When Bronco Campsey takes the mat, he always wrestles to win. That’s never been more apparent than at the 2026 New York State Public High School Athletic Association State Championships in Albany last weekend, where the junior from Pierson High School clawed back from a loss in the second round to place fifth in the state in the 126-pound weight class.
“It’s been an amazing season. We are all so proud of him,” said Ethan Mitchell, his head coach. “In wrestling we have two big messages at tournaments — ‘next best thing,’ which is applied everywhere. The goal to start the match is to get the first takedown, but the next best thing, if you don’t, is to get an escape, then get the second takedown, which puts you in the lead. Then we also preach ‘finish odd,’ which means you win your last match, which is so hard in the longevity of the consolation bracket. Bronco wrestled six matches. Four of them were in the wrestlebacks and four were in one day with little time in between. Bronco showed a lot of grit and how tough Bubs can be.”
Campsey started the championships with a win, beating Cartier Perez, a senior from Islip, in a 5-0 decision. He then lost his second match to Kelly Sullivan, a sophomore at Monroe-Woodbury, in a 6-4 decision. Sullivan would go on to take second place, while Campsey’s loss triggered a challenging series of wrestlebacks that he met head-on.
“I was incredibly proud to be a part of it and to get to watch him those two days, representing East Hampton in such an amazing light,” said Kathy Masterson, East Hampton’s athletic director.
Campsey stumbled in the consolation semifinals, losing to Tristan Levin, a senior at Tottenville, in a 13-5 major decision. Levin would go on to win the bronze medal. Campsey may have lost, but he wasn’t defeated, digging deep to win his final match, an 8-0 major decision against Vincent Mastrianni, a senior from Colonie.
“Bronco didn’t finish where he wanted to, but his last two matches were crazy. He really pulled it through to get fifth place,” Masterson said. “He’s a very driven young man and he’s going to do great things in his life, without a doubt, because he is so driven at such a young age.”
Campsey’s age is, perhaps, the best consolation prize of all. A junior, he’s already broken nearly every wrestling record in East Hampton’s program, and still has a year to go. He finishes this season with 126 wins, decimating the previous record of 102. He is also the only Bonacker to become a two-time Suffolk County champion, to qualify for the state meet twice, and to go all-state twice.
“He’s 43-6 on the season,” Coach Mitchell said. “I can’t find official records of how many wins Eric Kaufman had his senior year [back in the 1980s], but I don’t think it was more than 40, so unofficially Bronco also has the single season record for wins at 43. He’s also approaching our career pin record of 63 held by Adam Beckwith [who graduated in 2025]. Bronco has 52. This young man has very few records left to break here at Bonac. He has cemented himself as one of our greats and stepped into being our GOAT with a year left to smash more records.”
