While for many the mere thought of running a marathon can seem exhausting, Cara Nelson, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at the East Hampton Middle School, is about to undertake an almost superhuman feat — running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. 

Ms. Nelson is one of approximately 55 participants in the 2018 World Marathon Challenge, which begins with a marathon on a glacier in Antarctica on Tuesday morning and continues with running 26.2 miles each day in Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, and South America, before culminating on the North American leg, seven days later, in Miami. By the end, each participant will have run a whopping 183 miles in 168 hours.

With the use of Google apps for education in her classroom, students will become virtual participants. “I will be posting live blog updates at mile 20.8 of each marathon, corresponding to my classroom, room 208, along with videos before and after each race,” Ms. Nelson said with trademark high-energy enthusiasm. What she hopes is that her charges will receive a firsthand lesson in perseverance, which happens to be the school-wide theme for the year.

“Students will be interviewing my teammates about how they persevered through personal or professional obstacles,” Ms. Nelson said, describing some of her teammates: an amputee who is now an Ironman triathlete, the Boston Marathon race director who was there during the 2013 bombing, and a Parkinson’s disease survivor.  

Since the event’s inception in 2015, it has attracted elite runners, drawn to the physical and logistical challenges. Yet Ms. Nelson is quick to point out that she is far from an elite runner and therein lies the lesson she wishes to impart to her seventh graders, who have been involved in her endeavor since the beginning of the school year. “I told them, you don’t have to be the strongest, fastest, or smartest,” she said. “It’s all about the effort you put in.”

In fact, Ms. Nelson is part of the only team in the event, a 16-person ensemble that is not a tag team because each member runs the full seven marathons in seven days. The team’s name, Hold the Plane, was chosen humorously to acknowledge the possibility that, given the titans of long distance running participating in this year’s challenge, Ms. Nelson and her teammates will be the last to make it back on the plane. Theentry fee per runner, or team, is $35,000, which includes seats on the chartered plane, accommodation when necessary, all meals, and medical and support services.

The first marathon will take place at Novolazarevskaya, a private camp within the Antarctic Circle where the current summertime temperature is around 25 degrees. Ms. Nelson will run there in special shoes lined with Gore-Tex to deal with some of the most extreme weather on earth and the possibility of frostbite. 

Competitors are given eight hours to complete each marathon. Then, with barely enough time to catch their breath, they hop aboard the plane for the next continent, in this case, Africa. Wednesday’s marathon in Cape Town will be followed by an approximately 14-hour flight to Perth, Australia. 

After Perth, on Thursday, it’s a marathon in Dubai on Friday night — perhaps the only sane part of the day to run in desert heat. On Saturday, Feb. 3, the team lands in Lisbon, Portugal, for the European race, and later that day is off to Cartagena, Colombia, for Sunday’s marathon, number six. On Monday, they will be off to Miami, where Ms. Nelson looks forward to the final finish line, as well as the arms of her husband and other family members.  

Ms. Nelson said other teachers at the school have found ways to incorporate the event into the curriculum. “In math classes, students will calculate my pace per mile and the rate of change from marathons one through seven. In science, they’ll learn about cellular respiration and lactic acid. . . . In Spanish classes, they even used my training schedule to learn the days of the week.”

“I am really inspired by all Ms. Nelson has done and accomplished,” Lua Li, a seventh grader, said. “She is a hard-working and enthusiastic teacher, which is great for me and my classmates.” However, Lua also admits that she thinks running all those consecutive marathons is “really crazy.”

A Smithtown native, Ms. Nelson has been a  runner and athlete since the age of 11 when she began running road races with her family. Today, at 31, she somehow finds time to run about 50 miles a week, teach, and coach sports. Last January, she completed her first marathon, the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World, which consisted of a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and full marathon over four consecutive days. 

One of the objectives of the race is to raise money for charity. Hold the Plane has listed 11 organizations and a goal of $2 million. To date, 59 percent of that amount has been raised.

