Wrestler One Match Shy of All-County
Andreas Koutsogiannis, a senior who wrestles at 195 pounds for East Hampton High School, finished the season with a 26-10 record at the Division 1 county championships this past weekend, narrowly missing the match for fifth and sixth place.
Koutsogiannis qualified for the county meet by winning the League VI title at his weight, thus becoming the first Bonac league champion since Jarrel Walker, a Bridgehamptoner, who did so at 285 pounds in 2003.
Koutsogiannis’s nemesis in the county tourney proved to be the same one he’d defeated for the league title, Comsewogue’s Angel Vargas.
The two met in the wrestlebacks after Koutsogiannis had easily defeated Ward Melville’s Max Haegele 8-3 in the second round, following a first-round bye, and had suffered a 7-4 loss to Northport’s Peter Magliocco.
Vargas, whom the Bonacker had defeated 6-4 in overtime in the league final, avenged himself in the wrestlebacks, edging Koutsogiannis 2-1.
“He was right there,” East Hampton’s second-year coach, Anthony Piscitello, said. “He was one match away from being all-county.”
As for the league meet, Piscitello said Koutsogiannis swept through the division, using an ankle pick as a prelude to a pin in the 14th second of his first-round match, after which, thanks to three single-leg takedowns, he avenged himself 6-4 upon a Hauppauge foe who had pinned him here in a dual meet earlier this season before besting Vargas 6-4 in overtime, taking him down as the wrestlers were on their feet.
Albert Darchiev, a senior Russian heavyweight from the Ross School, also did well at the leagues, placing third at 285. Piscitello said he used a headlock to win by pin in his first match.
That set up a showdown with West Babylon’s Richard Aviles, to whom he’d lost 8-5 in a recent dual meet — a meet that East Hampton won, the team’s sole league win. Darchiev had used a hip throw to go up 5-0 in the early going of that match, “but this time the kid knew what to expect,” said Piscitello. “Albert was pinned in the second period.”
Aviles went on to become Division 1’s 285-pound champion.
Having finished third, Darchiev qualified to wrestle in the county tournament, but forwent the tourney apparently in favor of academic work, Piscitello said.
Back to Koutsogiannis, Piscitello said, “He finished the season at 26-10, a big improvement over last year when he went 6-10.”
Asked to account for that improvement, the coach said, “He practiced all summer with me, three days a week — he and Santi Maya and Caleb Peralta, two eighth graders.”
Maya, at 99 pounds, lost 10-8 in the league meet’s quarterfinal round. “He gave it everything he had — he used up all his injury time . . . at one point he was bleeding from both nostrils, but I wasn’t worried. He’s competitive.”
Peralta, who was in the 120-pound division, “had a tough day. He started off with the second seed and was very close to taking him to his back when the kid adjusted and did the same thing to him.”
Both of his eighth graders had improved greatly this season, said Piscitello, who is pleased to think he’s got four more years with them.
He added that he’s quite willing to pull talented eighth graders up to the varsity. The middle school season is to begin soon, and Piscitello will keep an eye on its team, as well as on young wrestlers in the KID program.