Julia Smit update

While Stanford is a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tourney, the school has some other highlights going on at the same time. Here's an update on Mount Sinia's Julia Smit:

http://www.cstv.com/sports/c-swim/stories/032008aan.html

SWR's Kevin Williams and Roger Clemens

If you've ever been to a SWR baseball game, you've noticed the field is named in honor of Kevin Williams, a former baseball player who died on 9/11 while working in the World Trade Center. Williams was a two-time All-League player back in '94-'95.

George Vecsey of the NY Times wrote a story today about Williams and Roger Clemens. It's worth a look:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/sports/baseball/16vecsey.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin

College lacrosse update

I wanted to post a clarification from an earlier post a few weeks back when I wrote about Shoreham grads Brittany Davis and Kristen Anderson facing each other in college (Delaware and Rutgers). Well I had said Davis didn't play in the game, but she did. The boxscore on Rutgers' Web site listed the subs as 0:00 minutes, causing my confusion, but it just didn't track the actual playing time. So she was in there and has played in all four of Delaware's games thus far. My apologies.

She did score her first collegiate goal March 8 and started in a win against St. Bonaventure, which just so happens to be my alma mater. Karma, I suppose. Fellow Shoreham grad Emily Schaknowski scored three goals and had three assists in the win, adding further misery to my Bonnies. Davis' first goal came with 20:52 left in the first half to make it 3-0. Delaware went on to win, 16-9.

Wait till they have to trek up to Olean, N.Y. to play a game. It won't be so easy then.

Keith, Neidhart place third

Steven Keith bounced back from his semifinal loss to take third place, beating both Jake Benedetto and Brandon Escobar. In the wrestelback semifinals he beat Benedetto 5-0 and then defeated Escobar 7-3. Escobar placed fourth.

T.J. Neidhart placed third as well with a 5-3 win against Mick Letcher of East Syracuse Minoa (Section III). Neidhart, who made his first state tournament appearance since 8th grade, won two wrestleback matches to claim third.

Matt Ross and Zach Buonaiuto both won their final matches as well to place fifth. Ross beat Tim Schaefer in the consolation final, 2-1, the same wrestler he beat in the quarterfinals by fall. Buonaiuto hung for a 2-0 win for fifth against Jared Myhrberg. Buonaiuto became the first Miller Place wrestler to place in the state tournament.

By placing in the top six, five of the six SunLand wrestlers to compete in the tournament earned All-State honors.

Wrestleback Semifinal Matchups

96 pounds:

Matt Ross vs. Brian Realbuto, eighth-grader from Somers (Section I)

Ross falls 6-3 to Realbuto so he'll wrestle for fifth/sixth place against either Damon McQueen or Tim Schaefer. Ross beat Schaefer in the quarterfinals and he met McQueen in the league and county finals, going 1-1. 

112 pounds:

--Brandon Escobar vs. Peter Morales, senior from Grand Street Campus

Escobar wins 7-1 and now has a chance to equal his third-place finish from a year ago.

--Steven Keith vs. Jake Benedetto, senior from Islip

Keith wins 5-0, making it two straight against his Suffolk County rival. Now he'll face Escobar for third place. Keith said yesterday he hoped for one more match against Escobar. Well, he's got it.

145 pounds:

T.J. Neidhart vs. Jeff Goff, senior from Penfield (Section V)

Neidhart wins 3-2, riding a late third-period takedown to the third/fourth consolation finals later today. Neidhart led 1-0 for most of the match before Goff tied it with an escape point. Neidhart responded right back with a shot at the legs to lift Goff up and take him down for two. Goff added a late escape point for the final margin but it was too late.

Buonaiuto next to fall, no state champs

Miller Place junior Zach Buonaiuto lost a 14-5 major decision at 189 against Josh Peters, a senior from Vestal (Section IV). That's it for the semifinals. SunLand wrestlers went 0-4 this morning, so the best we'll have is a third place finisher.

