Swimmers, Bowlers Ascended, But Bonac’s Wrestlers Fell Short

   East Hampton High School’s boys swimming team improved its league record to 3-1 this past week with an impressive 93.5-74.5 win here over Harborfields.

    As a result of the win, the Bonackers, whose roster is deep, rose from third to second place in League II, behind undefeated Sayville.

    Harborfields, at 3-2, Hauppauge, at 3-2, West Islip, at 2-2, Deer Park, at 2-3, Huntington, at 1-4, and North Babylon, at 0-5, were as of Tuesday in East Hampton’s wake.

    In other recent action, East Hampton’s bowling team clobbered Southampton, rolling its first 1,000-point game of the season, thus putting itself in contention for the first league championship since the 2005-06 season Tuesday.

    “Thirty-three points will be up for grabs when we bowl [league-leading] Eastport-South Manor Tuesday,” East Hampton’s coach, Pat Hand, said Friday. “If we get 18 we’ll be in good shape; if we don’t, Eastport will have it locked up.”

    Also last week, East Hampton’s wrestling team almost got a win over Amityville, but having to forfeit at 120 and 126 pounds did Steve Tseperkas’s charges in. The good news is that Tseperkas expects Lucas Escobar, arguably the team’s best wrestler, who suffered a broken clavicle in a recent 120-pound match, to be back for the league championships.

    Back to swimming, Craig Brierley said that the following competitors had “standout performances” against Harborfields: Robert Anderson (who was to be named the swimmer of the meet), in the 200 individual medley; Thomas Paradiso in the 200 individual medley; Thomas Brierley in the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke; Shane McCann in the 50 and 100 free; Cort Heneveld in the 50 free; Alex Astilean in the 100 butterfly; Anthony McGorisk in the 100 free; Trevor Mott in the 500 free; Tyler Menold in the 100 breaststroke, and Joe Gengarelly in the 100 breast.

    With the exception of Brierley, who failed to win the 200 free for the first time this season, all of the above, including Brierley in the 100 back, turned in personal bests. Mott’s time in the 500 “was just .13 below the state cut.”

    The elder Brierley said Anderson’s performances were especially impressive considering that his grandfather (who was subsequently to die) was gravely ill. “He swam really well in all his events, though he did it with a heavy heart,” said the coach.

    Brierley added that “quite a few of the boys continue to put up best times even though they’ve been going through some heavy training.”

    Answering a question, the coach said he didn’t think the team had ever done so well. Three regular-season meets remained as of Tuesday, with West Islip, Deer Park, and North Babylon, which as of that day were in fifth, eighth, and sixth place in the eight-team league.

    As for the bowlers, while they took 31 of a possible 33 points from Southampton, Eastport on the same day was taking 29.5 from third-place Rocky Point. Going into Tuesday’s showdown, the Bonackers trailed the Sharks by 17 points.

    East Hampton jumped on the Mariners from the beginning. Jacob Grossman, who leads Pat Hand’s team with a 193.52 average, hit for 266, Gabby Green rolled a 224, Chris Duran (the team’s second-leading scorer, with a 186.52 average) had a 197, followed by Brianna Semb (175) and Jackson Clark (169). All told, then, the team tallied 1,031 in that first game, and while it slipped a bit thereafter to 793 and 800, those totals were enough to sink the second-to-last-place Mariners.

    Hand said she was not surprised by the drop-off. “I’ve seen it in the men’s league — it’s the mental part of the game.”

    Green led the team that day with a 224-569 series; Grossman had a 266-550. Mike Cenzoprano led Southampton with a 516.

    The wrestlers, as aforesaid, put up a good fight against Amityville in a battle of the winless.

    “I thought we would match up well with them,” Tseperkas said afterward, “but those forfeits, which gave them 12 points, killed us.”

    The match started at 138 pounds, went on up to 275, and then doubled around. Dallas Foglia got the Bonackers on the scoreboard with a pin at 152, and then, following two pins by Amityville wrestlers, Luciano Escobar flattened his opponent’s shoulders to the mat at 182, Alfredo Perez won 10-3 at 190, Kevin Heine (who weighs 185) won by pin at 220, Richie Browne won by pin at 275, Jonathan Hansen won by pin at 93, and Kevin Boles, who had been brought up from the junior varsity, won by pin at 112 after Haiau Duong was “teched” at 105.

    Following Boles’s match, East Hampton led 39-26, but then came the forfeits and a loss by pin at 132, enabling the visitors to prevail 44-39.

    Turning to winter track, Chris Reich, who coaches the boys indoor team, said he has hopes going into tomorrow’s freshman-sophomore meet at ­Suffolk Community College-­Brentwood. “Hopefully,” he said, “we’ll have Daniel Soto, Erik Engstrom, and Chjuvaughn Cameron finishing among the top five in the county in their events.”

    In an invitational meet this past weekend, Engstrom’s 10-minute-and-50-second time in the 3,200-meter race was a personal best. Adam Cebulski, who has missed some training because of a knee injury, ran a 5:01 in the 1,600. Cameron did a 42.23 in the 300, almost a second slower than his personal best in that event, and the 4-by-200 relay team of Jack Link, Addison Cook, Soto, and Cameron was one second off its best time, a 1:45.3.

    “The league championships are on Sunday,” said Reich, “the last meet of the season for most.”