In recent high school sports action, Juan Roque, who competes at 124 pounds for East Hampton’s wrestling team, placed sixth in that division in the county tournament last weekend, the first county semifinalist East Hampton has had since Jarrel Walker advanced that far in 2003, Bonac’s coach, Ethan Mitchell, said Sunday.
Walker placed fifth at 275 pounds in the 2002 and 2003 county tournaments; Axel Alanis placed sixth at 195 pounds in 2015.
Craig Brierley, who coaches East Hampton’s boy swimming team, was, likewise, happy to report that the team placed ninth among 22 schools in the county meet that was held over the weekend at Stony Brook University. Equally pleasing was the fact, he said, that there were a number of personal best times, turned in by Emmet McCormac, a senior and one of the team’s captains, in all four events he vied in — the 200 freestyle relay, the 400 free relay, the 50 free, and the 100 free — and by Nick Chavez, a freshman, in the 200 individual medley and in the 100 backstroke, and Liam Knight, a sophomore, in his 400 free relay leg.
Knight, who finished eighth in the 200 free and 12th in the 100 back — just behind Chavez — was the team’s high scorer, with 16 points. Chavez’s efforts earned the team 12 points. McCormac, East Hampton’s “swimmer of the meet,” dropped a total of 5.61 seconds in his four events; Chavez dropped a total of 5.1 in his.
“The boys gave their best efforts, a testament to what makes our team special each year,” Brierley said in an emailed report. “This was another season where a group of wonderful boys grew into a family and held up the standards from previous years.”
Back to wrestling, Mitchell said that Roque was decisioned 6-3 in a semifinal match “by an all-state kid.” He added that Bronco Campsey at 101 “won one match and then lost to two guys who placed,” that Juan Espinoza, a league champion at 215, “won two matches before being put out in the wrestlebacks,” that Luke Castillo at 145 “went 3-2 on the day, losing in ‘the blood round’ on the second day,” and that Adam Beckwith, East Hampton’s 170-pounder, went 0-2.
1,000-Point Scorer
In South Fork gyms this past week, Luke Seltzer, a Pierson (Sag Harbor) High School senior forward, scored his 1,000th point during the first quarter of the Whalers’ 61-41 win over Babylon Friday, and East Hampton, plagued by poor shooting, lost 34-29 to East Islip.
Pierson’s win was its 11th in League VI competition vis-a-vis two losses. The Whalers were to have played for a share of the League VI championship with favored Southampton at Pierson Tuesday, weather permitting.
Looking ahead to the county tournament, Dan White, Pierson’s coach, said, “We’ll either play Mattituck or Babylon for the county Class C championship at Southampton High School on February 29. Even though we’ve beaten each of them twice this season, both teams make me nervous — our games with them have been close at the half.”
Bill McKee, East Hampton’s coach, said of Friday’s loss, “There was a lot of action — the effort was there. Obviously we did the job defensively, by holding them to 34, but, as has been the case all season, our shooting was pretty poor. Even so, we had a chance to tie it at the end, but were unable to score.”
Though his charges, three of them sophomores, could not be faulted for not trying, it had been, McKee said, given the erratic shooting, and illnesses, and injuries, “a trying season. . . . Yes, their decision-making will improve with practice, and we’ll give them every opportunity to do so. We’ll have open gym four nights a week all summer during which they’ll be able to compete with older guys.”
The 2-13 Bonackers were to have finished the season at 10-5 Amityville Tuesday.