Neidhart falls as well

Shoreham junior T.J. Neidhart dropped an 11-2 major decision to Donnie Vinson, a senior from Whitney Point, in the 145 semifinals. Vinson controlled action for most of the match. Neidhart's best moment came in the second period when he rode on top, but couldn't squeeze any points out of it. Neidhart falls to the wrestlebacks now and will wrestle again sometime around 1 p.m.

Zach Buonaiuto, the last hope for a SunLand state title winner, is on deck.

Ross, Keith go down

Back in here Rochester for day two. We're only 20 minutes into action and two wrestlers have already lost.

Matt Ross was pinned in his semifinal match in 4:23 by Sean McCormick of Johnson City. McCormick meets Bob Dierna of Wayne for the 96 pound championship.

A surprising match followed when Steven Keith lost 8-3 to Justis Flamio of Mahopac. Keith's bid for a second straight state title is over. Now he'll have to come back and fight for third.

Keith will now face Islip's Jake Benedetto in a rematch of the Section XI final. Benedetto lost in the quarterfinals to Nick Arajau of Syosset before winning two wrestleback matches. The winner of that match wrestles for third/fourth place. Brandon Escobar will meet Peter Morales of Grand Street Campus on the other side. Escobar, who lost in the quarters to Flamio, won two wrestleback matches as well.

So there's still a chance we could see an Escobar/Keith match one more time, although not exactly as either wrestler would have hoped.

Our last hope for a state champion falls to T.J. Neidhart and Zach Buonaiuto. Both will have their hands full to do so. Neidhart meets Donnie Vinson, who easily beat Ray Powers in the first round. If Buonaiuto can get past Josh Peters, waiting in the finals will likely be Hunter Meys, a state champion last year at 171 pounds. He was also the Most Outstanding Wrestler. Meys has recorded two pins thus far, including a 28 second throwdown in the quarterfinals.

Wrestlebacks: Powers' season ends

Mount Sinai senior Ray Powers saw his season come to an end Saturday after he fell 9-2 against Seth Elvin in a wrestleback. After a thrilling county title run, Powers went 0-2 in the state tournament.

Powers trailed 3-0 against Elvin in the third period before scoring a reversal to close within one. Elvin answered back with a reversal and took control from there, running off six straight points to close out the match.

Four wrestlers advance to semi's

It was a fantastic showing on day one of the state wrestling championship in Rochester. There are still wrestlebacks to follow which will likely go late into the night.

But the quarterfinals are just about wrapped up and four out of six SunLand wrestlers went 2-0 today to close within two more wins of a state title. Matt Ross, Steven Keith, T.J. Neidhart and Zach Buonaiuto are all done for today and will be back early tomorrow in hopes of becoming a state champ. All are guaranteed an All-State honor by finishing in the top six.

The only wrestler to lose his first match was Ray Powers. Brandon Escobar fell in the quarterfinals to Justis Flamio, so he'll wait to wrestle the winner of Taylor Laraia and Juliano Pabon. Escobar will need to win four more matches to take third place. If he makes it to the third/fourth place match, he may meet fellow Suffolk County wrestler, Jake Benedetto of Islip. Benedetto lost to top-seeded Nick Arujau, 4-0.

I've been meaning to mention how strange it is that no Longwood wrestlers are represented here. In the semifinals we have three of our schools (RP, SWR, MP). The Lions were the best team of any of our local schools and had the highest finish in the county tournament (5th). Unfortunately that depth didn't translate into any individual honors. They Lions were without a county champion and didn't see any of their wrestlers earn an at-large bid. For as good as the Lions were, you would have thought that somehow, someway, at least one of their wrestlers would make it to the states. You'll remember they didn't have any wrestlers at the state tourney last year either.

But with a real good core of young wrestlers, I'm sure we'll see plenty of green at the upcoming state tournaments. 