To follow the East Hampton teacher during the world marathon challenge, visit: runmsnelsonrun.com

Thursday, February 1

BOYS SWIMMING, East Hampton at League II meet, Hauppauge High School, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Sayville at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Sayville, 6:45 p.m.

Friday, February 2

BOYS BASKETBALL, Ross School at Bridgehampton, 6 p.m., and Pierson at Southold, 6:30.

Saturday, February 3

League II wrestling tournament, Comsewogue High School, 9:30 a.m.

Monday, February 5

BOYS BASKETBALL, Smithtown Christian at Ross School, East Hampton, 5:45 p.m., and Bridgehampton at Pierson, Sag Harbor, 6:15.

FOOTBALL, meeting for prospective players and their parents, East Hampton High School cafeteria, 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, February 6

BOYS BASKETBALL, Westhampton Beach at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Westhampton Beach at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

Wednesday, February 7

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Stony Brook vs. Pierson-Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Shelter Island at Bridgehampton, 6 p.m., and Pierson at Smithtown Christian, 6:15.

As their coach, Andrea Hernandez, was burning the CDs they’d need for an Islandwide competition the next day, Claire Belhumeur and Camilla Mautiauda, who co-captain East Hampton High’s competitive dance team, took her place when Friday afternoon’s rehearsal began, filming a varsity pom routine by a half-dozen dancers that they followed up with critiques. 

“I trust my captains,” Hernandez said on entering the cafeteria. She does the choreography primarily, but encourages Belhumeur and Mautiauda to choreograph as well.

“Do I push our dancers? Yes, I think they’d agree that I do,” she said with a smile. That’s how they improve.”

And soon, with Belhumeur and Mautiauda joining in, while Hernandez stood on one of the cafeteria’s seats and counted out the beats and half-beats of her choreography, the competitive team went at it — honing the varsity pom and varsity jazz routines they were to perform Saturday at the Stephanie Belli scholarship competition at Smithtown West High School — performances whose “energy, showmanship, and purpose” the judges were to praise.

The team had been practicing the two three-minute routines it performed Saturday for three months, the dance coach said.

Founded in 2002 by a former student, Haleigh Beyer, the dance club has come a long way, Hernandez said in reply to a question. That would be evident to anyone who has seen their recent performances at Guild Hall or during halftime at home boys basketball games.

“It’s been a varsity sport for about five years now,” she said, adding, in answer to a question, that varsity letters certainly were merited given dance’s athletic and aesthetic demands. 

“We do plyometrics, calisthenics, core work . . . if your legs aren’t strong you can’t leap high.”

The varied genres, lyrical, pom, jazz, tap, ballroom, Latin American, and hip-hop among them, keep her charges on their toes, as it were, physically and mentally.

The judging at competitions was “fairly critical,” Hernandez said. “You have to have a thick skin, but, again, that’s how you improve. . . . The kids love the competition, they love to compete in events that benefit scholarship funds, as this one does, and they love to see what the other teams are doing. They bring their homework, but they become so wrapped up in performing and in watching the other teams perform that they don’t do it.” 

There were 30 schools and some colleges represented at Smithtown West.

Mautiauda, when questioned, said she’d begun as a volleyballer, in Montauk, but she so enjoyed a monthlong dance class as a fourth grader that ultimately she was persuaded to switch from volleyball to dance last year.

“I love moving,” she said, adding that (as this writer had guessed) she’d played the libero position in volleyball. Not only did dancers have to be synchronized, she said, “but you also have to get across to the audience the emotion the song conveys — you have to act.”

She’s going to Connecticut College in New London in the fall. Yes, she agreed, it was perfectly situated — not too far away, but far enough. She will audition for the dance team there.

Belhumeur, who had play practice in 10 minutes, began dancing, she said, at the age of 3, began figure skating — first at the Buckskill Winter Club and then at the Rinx in Hauppauge — when she was 10, and added acting to her repertoire in her freshman year at the high school. She is to audition for several colleges on her list — N.Y.U., the New School, and the University of North Carolina — this month. 

The club’s end-of-the-year showcase at the high school auditorium will be on March 15 at 7 p.m.

