{"id":88754,"date":"2026-01-04T13:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88754\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:23:09","slug":"staten-island-hs-wrestling-farrell-dominates-ironman-tourney-as-sprague-nabs-100th-win-biktyakov-takes-home-mvp-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88754\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island HS wrestling: Farrell dominates Ironman tourney as Sprague nabs 100th win, Biktyakov takes home MVP (photos)"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 The Monsignor Farrell Lions completed a three-peat of team titles at their marquee home tournament, the 40th Dave Ironman Invitational, in Oakwood on Saturday, as a spectacular seven of Peter Hamm\u2019s wrestlers captured victories in their respective weight classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always good to win, especially at home. This is my favorite tournament, and you get a lot of alumni and parents coming back, so it\u2019s great. It\u2019s very much a family affair,\u201d Hamm said following the Lions collecting their hardware.<\/p>\n

Among the Lions to earn individual victories were Kaiden Noia (103 pounds), Jake Censi (118), Brennan Sprague (126), Alan Biktyakov (144), Sebastian Georges (150), John Bonura (175), and A.J. Lombardi (285), which was more than enough to secure first place as a squad.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1\/17<\/p>\n

40th Dave Ironman Invitational<\/p>\n

Several Islanders also reached the finals in their respective weight classes, including Farrell\u2019s Albert Lula (132 pounds), Richie Purpura (138), Quinn Hunt (165), and Robbie Wieser (175), Petrides\u2019 Marco Michielli (150) and St. Joseph by-the-Sea\u2019s Justin Stassi (190). The Vikings also captured third place as a team, capping a highly successful day of wrestling for the borough.<\/p>\n

Also on hand to add to the Lions\u2019 festivities was the tournament\u2019s namesake, Dave Ironman\u2014the longtime Farrell coach often credited with building the program into what it is today\u2014who helped distribute awards and soak in a day of outstanding wrestling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very glad to have the tournament here and for the tremendous support we get from Monsignor Farrell, Lou Tobacco, and Anthony Garofalo. When you run tournaments like this, you need the parents, the wrestlers, and the administration, and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve been able to hold it for 40 years,\u201d Ironman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery few tournaments last this long because it\u2019s hard work and people get tired, but Farrell does it, and I appreciate it. Having my name attached to it may be a little overkill, but if it\u2019s good for wrestling, that\u2019s fine,\u201d he added with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\"FarrellFarrell’s Brennan Sprague poses with his 100th win banner following the milestone at the Dave Ironman Invitational on Jan. 3, 2026.Michael O’Brien<\/p>\n

Amid a banner day for Farrell, two Lions in particular stood out, as Sprague recorded the 100th win of his career and Biktyakov was named lightweight MVP\u2014much to Hamm\u2019s pleasure.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrennan is a state-level wrestler; at times he even competes like a national-level wrestler, so I\u2019m not surprised by his performance. He was pretty dominant all tournament,\u201d Hamm shared.<\/p>\n

As for his own milestone, Sprague said, \u201cIt feels really good knowing that all the work I put in to achieve this really paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m beyond blessed to be able to wrestle for Farrell and to have a great group of kids around me who support and care for me, along with coaches who stay after to help me out. Coach Hamm helps me with everything\u2014my weight, my descents, my technique, my wrestling\u2014so it\u2019s really all about the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on his MVP wrestler, Hamm said, \u201cAlan is starting to break through. He\u2019s a sophomore with a particularly strong pedigree\u2014his father is an Olympic bronze medalist for Uzbekistan in Greco-Roman\u2014and he projects at a much higher level. We\u2019re just starting to see the beginning of it.”<\/p>\n

Biktyakov himself said, \u201cToday\u2019s performance came from working very hard for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to stay strong. A lot of training and cardio go into it\u2014a lot of work. I thank my coaches and my teammates for pushing me. Overall, the season\u2019s going great, and I\u2019m expecting much more next season. I believe that if you put enough work into anything, it can always work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FarrellFarrell’s Alan Biktyakov poses with his lightweight MVP plaque following the Dave Ironman Invitational on Jan. 3, 2026.Michael O’Brien<\/p>\n

When asked which of his other wrestlers caught his attention, Hamm highlighted Censi, who \u201cwrestled very well all day and is getting better and better,\u201d and Lombardi, noting that \u201cit\u2019s always good to have a strong athlete at the heavyweight spot. It just makes everybody feel better for some reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lastly, speaking to how such a big team win will impact the squad going forward, Hamm said, \u201cWe have many more goals to accomplish, but winning this meet every year is always one of them. We\u2019re going to pat everybody on the back on Monday, and then we\u2019re going to move to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 The Monsignor Farrell Lions completed a three-peat of team titles at their marquee home tournament,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-88754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}