When you talk about Longwood the name that comes up a lot these days is Nicky Hall, the seventh-grader who won the league and placed fifth in the county. How great would it be if he ends up in the same weight class down the road as Tim Schaefer, the seventh-grader from Lancaster who lost to Matt Ross in the semi's. (Hall wrestled at 103 this year). That could be a great matchup a few years down the road, when both of them move up into high school. It's always tough to predict how a kid's going to grow, though. It could end up by the time they're sophomores and juniors that they're a few weight classes apart.

Quarterfinals: Buonaiuto vs. Myhrberg, 189

Period 1:

Injury clock for Myhrberg, but he's back.

2-0 Myhrberg, late in the first.

End 1. 2-0 Myhrberg

Period 2:

Zach lifts up Myhrberg and tosses him, riding on top now looking for two points.

:53—Myhrberg starts down on restart.

End 2. Still 2-0, Zach trails.

Period 3:

Zach starts down. 

1:32—Neautral start. Time is running out.

Zach, shot at left leg, picks up and takes him down for 2. 

Zach takes a 3-2 lead. Riding on top.

:47—Myhrberg starts down. Zach gets back on top as clock winds down. This is where Zach's strength comes into play. Myhrberg can't break free.

FINAL: 3-2 Buonaiuto

Quarterfinals: Neidhart vs. Martin, 145

Here we go, can T.J. Neidhart join Steven Keith in semi's?

Period 1:

2-0 Neidhart on a takedown, 1:45

Martin is shaking up at 1:17, but appears to be ready to go. He'll start down on a restart.

5-0 Neidhart.

5-1, :30.

7-1, takedown :20

End 1: 7-1 Neidhart

Period 2:

7-3  Neidhart couldn't finish a shot and it allowed Martin to get in position for two.

8-3 Escape, 1:40

10-3, takedown, 1:09

13-3, near fall, 1:00

Neidhart is looking a lot sharper than his first match, which is exactly what you'd hope for as the tournament continues.

He's closing in on a tech. fall if he can keep the pressure on.

:20—Martin starts down on restart.

13-4

End 2. 13-4 Neidhart.

Period 3

14-4

16-4 on takedown, 1:25 to go.

:47—Martin starts down on restart.

16-6. Neidhart gets in trouble momentarily after Martin scores  a reversal. Neidhart manages to break free though and he'll be on his way to the semifinals along with teammate Steven Keith.

17-6, escape.

FINAL: 17-6 Neidhart

Quarterfinals: Ross and Keith advance

Matt Ross (96) and Steven Keith (112) are headed to the semifinals.

Ross, who trailed 2-0 into the third period, came back to pin top-seeded Tim Schaefer in 4:30. Ross had been working from behind most of the match before taking control with one quick move in the third, a dramatic shift to propel himself to the next round tomorrow morning. (Pictured right is Ross' pin).

Keith, a returning state champion, will face Justis Flamio in the semifinals tomorrow after beating Zeke Thompson 10-0 in the quarterfinals. Keith dominated both his matches today and is in position to make a run at another state title tomorrow.

It looked like Keith would meet familiar rival Brandon Escobar in the semi's, but Escobar fell 4-2 to Flamio. Escobar trailed 2-0 before tying it on a reversal with 1:35 left in the third. Flamio came back to take a 4-2 lead with :42 left and hung on for the victory.

Escobar falls to the wrestlebacks and will try to equal his third-place finish in last year's state championship.

Keith has beaten Flamio, a sophomore from Mahopac before. He beat him at the Eastern States this year and in the state tournament last year at 96 pounds.

There seems to be some confusion over the Arujau-Benedetto match. I orginally heard Arujau won, but an updated bracket has Benedetto as the winner. The announcer just said that it was Arujau who won, so that's who I'm going with. I believe it was a 4-0 win. Arujau was the top seed and is undefeated this year. (Sorry for any confusion those of you who were refreshing often. There are eight matches going on at the same time, so it's hard to track everyone).

