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The Hornets placed all 13 wrestlers in the top five of their respective weight classes, highlighted by Carmona, who won the 195-pound title.
Hackley finished third with 175 points. Carmona, a New Rochelle resident, decisioned Owen Elrifi of Horace Mann, 2-1, in overtime.
“I am so proud of this team,” Hackley wrestling coach Fran Stanek said. “It was a great day for Hackley wrestling, showing up with 13 wrestlers and having all 13 place in the top five.”
Stanek said Carmona and Elrifi were even at 1-1 after regulation and the one-minute sudden-victory overtime period. In the second overtime, where each wrestler receives 30 seconds to either escape from bottom or hold their opponent down, Carmona rode out Elrifi. Carmona chose bottom for the next 30 seconds and escaped immediately.
“Xavier wrestled a smart match,” Stanek said. “He kept always moving forward and controlling the tempo of the match. Once Xavier held down Owen for the first 30-second overtime, I knew Xavier would be able to get out from bottom and get the escape to win the match.”
Hackley also had five other finalists/runners-up – Sam Welch (126 pounds), Dan Shaw (138), Andre Newland (145), Elijah Ngbokoli (152) and Andrew Muo (220).
Third-place finishers included Stephen Zak (120), Damis Yancopoulos (160) and Rodrigo Meijias (182). The fifth-place finishers were Spiro Coffinas (106), Elias Germanakos (132), Milo Lampert (170) and Brandon DiFalco (285).
Carmona, 22-6 on the season, will compete in the National Prep School Wrestling Championships Feb. 22-23 at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
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