Three years ago at this time, East Hampton High’s wrestling team, then coached by Jim Stewart with Ethan Mitchell as his assistant, won its first match in five years, edging West Babylon 46-41 thanks to Alex Vanegas’s win by pin at 145 pounds in the penultimate bout, marking the beginning of a resurgence in the sport’s fortunes here.
Following Friday’s exciting 37-28 win here over West Babylon — a match that wasn’t decided until the final pairing, at 138 pounds — Mitchell, who’s now the head coach, couldn’t help but be reminded of that similarly riveting contest with the Eagles in January of 2020.
Friday’s win was the second league win of the season for East Hampton, improving its league record to 2-3. The Bonackers were to have wrestled at 1-3 West Islip yesterday.
In other sports action this past week, East Hampton’s boys basketball team defeated previously-undefeated Comsewogue 61-46 on Jan. 3 and Shoreham-Wading River 67-42 last Thursday, improving to 5-0 in league play. Dan White, East Hampton’s coach, said by phone over the weekend that “the win over Comsewogue was big. We played really well defensively, and we played well defensively and had balanced scoring at Shoreham.” East Hampton was to have played 4-1 Mount Sinai, which has a win over Southampton to its credit, here on Tuesday, and is to play this afternoon at 4-1 Bayport-Blue Point.
East Hampton’s boys swimming team was edged 86-84 at the Y on Friday by Half Hollow Hills, a two-time defending county champion that moved into East Hampton’s league this season, “a really impressive result,” in the words of Bonac’s coach, Craig Brierley.
The narrow loss dropped East Hampton to 2-2 in league meets and to 4-3 over all. “The coaches are very happy for the boys, who continue to swim very well and are steadily improving,” Brierley added in his weekly report.
East Hampton’s two-three finishes in a number of events kept the Bonackers close. Liam Knight, with Jack O’Sullivan second, won the 100 freestyle race in a county-qualifying 52.66 seconds. The 200 free relay team of Cristian Sigua, Emmet McCormac, Knight, and Tenzin Tamang won by almost 4 seconds. And, in the last event, the 400 free relay team of Luke Tarbet, Owen Robins, Tamang, and Nicky Badilla also won, earning the team 8 points. Hills’s runner-up finish in the finale assured it of the narrow win. Knight, a freshman, was named swimmer-of-the-meet by the captains. Brierley’s squad was to have swum at West Islip, the defending League 2 champs, Tuesday.
Getting back to wrestling, Friday’s match began with J.P. Amaden losing 15-8 at 145. After that, David Armijos (152) was pinned near the end of the first period, Adam Beckwith (160) was decisioned 10-3, Jose Calderon (182) won 8-6, Aman Chugh (189) won by way of a second period pin, Frank Palumbino was pinned in the second
period, and Edwin Espinoza won 9-1 at 285 before the visitors forfeited at 102 to Bronco Campsey, thus enabling East Hampton to take the lead for the first time that night, at 19-18.
Following the forfeit to Campsey, Anthony Petersohn, at 110, and Juan Roque, at 118, each won by pin, boosting Bonac’s lead to 31-18, after which Josue Elias (126) was pinned and Alex Hatgistavrou (132) lost 11-3, narrowing Bonac’s lead to 31-28 going into the final bout, at 138.
With the match up for grabs, both teams were on their feet, shouting encouragement to their standard-bearers, Luke Castillo in East Hampton’s case. Castillo was taken down in the early going, but quickly recovered, earning 2 points for a takedown of his own. An escape and a subsequent takedown by his opponent put Castillo in a 5-2 hole, but again he came back, with a takedown that, with Bonac partisans cheering him on, he parlayed into an emphatic pin that won the bout and the match with 2.6 seconds remaining in the first period.
“Anytime we wrestle West Babylon it’s a fight,” Mitchell said after hugging Castillo amid the celebrating. “Three years ago it went down to the last match too. They’re tough, well coached. It would have been a tie if Luke had lost. . . .”
Turning to girls winter track, the following placed in a cross-over meet at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood last Thursday: Ryleigh O’Donnell, first in the 600 in a personal best time of one minute and 43.85 seconds; Leslie Samuel, first in the long jump with a personal-best leap of 17 feet; Meredith Spolarich, second in the high jump at 5 feet; Samuel, second in the 55-meter dash in 7.84 seconds; Dylan Cashin, second in the 3,000, and O’Donnell, Melina Sarlo, Sam Ruano, and Samuel second in the 4-by-200 relay.
At the Jim Howard invitational over the weekend, Samuel was the long jump runner-up; O’Donnell was third in the 600; Spolarich was fourth in the high jump, and Paige Daniels, in her 1,500-meter racewalk debut, impressed her coaches with her time of 10:56.78. “She blew me away, finishing over 30 seconds faster than I thought she’d do. . . . Paige said she’d try it when I pointed out to her that we were desperately seeking volunteers. It makes me proud and happy when athletes step up to the plate like that.”