League Track Meets

Ryan Fowkes placed third twice at the league track meet Friday at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, in the 1,600 and 1,000-meter races. He ran the 1,600 in 4 minutes and 37.08 seconds, and ran the 1,000 in 2:48.39. 

Ben Turnbull, the boys team’s coach, said that Matt Maya placed third in the 55-meter hurdles, in 8.82 seconds, a personal best, and that he had placed eighth in the long jump, with a leap of 18 feet 101/4 inches.

Yani Cuesta, the coach of the girls, said Ava Engstrom placed eighth in the 1,500, in 5:24.32, that Mimi Fowkes placed seventh in the 1,500-meter racewalk, in 9:34.66, and that Lily Minskoff placed 11th in the 300, in :47.11, and 12th in the long jump, at 14-4, a personal best. The fourth member of the team, Bella Espinoza, was sidelined that day because of an illness, Cuesta said.

Round-Robin Wrestling

Anthony Piscitello, East Hampton High’s wrestling coach, said he took about half his team to a round-robin meet at Port Jefferson Saturday, given the fact that “about five or six” of his charges were out with the flu.

Caleb Peralta, at 120 pounds, and Andreas Koutsogiannis, at 195, won all three matches they wrestled. The latter won two matches by technical fall and one by pin. Cole Shaw went 2-1 at 132 pounds, and Ben Baris, while 0-3, “should get a lot of credit,” said Piscitello, “for competing despite having been wiped out by the flu recently.”

“The matches went quickly — we were out of there by 12:15,” the coach said.

The league meet, he added, is to be this Saturday at Comsewogue. He’ll take “the whole team, at least 12 guys.”

East Hampton High School’s boys basketball team fell to 5-6 at Harborfields last Thursday, though the Bonackers’ 50-48 win over Islip in a hotly contested game here on Jan. 23 kept the attendees glued to their seats.

Playing without one of its big men, Bladimir Rodriguez Garces, sidelined because of academic difficulty (as was also the case at Harborfields apparently), East Hampton hung tough throughout. At halftime, the home team was up 29-28, at the end of the third quarter it was down by 5, and so let’s pick up the thread when the fourth began.

Two Bonac baskets, the second by Jack Reese, the omnipresent senior point guard, who stole the ball and laid it in, pulled East Hampton to 36-37. 

Islip, a quick, physical team, came right back with two baskets of its own, after which Turner Foster fed Reese for a 3, and Reese, again following a steal by him, went coast-to-coast to tie it at 41-41.

The gym was in an uproar as Islip’s coach called for a timeout. When play resumed, Max Proctor’s 3-point play put East Hampton up 44-41, a lead that slipped away in the succeeding moments. 

Before Foster drained a 3-pointer from the left wing with 1 minute and 16 seconds left to play, the visitors had led 48-44. Now, they were up by 1.

About a half-dozen passes had been made when Reese fouled the ball-handler, who went to the line and came up empty. Proctor came down with the rebound and fed the ball to Reese, who found Foster camped out at his spot on the left wing. Foster let it go . . . and, yes! His and Bonac’s fans’ prayers were answered. There were 44.9 seconds left and East Hampton was again in the lead, at 50-48.

Islip dashed up the court, the ball going to Sterling Fitz-Henry, one of its guards, who, in driving for the hoop, was rejected by Chris Stoecker, East Hampton’s tall center. Islip inbounded, and again went to tie it, but Foster came up big again, stripping the ball before the would-be shooter could get off a close-in baseline shot. This time, it was East Hampton’s ball to inbound, with 17.7 seconds on the clock.

With Islip players swarming, Reese corralled Foster’s inbounds pass and was fouled. He missed the front end of the one-and-one, and Islip rebounded and managed to get off one more shot, which rebounded off the rim. Amid the ensuing mad scramble for the ball, the final buzzer sounded.

Four Bonackers wound up in double figures that night — Foster, the hero, with 12, and Malachi Miller, Reese, and Stoecker, each with 10.

