Rocky Point girls wrestling beats Bay Shore in first quad meet of season

Long Island girls wrestling took another big step on Thursday, and it featured some of Suffolk’s elite talent on full display.

Rocky Point’s girls wrestling team beat Bay Shore, 42-18, at Bay Shore High School. All 10 matches ended in pins at the first of four girls wrestling quad meets this season.

“It shows how much the sport is growing. We didn’t have this at all last year. We had maybe three girls tournaments plus states,” Rocky Point wrestler Ava Capogna said. “This year we have dual meets, more tournaments, and it’s just getting bigger and bigger as the sport’s growing.”

The meet had Bay Shore and Rocky Point battle on one mat and Huntington against Bellport on the other. All four schools will host one of the quad meets this season as the sport prepares to be sanctioned by NYSPHSAA.

At the first quad meet, two of the top girls wrestlers on Long Island faced off in the fourth match.

Julianna Hernandez, who became the first girl to win a league wrestling title in Long Island history last year when she won the 110-pound title at the boys Suffolk League III wrestling tournament, faced Mora Peterson, who placed fourth in the boys Suffolk League VI championship last winter.

Hernandez pinned Peterson 25 seconds into the first round, stringing together Rocky Point pins for the first time in the meet.

“I think it’s awesome,” Hernandez said. "Girls wrestling really wasn’t anything until all the girls came together and joined. It’s one big thing now and it’s so fun.”

What stood out to Hernandez about her team, was that her teammates were pinning their opponents off of single-leg takedowns directly into pins.

Capogna pinned her opponent in the sixth match, triggering a string of three-consecutive pins that Madison Hernandez and Alexandra Viera followed.

“I’m just happy because we work hard every single day,” Viera said. “To see [my teammates] win is amazing.”

Llanna Garcia Orr, Ciella Alvarez and Brooklyn Murray secured pins for Bay Shore. Madison Hernandez had two pins, Julianna Hernandez added a pin, Capogna and Viera pinned their opponents, and Delilah Skurnik and Clover Vander Velvin secured pins for Rocky Point.

“I’ve been coaching men’s wrestling for 30 years, but the girls wrestling is a different animal,” Rocky Point coach Darren Goldstein said. “They know how to wrestle, they scrap with the best of them, but then they also have this way about them where it’s all about the sportsmanship and it’s all about the camaraderie. It’s a great thing for the wrestling community.”