Southampton's Top Wrestlers Appear To Be On Their Way To Peaking At The Right Time

The Southampton wrestling team wrapped up its League VII schedule last week, finishing with a 3-3 record, tying both Bayport-Blue Point and Mattituck/Greenport/Southold for fourth place. It’s not exactly eye-popping, Mariners head coach Lester Ware admitted, but the way some of his top wrestlers are currently performing is.

In their final dual meet of the season at Mattituck, Friday night, which was a 42-30 loss, a handful of Mariners defeated some top-ranked opponents. Alex Boyd, wrestling up a weight class at 132 pounds, pinned Carson Cornell in 1:32, while Riley Lenahan defeated Tate Klipstein, 15-13, at 172 pounds and Brad Bockhaus defeated Hunter Anderson, 5-2. As of the most recent Suffolk County Division II rankings from January 9, Anderson and Cornell were both ranked third in their respective weights, while Klipstein was the top-ranked wrestler at 172.

Lenahan was ranked fourth at 189 but, thanks to a number of big wins last week, should be higher when the most current rankings are released. Because he missed the first few weeks of the season due to an injury, Bockhaus wasn’t ranked, but should be in the next rankings, as should Boyd, Ware said. They should join Adrian Gonzalez (fourth at 138) and Johan Moraxtitla (third at 215) who were already ranked. Ware also said that those victories for those wrestlers — Boyd, Lenahan and Bockhaus — all but solidified the decisions for them to appear at those weights at counties, which are less than a month away.

Postponements due to COVID created a bit of logjam for Southampton last week, with three dual meets then the Copiague Tournament on Saturday. Prior to meeting up with Mattituck, the Mariners hosted Port Jefferson on January 12, a match they lost, 51-21, after having defeated host Babylon, 48-30, the day prior. In both matches, many of the same wrestlers who did well at Mattituck had shown they were on top of their games. Boyd pinned his Port Jeff opponent in 18 seconds and Lenahan pinned Anthony Pipia, ranked second in the county at the time, in 1:36. Bockhaus also had his Port Jeff opponent on his back for most of the first period, but eventually won a 5-1 decision. He had also pinned Babylon’s Jacob Bender, ranked third in the county at 172, in 5:34 in last week’s dual meet with the Panthers.

“The kids that are mature wrestlers at this point are really ready to win,” Ware said. “I never had any doubt that Riley was ready to be the top kid wherever he wrestled, whether it was 172 or 189. We were hoping to get Brad back from his sprained ankle earlier in the season than we did. Had we had him, we would have made some of those dual meets we lost a little bit closer.

“But Riley is our best of those upper weights, and Brad is a better wrestler than Johan, who has had a heck of a season,” he continued. “So no matter where I put them — and I’ll even throw Dylan White into that mix — they should, at the very least, finish All-County.”

Ware said that Gonzalez was really his lone wrestler who stood out at the Copiague Tournament on Saturday, going 4-1 on the day to finish third at 138.

Between now and counties, which aren’t until February 11, Ware said the biggest thing for his wrestlers now is to stay healthy, both on and off the mats. They have a few things scheduled between now and then, hosting a tri-meet with East Hampton and Centereach this Saturday, January 22, and then competing in the Sachem East Tournament a week later.

“I feel pretty good where they’re at,” Ware said of his wrestlers. “I have kids getting right at the right time. As long as we keep everyone healthy, we should have fun in three weeks.”