For Islip, Fitz-Henry had 14, Gabriel Perez, 16, and Chris Giuliani (a guard who plays very much like Reese, which is to say he seems to be everywhere), 10.

Dan White, East Hampton’s coach, happy to be at .500 again, attributed the win largely to tenacious defensive play. “Offensively, we struggled when it came to scoring in the third [0-for-6 from the field, 3-for-3 from the foul line], but got it together in the fourth.”

When told, yet again, that his team was always “fun to watch,” White said, “Especially when we win. And even more especially when we win at home.”

In another recent away game, the Bonackers lost 68-59 at East Islip, the undefeated league leader. “We played well in the first half,” the coach said. “In fact, it was the best half we’ve played so far. We were up by 7 or 9 at one point. For two and a half quarters we played great. It was good to see we can play with the best team in the league.”

The East Hampton High School boys swimming team, which as of earlier this week had lost only one league meet this season, defeated the Huntington-Harborfields team 95-75 at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Jan. 10, thus improving its League II record to 3-1 and its overall record to 4-2.

Craig Brierley, the varsity team’s coach, said in an emailed report following the Y.M.C.A. Hurricanes youth swim team’s return from a large regional meet this past weekend at the University of Maryland that “the coaches were so proud of the boys — they continue to swim very well. . . . The score stayed very close right up to the ninth event, the 200 freestyle relay. We took first and third in that, and Huntington-Harborfields could not match us in the backstroke and breaststroke.”

East Hampton’s A team (Ethan McCormac, Thor Botero, Ryan Bahel, and Fernando Menjura) won the 200 free relay in 1 minute and 36.73 seconds. The visitors were second, in 1:41.24, after which came East Hampton’s B team (Will Midson, Jordan Uribe, Nick Sigua, and Aidan Forst), in 1:46.73. Midson’s lead-off leg of 27.65 was a personal best for him, as was Forst’s anchor leg of 24.53. Seventeen members of Brierley’s squad posted P.R.s that day, “world records,” Brierley calls them, “because in their world it’s a record.”

Going into Tuesday’s meet here with West Islip, Ethan McCormac was qualified to swim in six individual events at the county meet, which is to be contested at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood on Feb. 17, Menjura and Ryan Duryea were qualified to swim in five, Joey Badilla was qualified to swim in three, Forst and Owen McCormac were qualified to swim in two, and Colin Harrison was qualified to swim in one.

West Islip came into Tuesday’s meet with a 1-2 league record. It was 2-3 over all. Likewise, North Babylon, Monday’s opponent — it will be East Hampton’s final home meet of the season — was also 1-2 (2-3) as of Tuesday morning. East Hampton was to have made up a previously postponed meet at Sayville yesterday. Sayville-Bayport as of Tuesday morning was 2-1 (2-3).

“With two and a half weeks left until the league championship meet [at Hauppauge High School on Feb. 1], our boys are adjusting to heavier race-pace training loads,” Brierley said, adding that race- pace training “is the most efficient way to prepare for what this sport is all about — racing.”

Ethan McCormac, who won the 200 freestyle race in 1:46.29, a state-qualifying time, and the 100 butterfly in 57.08, meeting the state standard in that event as well, was named East Hampton’s swimmer of the meet, for the second time this season. “The captains didn’t hesitate in naming him swimmer of the meet for they know how hard he is working and how motivated he is to earn qualifying times,” the coach said.

Another qualifier (for the county meet) on the 10th was Ryan Duryea, in the 50 and 500 freestyle races. He placed third in the 50, in 24.44, an event that his teammate Owen McCormac won in 23.97. Duryea was a close second to the visitors’ Christopher Weber in the 500 free. Weber won it in 5:21.46. Duryea’s time was 5:22.91.

The meet began on a good note with Badilla, Ryan Duryea, Menjura, and Owen McCormac winning the 200 medley relay in 1:48.57, about three seconds ahead of Huntington-Harborfields’ A team. East Hampton’s B team of Luke Tyrell, Jack Duryea, Kevin Pineda, and Forst placed third.