Neidhart vs. Barriero, 145

Shoreham-Wading River junior T.J. Neidhart came back from a late one-point deficit to defeat Phillip Barriero, a senior from Massena (Section V). Neidhart trailed 4-3 with about 25 seconds left before coming back to score two with four seconds left. As the match ended it wasn't clear if Barriero had scored before the end or if the match would continue. Two referees discussed it and ruled the match was over and Neidhart had won.

Neidhart led 2-0 and 2-1 after one period. Barriero tied it in the second with an escape point. Neidhart went back ahead 3-2 in the third before Barriero scored two to take his first lead, 4-3, with about 25 seconds left.

Neidhart advanced to the quarterfinals where he'll face Paul Martin, who beat Joey Gambino.

Buonaiuto vs. Ashley, 189

Miller Place junior Zach Buonaiuto scored an impressive pin against top-seeded Jon Ashley, a senior from Massena of Section V. He jumped out to an 8-0 lead before scoring the pin in 2 minutes, 41 seconds.

The first round is just about completed. Five out of the six wrestlers won and will compete in the quarterfinals.

Mount Sinai senior Ray Powers was pinned in his first round matchup against Donnie Vinson. He was pinned in 4:49 and falls to the wrestlebacks where he'll face Seth Elvin of Fairport of Section V.

Escobar vs. Rueckle, 112

Rocky Point senior Brandon Escobar is up at 112 against Erik Rueckl, a freshman from Union-Endicott of Section IV.

Period 1

:55—Neutral start, no points yet.

2-0 Escobar on takedown, :47

:19—Rueckl starts down. Escobar in control, using his strength to hold Rueckl down.

End 1. 2-0 Escobar

Period 2

Escobar starts down.

4-0 Escobar, reversal, 1:39.

5-0

End 2. Esco still holding a 5-0 lead.

Period 3

Esco starts down.

6-0, escape point, 1:45

:25—Neutral start.

FINAL—6-0 Escobar

SunLand wrestlers are 3-0 so far as Brandon Escobar wins his first round matchup 6-0 against Erik Rueckle. In the quarterfinals he'll face Justis Flamio, a sophomore from Mahopac in Section I. Flamio pinned Aaron Brown in 5:55 in the first round.

As mentioned before, the 112 bracket was changed, so if Keith and Escobar both win their quarterfinal matches, they'll face each other in the semi's. As it was originally drawn up, they couldn't have faced each other until the finals. The good news is, if they meet in the semi's, we're guaranteed a wrestler making the finals. The 112 bracket is the best chance for a SunLand wrestler to reach the finals and potentially win it.

I would rank Ross at 96 as the next best chance to reach the finals.

Keith vs. Waldmiller, 112

Shoreham-Wading River junior Steven Keith is up next at 112 against Matt Waldmiller of Lancaster in Section VI.

Period 1:

2-0 Keith, takedown, 1:24. Keith on top, holding Waldmiller facedown. 

:35—Waldmiller starts down on restart. Keith back on top, with Waldmiller facedown.

End 1. 2-0 Keith.

Period 2. Keith starts down.

1:32—Keith starts down again. Escape point for Keith. 3-0, 1:25

5-0 Keith, :54

:30—Waldmiller starts down. Keith flips him over, swings him facedown again. 

End 2. 5-0 Keith.

Period 3

7-0 Keith, 1:32

1:17—Waldmiller starts down.

7-1, Escape by Waldmiller.

7-3, takedown.

8-3, escape by Keith, :15

:05—Neutral start.

FINAL— 8-3 Keith.

Keith advances to face Zeke Thompson of West Genesse, the wrestler Escobar had originally been scheduled to face. Thompson pinned Justin Skretny from Pioneer in 5:05.

Ross vs. Connolly, 96

First up we have Rocky Point freshman Matt Ross against eighth-grader Shane Connolly from Warwick Valley in Section IX.

Period 1:

Ross is the first Suffolk County wrestler into action.

