Hampton Bays Hosts Annual Doc Fallot Memorial Dual Meet Wrestling Tournament

The Hampton Bays wrestling team hosted its annual Doc Fallot Memorial Dual Meet Tournament on Saturday, with teams from all over Long Island participating.

Along with all four South Fork programs — host Hampton Bays, East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton/Ross, Southampton and Westhampton Beach — Connetquot, Islip, Oceanside, St. John the Baptist and Ward Melville all competed.

Hampton Bays head coach Mike Lloyd said that while there were no specific placements, Connetquot (5-0) and Oceanside (4-1) would have to be considered the two top schools in the tournament simply based on their records on the day.

As for Lloyd and his young Baymen wrestlers, the tournament more than served its purpose in getting them much-needed mat time against formidable opponents.

“The tournament ran very smoothly,” Lloyd said. “We didn’t end up winning any of our duals as a team, however, it was a great learning experience for many of our younger wrestlers. We were able to rotate guys in and out and get others exhibition matches so that everyone was able to get some mat time out of the day.”

Neighboring district Westhampton Beach went 2-3 on the day, picking up victories over Hampton Bays and Ward Melville, the latter of which, Hurricanes head coach Jacob Restrepo said, was a big one, avenging a loss to Ward Melville last season. The ’Canes won five straight weights from 152-215, capped off with pins from Imanol Osorio (190) and Connor Rodgers (215).

“It’s a good tournament for us to go out and see how our lineup is against some good competition,” Restrepo said, “to see what guys are wrestling at which weights and how we stack up against other schools. It was the boys’ first experience wrestling in a dual meet this season, and I think it’s important they got to see that going into the dual meet season and that they really have to try and score extra points for the team in these situations.”

Southampton’s only victory of the tournament came against Islip’s “B” team, 42-36, which included a number of forfeits from both teams. But Jackson Garcia did pin his opponent at 285 pounds. Garcia also pinned his opponent against St. John the Baptist, as did Liam Squires (145) and Edward Gaspariano (124). Hudson Fox, one of Southampton’s top wrestlers, missed the tournament with an illness but his brother Cole made his long-awaited return.

East Hampton’s only loss, 32-30, was to St. John the Baptist. Austin “Bronco” Campsey (101) and Juan Roque (124) won their matches via quick pins. Luke Castillo (138), Michael Newmark (145) and Alex Cabrera (160) all won their matches as well; Cabrera winning via pin. Adam Beckwith (170) and Francesco Palombino (285) each won their matches against St. John the Baptist as well.

The tournament worked as a good tuneup for all four South Fork teams that jump into their respective league dual meet schedules this week.

Hampton Bays hosts Elwood-John Glenn on Friday at 5:15 p.m. before competing in a tournament at Islip the following day.

Westhampton Beach will wrestle at Comsewogue on Friday at 6 p.m., before taking the weekend off and then hosting East Islip on December 20 at 4:30 p.m.

Southampton is slated to wrestle at Center Moriches this Friday at 4:30 p.m. before competing in the Rick Hermann Tournament at Bellport on Saturday.

And East Hampton wrestled at Smithtown West on Wednesday before hosting West Babylon on Friday at 5 p.m.

L. Robert “Doc” Fallot was considered by many a pioneer in sports medicine. Born in Amityville, where he originally started off as a team doctor, then later on in Lindenhurst, Hampton Bays and East Hampton, Fallot was well known in the wrestling community for over three decades and was known specifically for his groundbreaking medical techniques when it came to the “cauliflower ear.”

Fallot was the attending physician for many years at the New York State Wrestling Championships, New York Athletic Club tournaments and was the team physician for the 1964 United States Olympic wrestling team. He was inducted into the New York State Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1972, named Suffolk County Wrestling Man of the Year in 1976 and inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007, posthumously.

In 1993, a year after he died, the Section XI Suffolk County Wrestling Championship was renamed in his honor to the Doc Fallot Memorial Suffolk County Wrestling Championships. The Doc Fallot Scholarship Fund was also created in his memory and awards a substantial college scholarship every spring to a deserving Suffolk County wrestler.