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Isaiah Thomas recognized a few faces at the Sprig Gardner Tournament at East Hampton High School on Saturday, but overall, he was quite unfamiliar with the competition. Considering that before Saturday, he hadn’t been part of a wrestling match since he was in junior high, it was not unusual that most of the other grapplers in attendance were strangers to him.
Familiarity with his opponents was not, apparently, a necessary element for success for the Southampton junior, who was the champion in the 215-pound weight class at the competitive meet, which featured two of the top Division I programs in Suffolk County as well as several other talented teams.
In his first varsity competition, Thomas steamrolled his way to the title, winning his first three bouts with pins before beating East Hampton’s Nick Jarboe 11-3 in the semifinals. In the championship match, Thomas won with a pin in 1:30 to finish a very successful day. He was the only member of a largely young and inexperienced Mariners team to place in the top six, but head coach Lester Ware said that Thomas’s performance was worth the trip east and the long day of wrestling for the entire team.
“He did real well,” Ware said. “He hasn’t wrestled since middle school and it was a big meet. Westhampton has one of the best teams in the county and Riverhead is a great team too. For Isaiah to have won that meet is a sign that he’s going to have a very good season.”
Ware said that Thomas recognized some of his opponents from middle school and from the kid wrestling program he took part in as a youngster. After his performance on Saturday, it’s likely that other wrestlers will remember Thomas from now on.
“I was pleased with him and how he did,” Ware said. “I was impressed with how calm he was and how he handled the pressure of each match. He wrestled pretty smart. If he had made a mistake, Jarboe or the kid he faced in the final could’ve really done something to him.”
Although no other Southampton wrestlers placed, Ware said he was happy with the performance of junior Franklin Dominguez (189 pounds) who pinned his first opponent before losing to Bobby Garone of Westhampton Beach.
“Some of the other kids, they didn’t wrestle badly,” Ware said. “But it was the first match of the season, so they were a little tentative and with the level of competition that was there, you didn’t have a chance to be tentative. That tournament is tougher than the county meet they have coming.”
Ware said he thought the tournament was beneficial as a learning experience and said that for the rest of the team, seeing one of their teammates perform well was a positive.
“It was a long day, but all in all, to have a kid win and other kids to see that success is a place to build upon. They all have something to aspire to.”
The Mariners will be back on the mats on Wednesday, January 6, when they take on both Hampton Bays and Port Jefferson in a League VII tri-meet that will start at 4:30 in Hampton Bays.
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