Ross takes early control. 

1:10 a neutral start. 

:50 neutral start

Connolly is trying to take some low shots, but with no luck. Ross is ready for it.

Ross gets 2. :15  2-0 Ross

End 1. 

Period 2

Ross in trouble, Connolly gets on top.

1:08: Ross starts down on restart.

Ross is still down, but not giving up points.

:08: Ross starts down on restart

Period ends with Ross still in front 2-0. Lucky, though.

Period 3

Ross gets back on top. He flips Connolly on his back and gets three. 5-0 Ross. 

1:07: Connolly starts down. Ross is in control here with under a minute left.

8-0 Ross, near fall.

FINAL: 8-0 Ross

Suffolk County is 1-0 so far. Matt Ross picked up his first career win in the state tournament by dominating the third period against Shane Connolly. Ross ran into trouble in the second period, but didn't lose any points in the process. So Ross advances to the quarterfinals and will wrestle again at approximately 2:30 p.m.

Ross will face top-seeded Tim Schaefer, a seventh-grader from Lancaster of Section VI. Schaefer won a 12-3 major decision against Anthony Mirra, a senior from Tottenville.

This kid must be pretty legit if he's beating a senior in the state championship.

Parade of Champions underway

Each section is on its way out, led by hometown Section V which received the largest cheers on another snow-filled day. Section XI got nice a cheer before the private and Catholic schools were called out.

Space is a lot tighter at this year's championship, so us scribes are up top in a hockey press box. Unfortunately I forgot my binoculars, so I don't know how we'll I'll be able to see everything...

There are eight mats set up, with half for Division I and the other half for Division II.

We're about 15 minutes away from wrestling.

A real nice crowd is assembled here already by 10:15 a.m. with more than 10 hours of wrestling ahead.

Rochester, not to be mistaken for Palm Springs

I've settled in here in Rochester in preparation for Saturday's start to the 2008 New York State Wrestling Championship. As predicted, there's a lot of snow. Too much snow. More snow in the few hours that I've been here than Long Island's received all year. I checked in my hotel around 5:30, took a quick nap, checked some e-mails and then went out to get a bite to eat. In two hours my car had about four inches of snow piled on it...

So for all of you on Long Island trying to endure a day of rain, just remember, you could be stuck in Rochester, where it's guaranteed to snow 323 days a year.

The Blue Cross Arena, where the wrestling tournament is taking place, is a nice little arena and should be a good host for the tournament. With that said, I still don't think NYSPHSAA should schedule state tournaments for Rochester or Buffalo during the winter months. The weather is just always going to be terrible. It's guaranteed. Every time. Always. It snows, then snows some more, a little more after that and then some more for good measure. I'll take Albany as my pick every year for the tournament if it can't be on Long Island where it's snowed about three days all winter.

As for the actual wrestling, the first round will start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and I'll be there to provide updates throughout the day. I know it's raining on Long Island, so you have no reason to do anything but keep your computer at your side all day to check for updates.

Here's a timetable for Saturday's wrestling:

10 a.m. -- Parade of Champions/National Anthem

10:30-2:30 p.m.. -- Preliminaries

2:30-4:30 p.m. -- Quarterfinals

4:30-6:30 -- Wrestlebacks

6:30-8:30 -- Wrestlebacks

Here are the first-round matchups for locals:

96: Matt Ross (RP) vs. Shane Connolly (Warwick Valley)

112: Steven Keith (SWR) vs. Matt Waldmiller (Lancaster)

112: Brandon Escobar (RP) vs. Erik Rueckle (Union-Endicott)

145: T.J. Neidhart (SWR) vs. Phillip Barriero (Massena)

145: Ray Powers (MS) vs. Donnie Vinson (Whitney Point)

189: Zach Buonaiuto (MP) vs. Jon Ashley (Massena)

It looks like the 112 bracket was changed. Keith had originally been seeded No. 1, but now the latest bracket has Syosset's Nick Arajau has the No. 1. Keith could now face Escobar in the semifinals. He wouldn't face Arajau or Islip's Jake Benedetto until the finals.

