Leading off today: Hilton wrestler
Yianni Diakomihalis rallied his way to the freestyle gold medal at 58 kilograms Saturday in the UWW Cadet World Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Diakomihalis, a rising junior who is already a three-time New York State Public High School Athletic Association champion, defeated Jintaro Motoyama of Japan 6-3 in the gold-medal match.
Motoyama rode a double leg takedown to a 2-0 lead, but Diakomihalis responded with a takedown and a turn late in the first period to take a 4-2 lead. Diakomihalis scored a takedown midway through the second period for a 6-2 lead. He was assessed a one-point penalty late in the period to make the final score 6-3.
Diakomihalis, the only New Yorker on the boys freestyle or Greco-Roman rosters, won five matches en route to his championship, including a 10-5 decision over Soslan Guchakov of Russia in the semifinals. He registered a pin and two technical falls in his first three matches.
Diakomihalis, who has already committed to Cornell University, was a 2014 Cadet Nationals runner-up and won the 2015 UWW Cadet Nationals.
In the girls freestyle competition, Alexis Bleau of Schoharie, climbing back from a September 2014 soccer injury that kept her off the mat until May, captured the 70-kilogram bronze with a 6-3 victory over Mongolia's Tsetsegbayar Byambadorj on Friday.
On the move: Kennedy Catholic's Elijah Hughes, a first-team all-state basketball pick last season in Class A who has committed to East Carolina, will complete his scholastic career outside the state.
The 6-foot-5 guard, who averaged 15.7 points and 7.2 rebounds a game last winter, told The Journal News he has enrolled at South Kent School, a top prep basketball program in South Kent, Conn.
Hughes arrived at Kennedy Catholic last September from Beacon High.
Hughes' departure was the second blow for Kennedy in the last week. The Gaels also lost 6-foot-7 Dominick Cristiano, an eighth-team all-stater who averaged 17 points a game, to Greens Farms Academy in Westport, Conn.
Team overcomes helmet heist: Four days before the Walnut Ridge Scots were scheduled to take the field for their Ohio high school football opener, someone made off with 22 helmets from the equipment room.
An equipment salesman in Ohio for Riddell put in a rush order for replacement helmets and then drove to the factory near Cleveland so that the team could practice Wednesday. The hustle paid off as Walnut Ridge beat Watterson 14-6 on Friday.
The Columbus Dispatch reports police are looking into the theft.
The price of success: I don't typically go to Bloomberg.com to get my sports news, but the finance-oriented service certainly served up a fascinating story this week under the headline "The brutal costs of raising the world's 631st-best tennis player."
It's an eye-opening look into 19-year-old Noah Rubin -- the 2014 junior Wimbledon champion and 2015 NCAA singles finalist -- and his parents, Eric and Melanie Rubin from Merrick, N.Y.
Eric lost three jobs in commercial lending as he skipped
