East Hampton High’s resurgent wrestling team has been winning more than losing of late.
“The majority of our starters should be all-league,” the head coach, Ethan Mitchell, said by phone over the weekend, adding that the team had finished at 3-3 in League IV matches. It had been down to a skeleton crew before his arrival from Westhampton Beach to assist the former coach, Jim Stewart, a few years ago.
“It’s been a long while since we had more than five all-leaguers,” Mitchell said in looking through the program’s records. “There were 15 of them in 1987, when Jimmy was coaching. . . . I’m hoping this is the start of a good run.”
The League IV meet will be Saturday at Bellport High School, whose team won the league championship with a 6-0 record. Mitchell will take his top two in each of the 13 weight classes. Semifinal-round matches are to begin at around 1:30, he said, with the finals beginning around 4.
The Bonackers faced off against three teams Saturday, defeating Central Islip 40-19 and Riverhead 45-27, while losing 47-21 to the host team, Bayport-Blue Point. Bronco Campsey at 102 pounds, Juan Roque at 118, Luke Castillo at 138, and Edwin Espinoza at 285 each finished the day undefeated. Those who went 2-1 for East Hampton were J.P. Amaden at 145, Cooper Ceva at 152, and Adam Beckwith at 160.
As of Monday, Roque’s record was 27-5, Campsey’s was 21-8, Anthony Petersohn’s was 20-10, Jose Calderon’s was 17-5, Ceva’s was 18-8, Castillo’s was 15-9, Beckwith’s was 17-13, Aman Chugh’s was 14-10, and Amaden’s was 11-9.
In other recent action, East Hampton placed third among nine schools contending in the Anthony Cipriano Invitational Tournament at Copiague High School on Jan. 21. Roque was the 118-pound champion; Campsey at 102, Petersohn at 110, and Ceva at 145 were third-place finishers, each with two pins; Calderon placed third at 172, with three pins; Castillo won the 138-pound championship, defeating Amaden, his teammate, in the final; Beckwith was the fourth-place finisher at 160, with two pins; Josue Elias went 2-2 on the day at 126, and Steve Baculima, while he didn’t place, pinned the 160-pound class’s top seed in a quarterfinal-round match.
The other schools wrestling in the Cipriano invitational were Commack, St. John the Baptist, Northport, Westhampton Beach, Amityville, Holy Trinity, and Southampton.