Subsequently, East Hampton (Ethan McCormac) won the 200 free, with Conor Flanagan earning a point for finishing fifth; Jack Duryea and Menjura placed third and fourth in the 200 individual medley, Owen McCormac, as aforesaid, won the 50 free, with Ryan Duryea third, and Ethan McCormac won the 100 fly, with Badilla third and Pineda fourth.

Menjura won the 100 free, in 54.13, with Botero earning a point for his fifth-place finish; Ryan Duryea was second and Owen McCormac and Noah Gualtieri were fourth and fifth in the 500 free, East Hampton placed first and third in the 200 free relay, Badilla, with Pineda third and Tyrell fifth, won the 100 butterfly, in 1:00.72, Jack Duryea won the 100 breaststroke, in 1:08.33, with Flanagan fourth and Ryan Bahel fifth, and Ethan McCormac, Forst, Badilla, and Owen McCormac won the 400 free relay, the final event, in 3:42.21, besting Huntington-Harborfields’ A team by 13 seconds. Midson, Thomas Treadwell, Max Bahi, and Gualtieri were the third-place finishers in 4:08.30.

The East Hampton High School boys basketball team not only was fun to watch in last Thursday’s game here with Kings Park, but — more to the point in its coach Dan White’s opinion — East Hampton won, by a score of 63-53.

It was the third game the Bonackers had played in three days, and given the fact, White said, that most of them play 25 to 30 minutes a game, their win, which evened East Hampton’s League V record at 4-4, was all the more noteworthy.

The good-size crowd was into it from the get-go. The home team trailed 30-25 going into the third period, but took it to the Kingsmen thereafter.

“It was the best defensive half we’ve played this season,” White said afterward. “And it was a total team effort.”

The visitors got some good looks from the corners in the first half, cashing in on four 3-point attempts, but thanks to the stepped-up defensive effort — a 2-3 zone with some man coverage mixed in — went 0-for-11 from long range in the second half.

It was the third loss vis-a-vis five wins for Kings Park, which as of Friday trailed East Islip (8-0) and Westhampton Beach (7-1) in the standings. Harborfields was also at 5-3 that day, with East Hampton, as aforesaid, at 4-4, after which came Islip, at 3-5, Sayville, at 3-5, Rocky Point, at 1-7, and Hauppauge, at 0-8.

Kings Park’s coach didn’t do his team any favors, drawing two technical foul calls in the hot-paced fourth quarter, the second of which resulted in his banishment from the game — a decision greeted with glee by Bonac partisans.

It looked near the end of the second quarter as if the visitors might be pulling away following a 3-pointer, a fast-break layup, and a turnover, which caused White to call timeout. When play resumed, Kings Park netted another basket, for a 30-22 lead, after which Chris Stoecker, one of Bonac’s big men, saw his layup go in and out. Malachi Miller finally got the home team on the board, with a 3, drawing East Hampton to within 5 points with two minutes to go, but neither team could score in the moments leading up to the halftime break.

Turner Foster, fed by Miller, netted a 3-pointer when the third quarter began. Kings Park hung on to the lead for a while, but midway through the period a 3-pointer by Miller tied it up at 37-37. The Bonackers, keeping the pressure on, were not to trail thereafter.

A fast-break layup by Foster, a jumper from the foul line by Bladimir Rodriguez Garces, and a rebound and coast-to-coast basket by Jack Reese treated East Hampton to a 43-37 lead going into the fourth. 

During the interim, White was heard telling his charges that the game would come down to how well they rebounded and defended in the final eight minutes. Working the ball around for 10 seconds, he added, would yield the open looks they were looking for.

Rodriguez Garces blocked two shots in the early going of the fourth, after which Reese drew a foul going for the hoop. He missed both tries. 

(It was not a great night from the foul line for him, but the senior point guard was a standout in every other respect, with eight assists for the game, and seven steals, according to one count, in the second half.)

