Beat The Streets Wrestling Presents Annual Awards At Annual Benefit; $1.2 Million Raised

Seven area student-athletes and five coaches were honored Wednesday night at the annual Beat the Streets benefit, following the freestyle matches in Times Square that afternoon and evening. A total of $1.2 million was raised for the organization, which works directly with the New York City Department of Education in a public-private partnership to bring the life changing sport of wrestling to over 3,000 New York City student-athletes to help them achieve their personal and athletic goals.

The winners are:

Student-Athletes:

• Junior League Girls Wrestler of the Year: Alessandra Elliott, Tottenville

• Junior League Boys Wrestler of the Year: Wilver Mariano-Peralta, MS 129

• Female Student-Athlete of the Year: Amna Eldawaity, Bronx Studio

• Male Student-Athlete of the Year: Joseph DiForte, Petrides

• GRIT Award: Yonefry Polanco, Dewitt-Clinton

• LADY LIBERTY Award: Pearl Fletcher, Harry S Truman

• ATLAS Award and Become Your Own Dream Scholarship Winner: Brandon Nunez, John Bowne

Coaches:

• Junior League Coach of the Year: Dmitriy Landa, Elite Wrestling Academy

• High School Assistant Coach of the Year: Jonathan Khoury, Eagle Academy

• Girls High School Coach of the Year: Dave Kantrowitz, Bronx Studio

• Boys High School Coach of the Year: Stephen Perez, Grand Street Campus

• Volunteer of the Year: Andy Martinez, Harry S Truman

As previously announced, BTS Awards were also presented to:

• Man of the Year – Austin DeSanto, Pennsylvania State Champion 2017

• Woman of the Year – Helen Maroulis, Olympic Gold Medalist 2016

• Lifetime Achievement Award – Rocky Aoki (his daughter Devon and son Steve accepted in his honor)

The stars of USA Wrestling were unleashed upon Times Square on Wednesday evening with Olympic champions Helen Maroulis, Kyle Snyder and Jordan Burroughs leading a U.S. rout at the 2017 Beat the Streets Benefit dubbed “East Meets West.” Nine exhibition matches featuring Beat the Streets youth athletes and the NYC PSAL Girl’s Freestyle Dual Meet Championship preceded the Team USA vs. Japan matchup.