Herricks sophomore and top seed Landon Lee advances to semifinals in Nassau Division I tournament

The Herricks wrestling program is happy to have Landon Lee back.

The sophomore spent his freshman year at Chaminade, where he took fourth in the Catholic state tournament at 285 pounds before transferring back to his hometown school.

After a dominant regular season, Lee is the top seed at 215 pounds in the Nassau Division I tournament. He advanced to Sunday’s semifinals with a 15-5 major decision over Clarke’s Marcus Rosario in the quarterfinals on Saturday at Hofstra.

“Chaminade’s a really good school, but I just didn’t think it was the right school for me,” Lee said. “I just like things better back here. I love the kids here, of course. They all welcomed me back and I’ve been friends with them for a long time.”

Lee started wrestling in Herricks’ youth program in second grade and eventually was pulled up to the varsity wrestling team as a seventh-grader. He suffered an injury before the qualifying tournaments in eighth grade, making this year his first appearance in the Nassau postseason.

“He and his family made the decision to go to Chaminade and obviously, I was disappointed,” coach Eric Goldberg said. “When you have someone that you’ve known for a while and you watched them come up, you want to be there every step of the way. I was still keeping an eye on him last year. We were ecstatic when he made the decision to come back.”

Lee entered the third period with an 11-1 lead, but he was rolled onto his back, giving Rosario four nearfall points with 1:11 left. Lee scored a reversal and two nearfall points in the final seconds.

“He’s someone that’s never out of a match,” Goldberg said. “He’ll get into some funky positions at times and sometimes the score might not be in his favor, but he always has the utmost confidence in himself and because of that, we have that confidence in him, as well.”

Lee (35-3) will face No. 4 Wilson Quintanilla in the semifinals, set to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. It’s a rematch from last Saturday, when Lee won a 4-1 decision in the finals of the qualifying tournament at Farmingdale.

“In the beginning of the season, transferring from Chaminade, I feel like lots of people didn’t know me and looked at me as the underdog,” Lee said. “I just want to show everyone who I am. I still have the semifinals and finals to make my mark.”

Quintanilla is one of six Farmingdale wrestlers that advanced to the semifinals, as the Dalers hope to crown their first county champion since Joe Simons won the 138-pound title in 2018.

Michael Perez Palacios (108), Cole Riddiough (138), Eric Wolf (152), Jovens Theodate (170) and Josh Kama (190) will be joining Quintanilla in the semifinals.

No. 7 Riddiough pinned No. 2 Luke Armendariz of Manhasset in 3:40 in the quarterfinals. He’ll face No. 6 Harlan Chugerman of Bellmore-JFK, who pinned No. 3 Anthony Pica (Garden City) in 5:36.

Kama appears to be on a crash course with Oceanside’s Jared Marine. Last year, eighth-seeded Kama won a 9-8 decision over top-seeded Marine in the 190-pound quarterfinals.

“It really took a toll on me,” Marine said. “Going into that tournament, my shoulder was dislocated and after that match, it was just a downward spiral. That was probably the hardest tournament I’ve had to get through.”

Now, Marine and Kama are the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectfully. Kama will face No. 3 Jason Martin (Mepham) and Marine will wrestle No. 4 Shareef McMillan (Wantagh) in the semifinals.

“Last year, (Kama) kind of made it to the semis and was happy. Now, he’s on a mission,” Farmingdale coach Artie Weidler said. “We’re definitely not looking past Martin. We’ve got to get to the finals first and we’ll see what happens.”

Marine was taken down early in his quarterfinal match against No. 9 Jivan Nakashian of Port Washington.

“As soon as I got taken down, I was like, ‘Man, it’s about to be a repeat of last year,’ ” Marine said. “I was not letting that happen. Last year is last year.”

Marine scored a reversal late in the first period before earning another reversal and securing the pin in 2:52. Marine won an 11-4 decision over Kama in a dual meet in January, but the senior isn’t satisfied.

Said Marine: “I have to get my redemption.”