A putback by Miller of a Reese miss made it 45-39, and after Kings Park’s big man, Andrew Bianco, missed two free throws, Jeremy Vizcaino, who played well off the bench, converted a pass from Reese for 47-39. 

Four minutes were left, and the gym was in a din as Kings Park called timeout. Randi Cherill, East Hampton’s trainer, said during the break that it was one of the more exciting games she’d seen here.

When play resumed, a foul shot by Reese and a pull-up jumper by him increased the lead to 50-39. 

Kings Park pulled to within 7 points with 2:36 on the clock, and amid a frenzied struggle for possession from which Reese emerged with the ball, the visitors’ coach was tagged with his second technical of the night, resulting in his eviction from the gym. Reese’s first attempt rebounded off the front of the rim, but the next two went in, after which East Hampton was given the ball to inbound. 

With just over a minute to play, Reese stole the ball and laid it in for 59-49. A free throw by Foster and one by Vizcaino, which he followed soon after with a fast-break layup, capped East Hampton’s scoring.

Miller finished with 19 points. Reese and Rodriguez Garces each had 15, Vizcaino, 8, and Foster, 6.

“It was a great game. It was an all-around team effort — what we see every day in practice,” said an elated White. “We’re starting to be a winning team.”

As for the playoffs, “we’re definitely in the mix,” he said. 

“And now,” he said, “we’ve got a lot of time off. What’s this? The 11th? We won’t play again until January 20. We’re all going, the coaches and the team, to the Knicks-Nets game on Monday [Martin Luther King’s Birthday]. We should show the Knicks how to play defense!”

In the other games last week, East Hampton easily beat Rocky Point 58-35, and lost what was said to have been “a barn burner” at Westhampton Beach, 84-75, a game in which four Bonackers — Reese and Foster, each with 18, Stoecker, with 17, and Rodriguez Garces, with 14, finished in double figures.

Other Action

In other action this past week, the Killer Bees of Bridgehampton ran their winning streak (following an 0-6 start to the season) to three in besting the Ross School (which remained winless) 61-44 in the Cosmos’ well-appointed gym in East Hampton Friday.

J.P. Harding paced the Bees with 21 points, a number of them scored in finishing fast breaks. Elijah White, the sophomore point guard, had 15, and Jonny De Groot, from underneath, and Nate DePasquale, largely from long range, each had 13. DePasquale hit three big 3-pointers for the Bees in the second half, during which they extended their 10-point halftime margin to 17.

When Ron White, the first-year coach, who as a student won state championships with Bridgehampton and national championships with Suffolk Community College-Selden, was asked to account for the Bees’ improvement, he said, “They’re running the sets, they’re gaining confidence, and they’re beginning to realize it’s just a basketball game,” i.e., not letting the storied Killer Bee tradition weigh too heavily upon them.

Ben Bijur, a senior, led the Cosmos with 14 points. James Merig had 13, and George Rao, 9.

The Bees, who were 3-6 over all as of Monday and 3-0 in League VIII, are one of three Class D schools in Suffolk, the others being Smithtown Christian, whom the Bees beat 76-65 recently in the Bee Hive, and Shelter Island. Bridgehampton is to play at Shelter Island tomorrow at 5:45 p.m.

Nygel Roach, a former St. John’s guard who is in his first year of coaching at Ross, said his players were putting in a good effort. “We’ll keep at it,” he said.

A win! A win for East Hampton High School’s wrestling team.

The fact almost got lost in a post-mortem that followed a 69-24 loss to Harborfields here on Jan. 10, but Anthony Piscitello, East Hampton’s second-year coach (and a wellness teacher at the Ross School), acknowledged that his interviewer had heard right when he’d said that “yesterday we beat West Babylon.”

That 42-39 win was the first varsity win of Piscitello’s brief career. Last season, one that was cut short because of academic ineligibilities, injuries, and defections, East Hampton, winless otherwise, outscored North Babylon 30-27 at the mid-December Doc Fallot tournament in Hampton Bays. 

