Brad Bockhaus Is Southampton's First County Champion Since 2015

Senior Brad Bockhaus has been on the varsity wrestling team for six years. But when you take into account kid wrestling, he’s been under the tutelage of his head coach, Lester Ware, for a decade.

That’s why when Bockhaus defeated Elwood-John Glenn’s Alon Alkeali, 5-4, for the 189-pound county title at the Suffolk County Division II Championships at Mattituck High School on Friday night, it brought a wave of emotion for everyone involved.

“I welled up when Bradley won,” Ware admitted after the match. “I think that’s the longest I’ve had a kid. The kid just loved wrestling, loved being in the room, loved being in the room with all of the kids.

“This group, they had some hardships,” he added. “This was supposed to be the best group that I’ve ever had and Bradley survived and it was a beautiful thing.”

Bockhaus was the only Mariner to reach the finals of his respective weight class. After pinning his first two opponents in a combined 37 seconds, Bockhaus defeated Shoreham/Wading River’s John LaValle, the second-seeded wrestler in the bracket, 5-1, to move on to the finals.

After a period of no action, Alkeali scored the first two points of the finals, but Bockhaus got one back on an escape. Then, with about 15 seconds remaining in the second period, Bockhaus took down Alkeali for two points to take a 3-2 lead into the third and final period. Bockhaus took Alkeali down again with about a minute remaining in the match and basically rode out his 5-1 lead for the rest of the match.

Bockhaus is Southampton’s first county champion since Colby Lenahan, Chris Osufsen and Peter Strassfield all won titles in 2015. With his first ever county title in hand, Bockhaus qualified for the New York State Division II Championships, which are next Friday and Saturday, February 25-26, at MVP Arena in Albany.

Bockhaus said hitting the weight room is what led to his big win.

“Working out is awesome. Not just for wrestling, but in general. It builds confidence mentally, physically, whatever, helps with any sport,” he explained. “I wouldn’t have gone this far if I hadn’t started working out. I have no technique, so I try and use my strength to my advantage and that’s what got me through this far.”

“I was extraordinarily nervous,” he admitted. “I can’t even describe it. I was just, like, scared, especially when I was holding him down. I was holding on to him for dear life. I was like bear-hugging him. I was nervous, but thank God I was able to win. I really, really wanted that. It’s stress-free now. I go to states. It’s pretty awesome.”

Fellow seniors Alex Boyd (132 pounds) and Adrian Gonzalez (138) and sophomore Cole Fox (152) all placed third in their respective weight classes, marking the first time since 2015 the team has had four All-County wrestlers. Riley Lenahan (172) and Johan Moraxtitla (285) were ranked wrestlers for Southampton for much of the season, but neither wrestled at counties due to injuries.

A new rule this year called “true second” allowed those wrestlers who lost in the semis to wrestle for second place, and therefore a bid to states, as long as they placed third and the opponent they lost to in the semis was county champion. This occurred for Boyd, who lost his semifinal match to Mattituck’s Joe Sparacio, who went on to win the county title.

So Boyd went to the Suffolk County Division I Championships at Bay Shore High School on Saturday morning to wrestle Shoreham’s Tristan Petretti for true second and a trip to states, but he lost.

Boyd, a senior, who pinned both of his opponents in the consolations, was hoping to pull off an upset of Sparacio, but overall was happy with how his tournament went, and overall his season.

“It was my last year,” he said. “I had fun with the boys. I got to wrestle. It was a good year, didn’t get canceled.”

Gonzalez had the tough job of trying to upset Shoreham’s Craig Jablonski in the semis, which he couldn’t do. But he did win a major decision in the consolation semis, then took third with an 8-4 victory.

Fox was winning his semifinal match by as many as eight points when he tried to hit a gator roll, a move he said he had been perfecting in practice. But it backfired when he lost his grip and went straight on his back, making for an easy pin for Mattituck freshman James Felakos.

Fox, a sophomore who will be the clear returning leader for next year’s team with 20 wins this past season, admitted afterward it was a disappointing tournament for him despite being able to wrestle back strong and place third.

“I really didn’t want to go home without taking first,” he said. “I slipped up, but I wasn’t going to go home taking fourth. I was really hoping to make it to the finals, that was my main goal. I wish I did better.”

“I woke up this morning, thought I could do well, but on the bus ride here, I started to get in my head, not going to lie,” Fox added. “And then while we were here waiting for the match, I see my own teammates that were winning and that helped me with my mentality. But after my semis match, I couldn’t take another L. I needed to win.”

Ware said he appreciated the way all of his wrestlers fought back after losing in the semis, especially Fox.

“What life’s about is how we live with the boneheaded moves we make. Do we recover? Do we learn from them? Do we go forward? Or do we let it kill us? And I think Cole, the kid that he lost to is a freshman, he’s got two more years to put a whooping on that kid.”

Ware said his team had “hardships” this season. That included injuries for both Lenahan (shoulder) and Moraxtitla (wrist), who he thought would have won county titles, or, at the very least, placed. At the same time, David Castillo (285), a freshman who was not a starter this season, won his first round match via a 40-second pin, then lost a hard-fought match to the eventual third-place finisher.

“Alex and Adrian, the kids that they lost to had 120 and 140 [career] wins,” Ware explained. “These were legit, legit kids and they wrestled great, but they were sort of overmatched.

“To look forward, Cole will be the leader, and there’s a bunch of young kids that saw Bradley win that now have something to look forward to. When I talk about that group of kids, that group of kids four years ago, with two kids from East Hampton, won the kids counties. That group of kids in 2020 took second at the Mohawk Valley International Tournament as ninth- and 10th-graders that just tore it up. They were really robbed of what they really could have done because of COVID last year. I’m glad Bradley got though. It’s been a long haul.”