Part of St. Anthony's "Triple Threat" is out before he wrestles
Melville, NY, Monday Feb. 15, 2010: St. Anthony's Jimmy Morris(yellow) trying mount the points while keep control of Mt St Michael's Donovan Melendez during their match Monday Feb. 15 during the CHASS State Wrestling Finals at St. Anthony's High School. Brienza went on to win the match. This is the 103lb weight class Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Jimmy Morris, the 112-pound member of St. Anthony's Triple Threat (which consists of All State wrestlers Chris Brienza, Morris and Grant Greene in consecutive weight classes), is out of the tournament before he's even wrestled.
Morris failed to make weight this morning, giving Longwood's Malik Rasheed (the fifth seed at the weight) a bye into the quarterfinals.
Morris (pictured, right), a junior who only began wrestling as a freshman, placed third at 103 pounds last season. He was 42-3 this season and won his second straight CHSAA state title two weeks ago.
Losing Morris is a big blow to the Friars' chances of winning the state title. Seven of their wrestlers qualified for the tournament by winning the CHSAA states — to put that in perspective, Glenn, the Suffolk champ, only qualified three.
But losing Morris cuts that number to six and Jamel Hudson already lost in the first round at 130 pounds, leaving just five in the main draw with Brandon Meisner (160), Paul Alessandrini (189) and Jon Desir (285) yet to wrestle.
(*Update: Morris' mishap didn't seem to affect the rest of the Triple Threat, as both Brienza and Greene won by technical fall in their first-round matchups.)
