Three Mariners Earn All-County Honors at Suffolk County Division II Wrestling Championships

The Southampton wrestling team finished the Suffolk County Division II Championships on Saturday with more than double the number of All-County wrestlers it had a year ago. Because of that, head coach Lester Ware said there is a lot to look forward to next season.

Cole Fox-Bathon, who was the only Mariner to place at counties last season by finishing third, repeated that performance this past weekend. After losing to Elwood-John Glenn’s Anthony Bell in the quarterfinals, Fox-Bathon (160 pounds) made quick work, quite literally, of his next opponents, pinning all three, including Shoreham-Wading River’s Nate Spuhler in 31 seconds in the consolation finals to place third. He pinned all four of his opponents in a total 3:43 to earn the Ed Luksik “Most Pins, Least Time” distinction.

Mariners David Castillo-Reyes (285) and Gabe Lopes (152) also earned All-County honors this past weekend by placing third and fourth, respectively. Castillo-Reyes lost his semifinal match to Glenn’s Melkin Chavez, but like Fox-Bathon, pinned his next three opponents, including Glenn’s Zach Berger in the consolation semis, to place third. Also like Fox-Bathon, had their semifinal opponents, who they lost to, won their county finals matches, they would have been able to wrestle for a wild card bid, or what’s also known as “true second,” for a trip to the New York State Division II Championships. But both of their opponents lost in the county championships dashing those hopes.

Lopes, who Ware thought was the biggest emergence out of the tournament for his team, lost a hard-fought consolation final to Glenn’s Jasai McKay. But previous to that, he had defeated Mount Sinai’s Caden Smith, 4-2, in a sudden victory overtime and pinned Bayport-Blue Point’s Jack McDonald in 2:38 in his first wrestleback match.

“We have something to build on,” Ware said with his now three All-County wrestlers. “Prior to Saturday, we had one All-County kid returning, so we had a lot of inexperience. David really established himself as a serious contender. He had a really close match with the first seed in the county, even had him on his back for a short while in the first period of their match.

“I’d say between him and Gabe, they’re the most athletic kids on the team, but we also had the team leaders in wins all season with Hudson Fox and Juan Pichardo, who had each won 16 matches.”

Pichardo (126), in what Ware said was inexperience and being in the spotlight of his first county tournament, lost his first two matches of the day to get eliminated. Hudson Fox-Bathon (152), Cole’s younger brother, had a little bit of a controversial semifinal match with Port Jefferson’s Liam Rogers.

Hudson didn’t waste any time putting Rogers in a headlock and putting him on his back merely seconds into their match. It appeared that Hudson was going to get the pin and reach the county final. Instead, Rogers had screamed out that he was having trouble breathing under Hudson’s headlock and the referee decided to stop the match instead of calling the pin. Hudson had a 6-0 lead because of his takedown and three back points, plus an extra point for the stoppage of the match, but Hudson was confused as to why the pin wasn’t called instead.

Rogers wound up pinning Hudson in 1:30 to move on to the county final where he was pinned by Shoreham’s Joe Steimel.

“That’s a horrible thing, what happened to Hudson,” Ware said. “He threw Rogers down and must have had him on his back for 20 seconds, at least, until he screamed, which he did because he knew he wasn’t getting out of it. It was a real bush call by the referee to stop the match and a bush move by the kid. I feel for Hudson. And there’s nothing I can do if the referee gives in to the scream as opposed to just calling the pin instead. If he wasn’t pinned, he couldn’t have been more than an eighth of an inch off the mat. Hudson would have went upstate had he won that match.

“I’m happy for the kids that did well, and I wouldn’t take anything away from Hudson and Juan. These were very much breakout seasons for them,” Ware said. “A year ago, Hudson was behind both Adrian [Gonzalez] and Alex [Boyd] all season. He maybe had a few wins last year. He really showed up this year. And this was really his first county tournament experience, and it’s a different kind of experience than a weekend Saturday tournament. No matter how big some of them may be, you really can’t replicate the county tournament experience. And some kids really thrive in that type of setting, while others have to go a couple times. I think that may be the case with both Hudson and Juan.”

Castillo-Reyes, the Fox-Bathon brothers, Lopes, Pichardo and Liam Squires, who Ware said also had a solid season before breaking his thumb two weeks prior to the county tournament, are all returning and will be the core of the team next season.

“From our middle weights on to our heavy weights, we really have something to look forward to,” Ware said. “The kids have something they can feel good about, how they did this past weekend, but also hungry and wanting to do more now with a little confidence behind them.”