Check back tomorrow morning for more updates.

Exclusive preview footage of wrestling championship!

Dug up some wrestling footage via our friends at YouTube to help set the mood for this weekend's state wrestling championship.

Here's a clip every wrestling fan can enjoy...

You got to love Saved By the Bell. I actually came across this clip a while ago and I've been waiting for the right moment to share it. Now seems as good a time as ever.

There are just too many good things about this clip that need to be discussed, so allow me to elaborate.

First off, for anyone who watches real wrestling, these matches are about as realistic as Dustin Diamond's acting career after Saved By the Bell. (It's got to be strange to hit your peak in life at around age 15 and have it all be downhill after that. But that's another blog...). Go ahead and pick your reasons.

1. The "gym" looks like the same set as a classroom.

2. There are cheerleaders.

3. The fans are all right on top of the mat.

4. The meet is determined by a best of seven. Don't wrestling teams usually have more than seven wrestlers? And of those wrestlers, where are the other team's kids who wrestled already? And where's their coach? And why is Bayside's coach in sweatpants and a sweatshirt?

5. The school's principal, Mr. Belding, is cheering wildly inches away from the match, something I've never seen covering high school wrestling.

6. To be honest, it simply looks like complete chaos.

Let's also take a look at the individual matches. First there's Slater against a Valley wrestler. Zack, who somehow is a play-by-play radio announcer, proclaims that it is "to be a long, grueling match." Zack's pregame analysis proves to be as accurate as Fox's predictions during the Giants' Super Bowl run. So the match begins, Slater simply picks the guy up, tosses him on the ground, pin, match over. As far as I can tell, it took four seconds for Slater to pin him. FOUR SECONDS! I'd last more than four seconds wrestling against Corey Jantzen. (I think I could dance around him for about 10 seconds before he'd toss me down in a similar move that Slater pulled off, but I never wrestled).

So Slater wins and up next comes Christy, Bayside's first female wrestler. "The tension is mounting," Zack boasts.

Now before the match begins, everyone waits while Jessie comes over for a sentimental moment, exactly the kind of thing I'm sure wrestlers want before they're about to compete in a match to determine a meet. Warm hugs and "awwws" from the crowd usually don't precede pivotal matches.

Christy gets into trouble and gets into a full nelson... So Valley's wrestler, who isn't scoring any points with that move, somehow loses control when Zack yells to Christy "use the hold you used at the Max!" Bam! With that advice she twists his arms free, gets him in front, actually appears to try to snap his neck, then lifts him and slams him on all fours, flips him over and lays on top of him, all while he offers surprisingly little resistance. What??? For the record, the match took 39 seconds.

The meets ends, Bayside wins and Zack gets a sweet kiss from his lady. Very nice. And very funny.

There's another great episode where Slater decides to quit wrestling because he fears he'll grow up to be some washed up, pot-belly professional wrestler with no future. Zack had made a bet with Valley's top wrestler that Slater would win a match between the two. If Slater did, Zack would win a dirt bike. After Slater gets freaked out about his future and quits to start baking, Zack has a problem on his hands. To get Slater out of the kitchen he plans to have Screech wrestle the match, assuming that Slater won't allow Screech to be hurt. Apparently weight classes don't matter. Screech, who must weight about 45 pounds, goes out on the mat against a guy who weights about 160. Just as Screech gets picked up and held in the air, Slater comes flying in to save the day. And of course, Slater pins the guy in about six seconds! Alas, the moral of the story is gambling is no good, so Mr. Belding doesn't allow Zack to make good on his bet.

There was a video of that floating around YouTube, but I can't find it. The episode is called Pinned to the Mat from Season 1 if you're so inclined to watch it.

