East Hampton wrestling had a mixed weekend — earning a strong league win over Eastport on Friday, but struggling on Saturday at the annual Doc Fallot Dual Tournament in Hampton Bays, where the team dropped all five matches. Coach Ethan Mitchell said the wrestlers are having a tough time with their weight classes.
“Most of our lineup is not at the weight classes they look to compete in after the two-pound allowance at Christmas,” Mitchell said. “It’s tough when forfeiting two weight classes.”
In high school wrestling, each weight class increases by two pounds after Christmas, allowing wrestlers certified at a lower weight to move up without penalty. It’s designed to accommodate natural growth and ease weight cutting.
There were some notable performances over the weekend. Bronco Campsey, a Pierson junior and defending county champion, went 6-0 with
Juan Espinoza, a senior who was voted the most outstanding Bonac wrestler of the Sprig Gardner Invitational a week earlier, went 6-0 with six pins. Franco Palombino, also a senior, went 5-1 with five pins. Chris Amay, a junior, went 4-1 with two pins and a tech.
In spite of the team’s struggles at Doc Fallot, Mitchell isn’t concerned about the season. “We saw a lot of good things, and any mistakes they made are fixable.” The tournament is named for L. Robert (Doc) Fallot, who was considered a pioneer in sports medicine. Fallot was born in Amityville, where he was a team doctor, later working in Lindenhurst, Hampton Bays, and East Hampton. Fallot was highly regarded in the wrestling community for over 30
Fallot was inducted into the New York State Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1972 and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007. He died in 1992. A year later, the Section XI Suffolk County Wrestling Championship was renamed to honor him, and the Doc Fallot Scholarship Fund was created to give a substantial college scholarship to a Suffolk County wrestler each spring.
