Long Island's first sanctioned girls wrestling dual meet is a winner as Bellport defeats Bay Shore to open season
Bellport’s Caitlin Maragioglio defeats Bay Shore’s Melania Turano in the 138 pound weight class during a Suffolk girls wrestling match on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Credit: Bob Sorensen
Caitlin Maragioglio has been wrestling since she was little.
Her father, Chuck, is Bellport’s wrestling coach and the vice president of the Suffolk County Wrestling Coaches’ Association.
She’s been wrestling competitively for about five years, but she had yet to wrestle in an official high school girls wrestling match. That’s because the sport didn’t officially exist in New York.
Until now.
On Wednesday at East Islip, Maragioglio was part of Long Island’s first sanctioned girls wrestling dual meet, as Bellport defeated Bay Shore, 35-22.
The Bellport sophomore defeated Melania Turano via 10-0 technical fall at 138 pounds.
“Finally getting the recognition for girls wrestling is huge,” Maragioglio said. “I would sit and watch boys wrestle my whole life and I would see a couple of girls (at wrestling meets) but none of them wrestled. . . . Girls wrestling being its own thing now, it means so much.”
This is the first year that girls wrestling is a New York State Public High School Athletic Association sanctioned varsity championship sport. The state girls wrestling invitational that has been held in Syracuse the last two years, as well as any girls wrestling events held on Long Island, were unofficial tournaments.
At the end of this season, the first official state tournament will be held on Feb. 27 at MVP Arena in Albany — the same week and location of the boys wrestling state tournament. The girls will also compete in a county tournament to qualify for the state championship. The girls will wrestle freestyle, as opposed to boys wrestling’s folkstyle.
“I’m looking forward to the county tournament, now that we finally have one,” said Bellport junior Aaliyah Morrow. “Seeing us be able to compete as a team, all the teams being there and seeing who wins. It’ll be fun, all of us girls being together.”
Morrow defeated Abethina Georges via 10-0 technical fall at 165 pounds.
Bellport and Bay Shore are two of six girls wrestling teams on Long Island, joined by Rocky Point, Town of Huntington, Copiague and MacArthur. The teams are comprised of several schools.
“A lot of these neighboring districts have girls that do offseason stuff and are very involved in wrestling,” Bellport coach Joe Scioli said. “We had a chance to all come together and form a solid team. The morale has been on the rise and they’ve all been excited to get out there with other girls and make history.”
Girls can still practice with their school’s boys team if their school doesn’t have a girls team yet. For instance, East Islip’s Makenna Corcoran wrestles on the Bay Shore girls team, but still practices with the East Islip boys. Corcoran is allowed to compete in individual girls tournaments throughout the season, but cannot compete in girls dual meets. She wrestled an exhibition match with Reilly Carpenter at 145 pounds and won via 16-5 technical fall.
Despite girls wrestling not being an official sport until this season, Bay Shore formed the first official girls team in the 2019-20 season. Coach Amber Atkins wrestled for the Bay Shore boys team from 2007-2010.
“The opportunities that the girls have now are kind of like what we dreamed of when I was younger,” Atkins said. “It’s a huge deal to me and to all the girls.”