So what's all the fuss with Saved by the Bell you might ask? Well, you see, Saved by the Bell held a special place in the lives of kids growing up in the '90s. The episodes originally aired from about '89 until '94 with college years to follow. Most of those shows were aired frequently after that through the middle and late '90s so kids always had the chance to watch.

Just as every other boy, I had a major crush on Kelly Kapowski. I don't know why, but I always rooted for Zack to win her over instead of Slater, if I somehow couldn't win her myself.

When I watched Saved by the Bell in third and fourth grade, I really thought that's what high school would be like. You know, where all your friends are in all the same classes as you, there's a local hangout where everyone meets (the Max), you pull off all kinds of pranks and elaborate plots, you talk to your principal every day and even scheme stunts with him sometimes. It didn't quite turn out that way. I think by the time I reached middle school I realized Bellport High School wouldn't be Bayside High School.

But Saved by the Bell offered a lot of moral lessons to America's youth. Drugs were one topic the show touched on a couple times. There's the infamous Jessie on caffeine pills episode, which is now the topic of dozens of Facebook groups poking fun at it. Here's a clip of that:

Then there was the "No Hope with Dope" episode, where a movie star comes to Bayside looking to film an anti-drug episode. The group thinks the guys is super cool and he invites them to a party at his place. They go and find that he smokes pot, which shocks and disgusts them. They leave the party and back out of filming the commercial because they feel he's hypocritical. Mr. Belding just so happens to be old friends with the president of NBC. Mr. Belding invites him down and they end up filming the commercial without the movie star. Here's what they came up with:

If you want to keep kids from doing drugs, all you need to do is show them that. Find me one kid who's going to smoke a joint after seeing that production!

There weren't a lot of references made to teenage sex in Saved by the Bell, though. That issue they left alone. For example, in the No Hope with Dope episode, there's no mention of it being odd that the movie star is trying to seduce Kelly, who in the show couldn't have been more than 17 and still a high school student. He had to be at least in his 20s. Nothing strange with that?

I guess there are only so many topics to tackle at once. It's amazing, though, how when you watch these shows as a kid, you don't realize the lessons that are trying to be taught to you. You really just take it as entertainment, enjoy watching it, and then have those lessons seeped into you without you realizing.

I attribute all my morals to Saved by the Bell. As for any wrestling expertise, not so much.

Brrrrrr!!

For those planning on heading to Rochester this weekend for the state wrestling championship, avoid looking at the weather forecast. You won't like it.

Just as we're enjoying a sunny, 50-degree day with spring feeling more and more on the horizon, it'll all be ruined this weekend with a dose of frigid winter cold.

Here's how it looks as of Monday afternoon:

Friday, March 7

Snow Shower, High 33, Low 20

Saturday, March 8

Snow Shower, High 21, Low 19

Sunday, March 9

Snow Shower, High 23, Low 22

I went to college upstate, so I know all about looking at a 10-day forecast and seeing nothing but one of the following: "Snow Shower," "Snow," "Flurries," "Chance of Snow," "Heavy Snow." And if it sounds depressing, trust me, it is. I can't imagine how people live in areas where it snows every day for months on end. I managed to survive college, but that's only because it was, well, college.

It's too bad the wrestling tournament won't be in Albany at least if it has to be somewhere upstate. (I'll always vote for Long Island, of course, where it's snowed about three times all winter). For the record, it will be go back to Albany next year. While not exactly a tropical paradise, Albany at least avoids the 'lake effect' snow and all that garbage.

For those of you who are smart enough to stay home and enjoy 40-degree weather, you'll be able to read about the tournament right here. I'll be there (assuming my car doesn't break down on the way) providing live updates on all the matches. We'll have six wrestlers competing (three earned at-large bids last week) so there will be plenty of action to talk about.

You can read a more detailed story of the at-large bids in this Friday's Sun. Rocky Point freshman Matt Ross, senior Brandon Escobar and Shoreham junior T.J. Neidhart earned the bids.

Well, it's time for me to go dig out some snow gear.