East Hampton Wrestling Honors Its Seniors at Bonac Duals

The East Hampton/Pierson/Bridgehampton wrestling team head coach Ethan Mitchell would like to say the Bonac Duals, as it’s come to be known by now, has become exactly how he drew it up — but he admitted that was far from the truth.

Three years ago, the Bonackers were hosting their final dual meet of the season when a couple of the kid wrestlers were on hand and the middle school wrestlers were just finishing up practicing on the varsity mats instead of the cafeteria, so they’ve all been at the forefront of it all from the beginning. Since then, the wrestling program has built itself up quite a bit to where this past Thursday, January 30, just over a dozen senior wrestlers were recognized on Senior Night. Couple all of that with a nonleague tri-meet with Comsewogue and William Floyd and it made for a very festive night as the Bonackers gear up for the postseason.

Following the junior varsity matches, the night officially got underway when assistant coach Greg Schaffer led the varsity wrestlers down the long hallway leading to the high school gym and onto the mats while playing the bagpipes. A former member of the Suffolk County Police Department Emerald Society Pipes and Drums, Schaffer played his bagpipes in front of the high school on the last day of last school year. The current seniors said then they wanted him to play in their final match, so he obliged, regalia and all.

Varsity wrestling then got underway, where action was had on a pair of mats. The Bonackers eked out a close 32-30 victory over Comsewogue while suffering a 46-17 loss to Floyd.

After the final match, Mitchell honored all of the team’s seniors. He had something prepared to say about each one, and then their family members came down to the mat to take photos. The seniors included Adam Beckwith, Andy Berezueta, Liam Cashin, John Chillogalli, Aman Chugh, Josue Elias, Justin Guachun-Sayay, Reno Manion, Anthony Petersohn, Justin Prince, Juan Roque and Esteban Velez.

Mitchell said it was one of, if not the, biggest group of seniors that he’s had, and it was quite the range of wrestlers. Not everyone was a four-year starter like Beckwith or Roque. There were some first-year seniors like Cashin and Chillogalli who wanted to see what they can do, and are now singing the praises of the sport like so many often do.

The Bonackers then competed in the Phantom Duals at Bayport-Blue Point High School on Saturday. They defeated the host Phantoms, 42-30, and Riverhead, 50-11, before falling to Central Islip, 38-35. Beckwith and Roque each went 3-0 on the day.

East Hampton now turns its attention to the postseason, starting with the League III Championships that will place at Smithtown East High School this Saturday, February 8. The Bonackers are looking to build off of last year’s positive results at the League IV Championships, where Juan Espinoza was the program’s first league champion since 2018 and was one of five who qualified for counties.

Mitchell said if his wrestlers can double that number of qualifiers this weekend, he’d be a very happy man. With a relatively healthy squad, it’s very possible.

“We try to plan the program around peaking into the postseason,” he said. “We hope that at this point of the season, they’ve bought in and trust us and they can just let it fly and have some fun. I think we showed last year what we can do and we have four of the five All-League guys returning ready to rock and roll. We’re in a tough league. But it’s not a deep league. So while there’s a handful of good teams like North Babylon, Smithtown East and Huntington, they of course have their studs, but they’re spread out and don’t go all that deep in the weight classes.”