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Ready to Mix It Up at League Meet

Thu, 02/02/2023 - 09:38
Juan Roque, at right, who wrestles at 118 pounds for East Hampton High’s wrestling team, won that division at the recent Anthony Cipriano Invitational Tournament at Copiague High School. 
Craig Macnaughton

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.


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