loser in the championship match – which placed second – didn’t defeat the third-place finisher in the tournament, then they wrestled off for the spot in the tournament.

The true second matches had no bearing on the tournament results or team scores.

That set up Futia’s match with Macaluso. She took a 3-0 lead on him, but Futia turned the tables and pinned her in the third period.

“I wasn’t worried about nothing,” Futia said. “I trusted my positioning and got to where I love to be, in that front head position, and I finished it.”

When the official’s hand slapped the mat, Futia ran out of the circle jumped into the waiting arms of Wallkill coach Anthony Ng.

“I had to go run to my coach,” Futia said. “He’s done so much for me this year, and I can’t thank him enough.”
Futia’s win came immediately after his brother, Marco Futia was denied a trip to states at 102 pounds when he was pinned in the first true second match of the night by Newburgh’s Cooper Merli in 3:54.

The finals got off to a great start for Valley Central as Satriano, a freshman, met up with Merli for the third time this year. Satriano had won their previous two meetings.

He beat Merli, 6-2, to win his first section championship.

“I was very excited and very nervous, but I knew I was going to get it done,” Satriano said. “I’ve wrestled Cooper multiple times throughout the season, and I just did what I had to do.”

Weeden followed with an 8-1 victory over Minisink Valley’s Wyatt Boice.

“It feels great,” Weeden said. “Like all the work I put in finally comes to show.”

The Vikings had wrestlers in three of the first four final bouts, but Vidacovich lost his championship match to Minisink Valley’s Anthony Tresch. He didn’t have to wrestle for true second as he had previously beat third-place finisher, Monroe-Woodbury’s Grant Barczak in the semifinals.

Pennell led his 189-pound final over Minisink Valley’s Andrew Filip for most of the first two periods. He scored a takedown in the first and then Filip made an escape early in the second. Filip then scored a reversal with 20 seconds left in the second to take a 3-2 victory.

Pennell came back to clinch his state berth, beating Goshen’s Max Winkler, 6-2.

Pine Bush’s Brooke Tarshis won a Section 9 championship in the girls’ division, pinning FDR’s Aleah Shron in 1:05.