Ethan Mitchell, East Hampton High’s second-year wrestling coach, was hoping for better things at Saturday’s league championships at Bellport High School. He had thought, going in, that the majority of his starters would be all-leaguers, but that was not to be: Only two are to advance to the county tournament at Stony Brook University Monday, as the result of fourth-place finishes: Anthony Petersohn, at 110 pounds, and Luke Castillo, at 138.
While Saturday had been a tough day, the season, during which the young and relatively inexperienced team won 11 matches vis-á-vis 11 losses, had been a great one, Mitchell said by phone on Sunday. Nothing would change that.
Aside from Petersohn and Castillo and Cooper Ceva, who wrestled at 145, there were no Bonac wrestlers who advanced beyond the first round at Bellport. Wondering why that was, Mitchell concluded that his charges, used to feeding off each other in dual meets, might have been less buoyed when cast, as they were Saturday, into an individual competition.
Bronco Campsey, an eighth grader, despite giving up 20 or so pounds, lost 1-0 at 102 pounds. (There’s no longer a 99-pound class.) “He had to drink eight bottles of water just to make the minimum weight,” Tee Bushman, one of East Hampton’s fans, said during a break in the action.
Bushman added, “I don’t remember the last time we had 11 wins — the coach has done an outstanding job. They’ve hardly had any experience to speak of. These kids have been phenomenal.”
Petersohn, a sophomore “who has progressed very well” in Mitchell’s words, was pinned in the second period of a semifinal match “with a kid from North Babylon who’d been hurt for most of the season. They should have met in the final.”
Later, in vying for third, Petersohn parlayed a takedown into a 3-2 lead in the third period, but a reversal tilted things the other way, at 3-4. An escape by Petersohn evened the score at 4-4 in regulation. A takedown in the last second of overtime enabled his opponent to eke out a 6-4 win.
Juan Roque, a sophomore, who has been acquitting himself well this winter at 118 pounds, did not make weight.
Josue Elias, a sophomore, lost by a technical fall at 126, and Esteban Velez, a sophomore, was pinned at 132. Then came Castillo and J.P. Amaden, at 138. Amaden lost by a technical fall to the first seed in a first-round match. Castillo won by pin in the quarterfinals, but lost 10-4 in the semis to “a kid from Smithtown West who is second in the county.” Because of a tweaked knee that Nick Jarboe, East Hampton’s trainer, tended to, Castillo did not contend for third place.
Ceva, at 145, was down by 1 point in the third round of a quarterfinal-round match when pinned. David Armijos, a junior, and Alex Cabrera, a ninth grader, lost first-round matches at 152; Steve Baculima, a senior, and Adam Beckwith, a sophomore, lost first-round matches at 160. Kevin Sumba, a senior, lost a first-round match at 172, as did Aman Chugh, a sophomore, and Juan Espinoza, a ninth grader, at 189, and Francesco Palumbino, a ninth grader, at 215. East Hampton had no entry at 285.
Mitchell said he’ll continue to work with East Hampton’s wrestlers from the age of 7 on up in the off-season. He and Jim Stewart have been overseeing KID wrestling practice sessions at the high school for 7-through-13-year-olds this winter. “The numbers are good — the program is definitely where I want it to be,” Mitchell said in parting.