The match at West Babylon came down to Albert Darchiev’s bout at 285. Darchiev, a Russian who goes to Ross, where he’s a senior, “gave up 40 pounds to their heavyweight . . . it was the most exciting match of the day.”

Darchiev, who is more familiar with judo and the stand-up Greco-Roman and freestyle forms of wrestling, and who is still accustoming himself to wrestling from the bottom in the folkstyle form used in United States high schools and colleges, ordinarily would wrestle at 220, “but he didn’t make weight,” the coach said, prompting the bump-up.

Using a hip toss, Darchiev threw his opponent, Kevin Aviles, to the mat in the first period, a dramatic, crowd-pleasing move that earned him 5 points (for the takedown and ensuing back points). 

“Later,” Piscitello continued, “their coach told me that kid was the best wrestler on his team. . . . He worked his way back from the 5-0 deficit, defeating Albert 8-5 in the end, but that assured us the win. Had Albert been pinned, the match would have ended in a tie, at 42-42.”

“Albert’s best on his feet — he’s my favorite wrestler to watch,” the coach said, showing this writer an iPhone video of Darchiev’s first-period throw.

“The gym went wild,” Piscitello said. “It’s too bad the match wasn’t here.”

Leading up to Darchiev’s bout, Santi Maya, an eighth grader, won by pin in the first period at 99 pounds, using a lateral drop. Conor Brady, a senior, was pinned at 106, after which East Hampton forfeited at 113. “We don’t have anyone at that weight,” Piscitello said when asked why he’d forfeited.

Caleb Peralta, another eighth grader, “lost a close one, by 7-3, at 120, a match that “went all the way.” Ben Baris, a freshman, lost 5-4 at 126. “They were on their feet at the end and Ben couldn’t get a takedown.”

East Hampton forfeited at 132, a weight that’s usually covered, “but Cole Shaw had a family issue” and forfeited, as well, at 138 — Mike Pulido, who usually wrestles at that weight, being out for the moment for health reasons.

Then things began to turn around as Brian Barrera, at 145, and Brian Usma, at 152, each won by pin — Barrera midway through the first period and Usma at the start of the third, each using half nelsons to pin their opponents’ shoulders to the mat.

Marco Rabanal, East Hampton’s entry at 160, won by forfeit, after which Anthony Franzone “ran a half with the near ankle elevated” to pin his opponent at 170, and Martin Soto “used a power half with the kid flattened out” to win by pin midway through the first period at 182. The string was extended to 36 points when Andreas Koutsogiannis, one of the team’s three seniors, pinned his opponent near the end of the first period at 195. 

East Hampton was up 42-36 when Darchiev and Aviles faced off in the finale.

“The kids were pumped,” Piscitello said when asked how his charges had reacted to their first league win of the season.

As of Friday, Hauppauge (for which Piscitello once wrestled) was in first place in League V, at 6-0, with Kings Park at 4-1, Harborfields at 4-2, East Islip at 2-3, Comsewogue at 2-3, East Hampton at 1-4, and West Babylon at 0-6.

In the match with Harborfields, Koutsogiannis won by forfeit at 195, Darchiev pinned Anthony Christy at the end of the second period, and Sebastian Sanchez, at 285, after going up 4-1 in the first period, was ultimately edged 6-5 by Scott Coleman in double overtime. 

On Saturday, in a tournament at Copiague High School, Koutsogiannis finished third at 195. He was East Hampton’s sole place-winner.

Thursday, January 25

BOYS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Harborfields, 6:45 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Harborfields at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, January 26

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Southold-Greenport at Pierson-Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Southold at Bridgehampton, 6 p.m., and Ross School at Pierson, Sag Harbor, 7:15.

Saturday, January 27

BENEFIT BASKETBALL, Harlem MagicMasters vs. All-Star team including Marcus Edwards, Mikey Russell, Willie McFarland, Rick McFarland, and Keith Gilliam, benefit class of 2020, East Hampton High School gym, 7 p.m. 

Monday, January 29

BOYS BASKETBALL, Pierson at Shelter Island, 5:45 p.m.

