East Hampton's Caleb Peralta Is Heading To The Suffolk County Division I Wrestling Championships

Caleb Peralta accomplished a long-awaited and much anticipated goal this past Saturday at the League V Championships at East Islip High School. For the first time in his five-year tenure, the East Hampton senior is going to the Suffolk County Division I Wrestling Championships.

Peralta punched his ticket to counties after defeating East Islip’s Logan Alfalla, 4-0, in the semifinals. Although Peralta lost a 12-2 major decision to Vincent Ziccardi of Kings Park in the league championship match to place second, he already knew he was going to counties by placing in the top four of his weight class (126 pounds).

Peralta is Bonac’s first wrestler to reach a league final since Andreas Koutsogiannis was league champion in 2018. Counties are this Saturday and Sunday at Bay Shore High School. There are a limited number of spectators allowed each day of the tournament, and all tickets are sold via an online portal. Go to sectionxi.org for more information.

“I’m really grateful that I placed second,” Peralta said after the tournament. “Moments like these are where champions are made, not only made, but where champions are built.

“I’m going back tomorrow to the mat, the wrestling room, just change everything up again, get ready for counties and hopefully that goes well.”

Not having a season last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic put a complete halt on Peralta’s chances of getting to counties, but he mentioned all of the help he’s gotten along the way to get to where he is now.

“Thankfully, I have some support at home and here at the school,” he said. “I’ve got my brother [Michael] that’s been helping me out, basically since I could walk on two legs. He helps me out a lot. The support’s been awesome.”

East Hampton head coach Ethan Mitchell could not have been more proud of Peralta, he said, win or lose for the league championship. It would have been great had he pulled off what would have been a huge upset over a former All-State wrestler in Ziccardi, but it was equally as great, Mitchell said, that he held his own. Peralta fought off multiple near falls in the first period, going down, 7-1, after the first two minutes, but didn’t give up much after that.

Peralta is 25-6 on the season with five of those six losses coming against former All-State wrestlers. Mitchell said losing to a wrestler like Ziccardi puts Peralta in a good seed at counties, having an easier route to reach the county final if not at least placing at counties.

“Outside of the first seed and the second seed, he has probably the best route he could have, meeting the second seed in the semis,” he explained. “I think he has an awesome spot.”

And although this will be Peralta’s first time at counties, he’s more of a seasoned wrestler than, say, an underclassmen would be, so Mitchell thinks he has what it takes to do well this weekend.

“He’s been in the atmosphere before. He’s gone to Brentwood every year he’s been in high school, whether he was there to watch at least, or whatever,” he said. “This year being at Bay Shore, being a little bit of a smaller venue, it might not be too much of a shellshock. He certainly wrestled here with this East Islip presence and this is quite the atmosphere. This was awesome.”

Where the league wrestling tournaments can be some of the most satisfying events of the season, as they can determine who qualifies for counties, they can be equally unforgiving if wrestlers don’t make it past the quarterfinals, and that’s what happened to senior co-captain Santi Maya. Competing in arguably the deepest weight class in the league, Maya suffered an 11-8 loss to Dean Renna of Kings Park, who wound up placing second.

“The League V 132-pound weight class will probably have four All-County kids,” Mitchell said. “Those ups and downs during the season really add up though. It’s a long season, it’s a grueling season. We all get banged up.”

Mitchell, overall, was happy how things went for his team. But he would have liked some of his younger wrestlers to get more matches in and possibly better seeds at the tournament to get them in better positions. Luke Castillo (138 pounds) pinned his first-round opponent, Eastport-South Manor’s Thomas Misciagno, in 50 seconds, but then lost to eventual runner-up Randy Cabrera of Westhampton Beach.