Petersohn Represents Bonac Wrestling at Division I Counties

Although two of its wrestlers had qualified for the Suffolk County Division I Wrestling Championships, the East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton wrestling team wound up with just one of its wrestlers representing the program at the tournament that was held on February 13 and 14 at Stony Brook University.

Anthony Petersohn competed in the 110-pound weight class, and although he was pinned by Hauppauge’s Jason Difrietus in 4:45, his head coach Ethan Mitchell said it was much closer than that final result made it appear to be. After giving up a takedown early in the match, Petersohn rode Difrietus out well on top, Mitchell said, more aggressively than he had all season, which was a good thing to see.

“We had been asking him to do that all season, and it was nice to see him be that aggressive. But it wasn’t enough this late in the season to get the W,” he said. “But he progressed tremendously this season. I think he got to see what it was like wrestling in Suffolk County Division I as opposed to wrestling at a Catholic school in Xavier like he had previously. He’s only a sophomore, and we’re really hoping he’ll be a part of a group of juniors that we have coming back who we can make a lot of noise with the next two years and place.”

After placing fourth at the League IV Championships a week prior, Luke Castillo was expected to compete for the Bonackers in the 138-pound weight class, but that same knee injury that made him forfeit his consolation finals match at leagues wound up deciding his fate at counties. It became clear early in the week leading up to counties, Mitchell said, that Castillo’s knee wasn’t going to hold up, and with his lacrosse season looming this spring, all parties thought it would be best to hold him out.

But Castillo did make the trip to the tournament and was able to cheer on his teammate in Petersohn and take in the atmosphere of a county tournament for the first time.

“Definitely a bummer, especially considering he competed really well with a couple of guys who did well and even placed in the county,” Mitchell said. “He could have beaten, I feel, the League III champ [East Islip’s Justin Shayew] in his first round match, and that kid would up placing fifth in the county, so it would have been a really cool test for him to see where he is against some of the best in the county.”

The Bonackers are losing a handful of senior wrestlers who had success this season in J.P. Amaden, Steve Baculima, Cooper Ceva and Jose Calderon, to name a few, but with their two county qualifiers in Castillo and Petersohn returning, and a number of underclassmen behind them, Mitchell is confident that the program will only continue to get better from this point forward.

“I’m expecting the posts left by the seniors to be filled up pretty quickly. We had such a strong sophomore base this season that made so many strides, along with the juniors,” he said. “Considering all of the COVID restrictions will be off, we’re expecting a big offseason. I challenged the team and those returning to wrestle in 100 or more matches before start of next season, and that could be a major factor in crossing over from being an average team to being a good team. Take Luke for example. As a junior, he’s only wrestled in 30 matches total in his career. So we have to provide opportunities for the kids to get that experience and I think we’ll be going from eight or so kids to a full roster of 13 going to camp this offseason and even just that should help them gain that mat experience.”