East Hampton High’s wrestling team, as it did last year, wound up as the runner-up in the 45th Frank (Sprig) Gardner tournament it hosted on Saturday.
Two Bonackers, Adam Beckwith, at 170 pounds, and Franco Palombino, at 215, were champions; Bronco Campsey, at 101, Juan Roque, at 124, and Luke Castillo, at 145, were runners-up; Alex Cabrera, at 160, Jhojairo Contreras, at 190, and Juan Espinoza, at 215, were third-place finishers, and Josue Elias, at 131, and Aman Chugh, at 190, finished fourth.
Elias, at 110, Castillo, at 138, and Chugh, at 189, were quarterfinalists in last year’s league meet.
Ethan Mitchell’s squad of 76, which apparently is one of the largest, if not the largest, in the school’s history, tallied 166.5 points in all, trailing only Sachem North, which topped the eight-team tourney handily with 252. Trailing Sachem North and East Hampton were Sachem East (144); last year’s champion, Ward Melville (126); Bayport-Blue Point (98.5); Mount Sinai (90.5); Hampton Bays (80), and Center Moriches (60.5).
From 9 am. until well into the afternoon there were bouts going on all three mats in the school’s gymnasium, with coaches shouting out advice to their wrestlers from the sidelines and with spectators in the standing-room-only gym periodically erupting when their favorites won.
The TrackWrestling server, which listed the matches’ outcomes on large screens — there were no paper bracket sheets tacked up in the high school’s main hall as in former days — broke down during the quarterfinals, and thus threw a monkey wrench into things. “Unfortunately,” Mitchell said afterward, “we had to cancel the wrestleback matches.”
Presumably, East Hampton’s first outing augured pretty well for its coming season, which is to begin this afternoon at Shoreham-Wading River, a nonleague opponent. On Wednesday, the Bonackers are to begin league competition at Smithtown West. West Babylon is to wrestle here on Friday, Dec 15, at 5 p.m. There will be matches thereafter with Bellport, Deer Park, West Islip, and Huntington — a tough schedule.
Likewise, the East Hampton boys swimming team is in a tough league, along with Half Hollow Hills-Kings Park, which defeated the Bonackers 85-61 at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Nov. 28, Deer Park, Ward Melville, Northport, West Islip, and Sayville-Bayport.
Craig Brierley, East Hampton’s coach, said of the season opener, “The boys put in a strong effort. . . . Each meet will teach the boys valuable racing skills and values that will help them grow throughout the season.”
Brierley is overseeing a squad of 16 that numbers three seniors, four juniors, four sophomores, and five freshmen. Emmet McCormac, Jack O’Sullivan, and Owen Robins, the seniors, are the captains.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Robins, Cristian Sigua, Nick Chavez, and O’Sullivan was edged out of second place by less than a second in the meet’s first event, after which the visitors swept a number of others.
Personal bests were turned in by Chavez in the butterfly leg of the 200 medley relay, in the 100 freestyle, and in the 100 free leg he swam in the 400 freestyle relay; O’Sullivan, in his 50-yard leg in the 200 medley relay; Abe Stillman, in his 50 breaststroke leg in the 200 medley relay, 50 freestyle leg in the 200 free relay, and 100 leg in the 400 freestyle relay; Jack Ziemer, in the 200 free and in his 50 leg in the 200 freestyle relay; Liam Knight in the 200 individual medley and in a 50 free leg in the 200 free relay; Ben O’Sullivan in the 100 fly and in his 100 leg of the 400 freestyle relay; Sigua in his 50 free leg in the 200 freestyle relay, and Ben Kriegsman in the 100 backstroke.
The above-named and Luca Borghi, Ise Haney, Vlad Korchynskyi, Anthony Pillajo, Sam Piver, and Zeb Ryan make up the team.
Deer Park-North Babylon, a nonleague opponent, is to swim here at the Y today at 5:30. East Hampton is to swim at Ward Melville Tuesday.
In related news, the Y.M.C.A.’s youth swim team, the Hurricanes, have been doing well. Angelika Cruz, reporting on the recent MacNiven Memorial meet held here with the Huntington Bluefish, congratulated the following first-timers and welcomed them to the Hurricane family: Rhythym Benz, Paul Crills, Marlowe Flaherty, Isla Haak, Alani Janota, Drew Lamb, Ben LoCascio, Ian Martinez, Emma Matzen, Frederique Medina-Lashko, Vera Minardi, Colin Payne, Sidney Payne, Violet Pitches, Henry Popadick, Zoe Powers, Maya Saifullah, Amelia Schreck, Barrett Steyert, Evan Sullivan, Lola Theriault, Allie Von Hagn, and Sadie Weil.
The East End (over-25) masters team headed by Tim Treadwell likewise did well at the Dr. Bill Ross memorial masters meet at Eisenhower Park on Nov. 19. Among the age-group winners were the 200 free relay team of John Scheehser, Suzy Holmgren Heffernan, Michael Wootton, and Cruz; the mixed 200 medley relay team of Cruz, Treadwell, Lauren Macaroni Dacey, and Scheehser; Richard Monahan in 50, 200, 400, and 800 freestyle races; Scheehser in 50 and 100 free races; Treadwell in the 50 breaststroke and in the 100 free; Ellen Clark in the 50 fly and 100 fly; Cruz in the 800 free, and Heffernan, who was competing in a masters meet for the first time, in the 400 free.