Tuesday, January 30

BOYS BASKETBALL, Hauppauge at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Hauppauge, 6:45 p.m.

Wednesday, January 31

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Pierson-Bridgehampton at Babylon, 6:15 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Bridgehampton at Smithtown Christian, 5:30 p.m., and Greenport at Pierson, Sag Harbor, 6:15.  

The East Hampton High School boys swimming team capped a great week and a great season at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter Monday, easily defeating North Babylon to finish at 6-1, the Bonackers’ sole loss, by 9 points, coming at the hands of Hauppauge, the undefeated League II champion.

Those teams will have another go at each other in the league meet at Hauppauge next Thursday.

In Monday’s meet, East Hampton swept the 100 freestyle, with Jack Duryea, Max Bahi, and Thomas Treadwell; went one-two in the 100 breaststroke, with Ethan McCormac and Joey Badilla; went one-two in the 400 free relay; went one-two in the 500, with Conor Flanagan and Will Midson; went one-two in the 200 medley relay, and went one-three in the 200 free (Noah Gualtieri and R.J. Jones), in the 200 individual medley (Ryan Duryea and Owen McCormac), in the 50 free (Thor Botero and Badilla), in the 100 butterfly (Fernando Menjura and Kevin Pineda), in the 100 backstroke (Pineda and Ryan Bahel), and in the 200 free relay.

Earlier in the week, the team, which is coached by Craig Brierley and Brian Cunningham, easily defeated West Islip, winning nine of the 11 contested events, and out-touched Sayville-Bayport 92-88 in the final event, the 400 freestyle relay, by finishing one-two.

In an emailed report of that meet, Brierley said, “Prior to the diving,” which resulted in 10 uncontested points for the home team, East Hampton having no divers, “the score was tied at 31-31. . . . After the 11th event [the 100 breaststroke], it was 86-80 in Sayville’s favor. We would have to go one-two in the finale, the 400 relay, or one-three to finish in a tie.”

“Our A relay team [Menjura, Owen McCormac, Badilla, and Ethan McCormac] had no problem taking first, so it was up to our B team [Bahel, Midson, Pineda, and Aidan Forst] to secure at least a third-place finish to tie. The excitement was up. Our B really was actually holding its position with Sayville’s A relay. We could tell the finish would be really close. . . . Aidan, who has had some shoulder issues recently, had just enough left to catch Sayville’s anchor, out-touching him by .47 of a second for the win.”

For his efforts, not only in the 400 relay, but also in the backstroke leg of the 200 medley relay, and in the 500, Forst was named the swimmer of the meet by the captains, Noah Gualtieri, John Pinos, and Nick Sigua. They and fellow seniors Thomas Treadwell and Kevin Weiss were honored by the coaches before Monday’s meet here before swimming  victory laps.

In related news, the Y.M.C.A.’s youth swim team, the Hurricanes, did well at a recent regional Y meet at the University of Maryland.

Tom Cohill, the team’s coach, said, “Our relay teams were especially impressive, starting off with the 13-14 boys [Menjura, Badilla, Colin Harrison, and Owen McCormac] in the 200 freestyle relay, which they won.”

Menjura, Badilla, Edward Hoff III, and Owen McCormac took fifth in the 13-14 boys 400 freestyle relay. Badilla, Jack Duryea, Menjura, and Owen McCormac were third in the 13-14 200 medley relay and were fourth in the 13-14 400 medley relay.

Summer Jones, Cami Hatch, Margaret Breen, and Jane Brierley placed third in the 11-12 girls 200 free relay; Daisy Pitches, Lily Griffin, Valeria Gutierrez, and Ashley Leon placed fifth in the 9-10 200 medley relay, and the same team placed fourth in the 9-10 200 free relay. 

In open girls competition, Julia Brierley, Sophia Swanson, Caroline Oakland, and Maggie Purcell finished sixth in the 200 free relay, ninth in the 400 medley relay, and 11th in the 200 medley relay.

There were 25 personal bests recorded during the course of the meet, Cohill reported. Eleven of his charges made the finals in individual events.