Wantagh, Minisink Valley and John Jay-Cross River are interesting teams to watch.
Video: Evan Frank's highlights - Jerry McGuire Tourney
See the John Jay wrestler in action.With a new year off and running, the number of big tournaments in New York wrestling has reached its peak. Along with that, plenty of interesting storylines have emerged from throughout the state.
Here's a look.
Section 9 is just fine
With national power
Monroe-Woodbury (Central Valley), Section 9 (Orange and Ulster counties) is a strong contender for the team title when the state championships are held Feb. 26-27 at the Times Union Center in Albany.
But wait, as they say in those infomercials, there's more. As in
Minisink Valley (Slate Hill).
In the Jan. 8 New York State Sportswriters Association rankings, Monroe-Woodbury was ranked No. 1 among large schools with Minisink Valley checking in at No. 3. Standouts for Monroe-Woodbury have included
Cameron Wernicki (126 pounds),
Anthony Sountis (132),
Evan Barczak (152),
Kendall Elfstrum (182) and
Kevin Montolio (285).
Minisink Valley has been led by
AJ Aberli,
Jarred Greiner,
Connor Greiner and
Tyler Lynch.
Wantagh pins down wins The hottest team on Long Island,
Wantagh, improved to 15-0 after beating Roslyn 63-15.
It's been a season marked by one-sided victories for the Warriors, who were coming off a 73-9 win over South Side.
Michael Killard has excelled at 120 pounds for Wantagh. Other standouts have included Justin Cines (113 pounds), Kyle Schaier (128), Andrew Eget (160) and Gavin Casey (195).
Shen has a nice mix 
Kevin Parker, Shenendehowa
File photo by Ray Passaro
, No. 4 in the latest state large school rankings, has one of the state's most polished performers in
Kevin Parker.
A defending state champ at 170 pounds, Parker, fellow senior
Anthony Dinallo and junior
Shane Walpole have helped provide encouragement and mentoring for a strong group of underclassmen that includes sophomore
Parker Brooks and freshmen
Cody Deuel and
Kiernan Shanahan.
Dramatic title for John JayJohn Jay (Cross River) won its first Section 1 duals championship since 2010 in dramatic fashion, beating Arlington 39-36 in the final after by rallying to beat North Rockland 32-30 in the semifinal.
Against North Rockland, John Jay pulled out the win on a third-period pin by 182-pounder
Evan Frank. John Jay had been trailing 30-19 with five matches left. In addition to Frank, John Jay got big wins down the stretch from
Eric Eberhardt (170),
Chris Holze (160) and
Conor Melbourne (152).
The win was especially sweet for John Jay, which fell to Suffern in the dual-meet tournament last season. In the final against Arlington, Frank was one of four Indians to pick up pins.
New York state wrestling loses a legend Brad Paddock, a legendary wrestling coach recently inducted into Warsaw Central School District's Wall of Fame, died on Dec. 22. Paddock, 50, died from organ failure that was the result of multiple diseases, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
A standout wrestler at
Perry, Paddock developed many of the area's top grapplers through his Team X youth program, including 50 state place finishers, 20 state champions, 20 all-Americans and one national champ – Paddock's son Ian, who went on to an outstanding career at Ohio State.
Brad Paddock, who also served as assistant coach on the
Warsaw varsity wrestling team, is survived by wife Jeanie, nine children and two grandchildren.
Multimedia news and sports editor and producer Joe Lombardi is director of media initiatives and managing editor of DailyVoice.com, as well as Media Director/Co-Partner of LaxLessons.com.Follow Joe on Twitter @Joe_Lombardi.
