One SWR wrestler receives wild card bid to states
After finishing third in the Section XI Championships Sunday, Shoreham-Wading River senior Dominic Pirraglia received one of four at-large bids to the state championship in Albany.
A 182-pound wrestler, Pirraglia will be making his first trip to the state championship, which will be held Feb. 28-March 1 at Times Union Center.
Junior James Szymanski is an alternate in the 120-pound weight class, which means another wrestler would need to bail either for injury or not making weight, according to Shoreham coach Joe Condon.
Szymanski, who also finished third at the state championship and is 47-3, has an impressive resume worthy of a state championship spot. But the numbers didn’t work in his favor. The at-large bids are determined on a formula, which includes prior finishes in sectional and state meets, as well as record and the section where the wrestler competes.
Szymanski finished fifth earlier this season at the Eastern States Classic, a tournament many consider more challenging than the state tournament because of the number of top-tier wrestlers that compete in it.
Pirraglia is 44-4 this season.
Last year Shoreham’s T.J. Fabian received an at-large bid after finishing third in the county meet and went on to win the state title, becoming the fourth Shoreham wrestler in program history to win a state crown.
