The East Hampton High School wrestling team clipped the wings of the Deer Park Falcons here on Jan. 3, flattening the visitors 58-9.
Anthony Petersohn, a junior, got it going with a quick pin of his opponent at 131 pounds, turning him onto his back midway through the first round, and pinning his shoulders to the mat 10 seconds later.
A fellow junior, Josue Elias, won by a major decision at 138. Cradle holds earned him points in the second period, which ended with Elias up 9-1. The final score was 14-1.
Luke Castillo, a senior who wrestles at 145, had the upper hand throughout his match, ultimately winning 13-7, after which Justin Prince, a first-year junior who has been impressive, pinned his 152-pound opponent midway through the second period after having taken him down from a neutral position.
Cassius Hokanson, a first-year senior, prevailed 7-4 at 160, after having been taken down in the early going. An escape when the third period began enabled Hokanson to tie the count at 2-2, and a near fall in the final minute put him ahead 7-2, after which he fended off an attack to preserve the win.
Adam Beckwith, a junior and one of East Hampton’s tougher competitors, won by forfeit at 172. Aman Chugh, also a junior, who followed him at 190, threw his man down posthaste and pinned him for a 34-0 East Hampton lead.
Three more pins ensued, at the hands of Juan Espinoza, Francesco Palombino, and Bronco Campsey, East Hampton’s 215, 285, and 101-pound entrants — Espinoza and Palombino being sophomores and Campsey a freshman. Palombino and Campsey flattened their opponents’ shoulders to the mat midway through the first period; Espinoza’s pin, by way of a cradle, came with 16.7 seconds left in his bout.
Bonac’s last man on, Jatniel Gonzalez, a freshman, was decisioned, giving up a takedown in the first period and one in the third.
Things didn’t go so well two days later when the Bonackers, who were missing a couple of starters, wrestled at West Islip, which wound up a 42-21 winner. The big news for East Hampton was Campsey’s 8-1 victory over an all-league wrestler, and Juan Roque and Espinoza’s pins at 124 and 215.
East Hampton was missing even more starters — owing to various respiratory ailments — when it vied Saturday at Westhampton Beach’s Cory Hubbard invitational contested by eight teams.
Bonac’s coach, Ethan Mitchell, was a teammate of Hubbard’s on the Hurricanes’ football, wrestling, and lacrosse teams. Hubbard, he said, was killed by a drunk driver in his senior year at the University of Maryland.
The fifth-place Bonackers went 2-2 on the day, defeating Center Moriches and Newfield, and losing to Westhampton Beach and Patchogue-Medford.
Among the absentees, Mitchell said, were Beckwith, Alex Cabrera, Castillo, and Jhojairo Contreras. “Our results would have been much different had they been there,” the coach said, adding that it was just as well that the colds, et cetera, were happening now rather than during the postseason.
Campsey, wrestling up at 108, decisioned his Center Moriches opponent 3-1, and lost 7-5 to the Newfield wrestler he faced. He went 3-1 on the day.
Espinoza went 4-0 and Palombino and Roque went 3-1. Also notable was the fact, Mitchell said, that Caleb Mott, an eighth grader who competes at 116, “won his first varsity match, over a kid from Patchogue-Medford. He was one of the few guys we put out there who won that day.”
As of Monday, East Hampton’s team was 6-11 over all and 2-3 in League IV. He had scheduled tough nonleague matches, Mitchell said, in order to better prepare those of his charges who harbor post-season ambitions.
“I’m very happy with how we’re doing,” he said. “We’re looking to peak at the right time.”
Four competitions remain before the league meet. Yesterday, Huntington was to have wrestled here, with varsity and junior varsity matches going on at the same time. East Hampton’s last home match will be with William Floyd and Comsewogue on Jan. 23.
“It will be ‘senior night,’ and we’ll have a run-out beforehand of the middle school and KID wrestling kids.”
The middle school season — Steve Redlus coaches the East Hampton Middle School team — has yet to begin. KID Wrestling, whose Tuesday and Thursday evening sessions for fourth through eighth graders take place in the high school’s wrestling room adjacent to the cafeteria, began on Jan. 2. Adam Musser, a former collegiate wrestler, and Bob Yurkewich, a 1995 East Hampton graduate, oversee it, assisted by Mitchell.
