Saturday’s trip to the Modesto Duals for Escalon’s varsity wrestlers saw many undefeated grapplers and an overall first place finish for the Cougars. They went 3-0 as a varsity team, taking down Johansen, Downey and host Modesto.
Varsity 3-0 and took first place
“We beat Downey 70-3, Johansen 66-12 and Modesto 56-9,” said wrestling coach Derek Scott. “This was our first time in a dual meet and we were very pleased. We are inexperienced but have a lot of good kids.”
The Cougars found out about those kids, the coach noted, with many stepping up to fill holes left due to graduation and, more recently, to some injuries on the team.
Undefeated in the duals were Alex Jimenez at 120 pounds; Rhys Panero, 126; Kyle Jimenez, 132; Nick DeWeerd, 132; Livius Seung, 138; Fabricio Gallo, 152; Hugo Alcala, 160; Cameron DuBois, 170; Eric Espinosa, 220; and Danny Gonzalez, heavyweight.
Also showing well was Stephen Mendez at 195 pounds.
“He needs to step up for the varsity to be successful,” said Scott, adding that Mendez made solid strides at the Saturday event.
Marco Mendoza, at 182 pounds, and Trenton Busch at 145, both went 2-1 on the day. Mikayla Vega posted a 2-1 mark at 106 pounds.
“For Rhys, it was his first action of the year, coming back from injury and he looked good,” Scott said. “It was also the first time at varsity for Alcala and Espinosa, we were pleased with them.”
At the JV level, Tristin King and Adela Ley-Han were both 3-0 for the day, with King pinning each opponent. Also undefeated at the JV level were Jonathan Beaver, Ethan Kriegar, Izaac Sipma, Greg Artiaga and David Ryan.
“All wrestled really good, the most exciting matches were Jacob Broom, who made it through three rounds in his match against Modesto and Dylan Dugo in his first athletic event made it all three rounds against Johansen, it was a good match.”
Escalon’s JV team went 2-0-1 and tied Modesto for first place at the JV level, the teams knotted at 39-39 and both defeating Johansen and Downey.
Wrestlers are scheduled to take part in the Modesto Junior College tournament today, Wednesday, Dec. 23 and the varsity will head to Reno for the two-day Sierra Nevada Classic on Tuesday, Dec. 29 and Wednesday, Dec. 30.
