Baymen Wrestling Set To Get The Season Underway

There is a buzz surrounding the Hampton Bays wrestling team this season. With increasing numbers, and the majority of the team returning from a season ago, the Baymen are excited to get on the mats and get the season underway.

Jackson Perez is the lone senior who graduated last season and his skill and experience will be missed. He was All-County on multiple occasions, placing second at 220 last year. Returning junior Willy Kraus is the only other wrestler to place at counties last season for the Baymen, but head coach Mike Lloyd likes his team’s chances of improving upon that this season with the majority of the lineup returning from a season ago with added experience.

Sophomores Angel Peralta (106 pounds) and Sebastian Valencia (120) will fill out the lower weights for the Baymen this season while Kraus will be wrestling at 126 this season after placing fourth in the county at 113 last season. Then Hampton Bays has a logjam of five wrestlers between 126 and 132 pounds in junior co-captain Nick Pacheco, Logan Grismer, Jonanthony Tarlen, River Orlando and Kevin Sohtz. Junior co-captain Nick Corredor will compete at 138 with fellow junior Steve Ramos, and sophomore Alex Velasquez has bumped up to 145. Senior Michael Blanco, juniors Kevin Osorio and Joe Gaudiello and sophomore Will Krivickas are all vying for two starting spots at 160 and 170 while Marek Maslowski, a sophomore, is returning to his 285-pound spot. New to the team this season are first-year senior wrestlers Kevin Eras (285), Kevin McNamara (138) and Jake Montgomery (195). Sophomores Thomas Fassino (113) and Michael Bacuilima (152) are up from junior varsity. The only hole on the team early on is at 99 pounds, Lloyd said.

“The breadth of talent this season, combined with the high number of returning wrestlers, should mean for an exciting group to watch,” he said. “I think the difference in the lineup is a combination of a few different factors. The last few classes had higher rates of participation, and as a football coach the last two seasons, I was actively recruiting football players that would not normally do a winter sport.”

Lloyd added that the addition of assistant coach Craig Mielenhausen, who is taking over for Dan Garvey, who is now teaching overseas, has been a boon to the program as well. Mielenhausen was the head coach of the middle school team; Dave Orlando has now taken over that post.

“Craig as the middle school coach also had good consistent contact with some of our younger wrestlers to keep them involved,” Lloyd said.

Hampton Bays will continue to compete in Division II/League VIII this season. Division II, as it has the past few seasons with the state changing its enrollment numbers, continues its facelift this season with perennial Division I powerhouse Elwood/John Glenn moving down to Division II/League VII, following Mount Sinai, which had moved down last season and won the DII county title. Bayport/Blue Point, Mattituck and Shoreham/Wading River make up the rest of League VII. Hampton Bays won’t have to compete against any of those teams in regular season dual-meet matches, but it will have to contend with them at the county meet.

As far as League VIII is concerned, Center Moriches returns a dozen or so seniors to a team that placed second in the county last season and is the early favorite to win the league title. Babylon, Port Jefferson and Southampton round out the league.

The Baymen competed at the Sprig Gardner Memorial Tournament in East Hampton on Saturday. Kraus defeated top-seed Gavin McIntyre of Westhampton Beach, 4-0, to win the 126-pound weight class. Kraus won his first two matches by technical fall before pinning Bayport’s Shane Santora in the semifinals. He was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. Corredor placed fourth at 138.

Hampton Bays hosted Commack in a non-league match on Wednesday and will host Glenn in another non-league match a week later on December 12. That following weekend on December 15, the Baymen will host their annual Doc Fallot Memorial Dual Meet Tournament. Their first league dual meet is at Babylon on December 19 at 4:30 p.m.