Escalon High School wrestlers had the very tough Hughson Huskies come in for an important Trans-Valley League dual at home in the old gym on Wednesday, Jan.10.
Head coach Derek Scott reported that the Cougar girls won by forfeit to improve to 3-0 in TVL. The JV boys with big wins from Ethan Butler and Leo Carrillo, Landen Underwood and Guadalupe Calderon won to remain undefeated at 4-0 in TVL with a 48-24 win.
“The varsity boys got off to a fast start with wins from Conner McDowell, Luca Cerasi, Christian Cruz, Preston Sizuela and Matthew Rangel,” said Scott. “We were up 41-6 then struggled a little bit down the stretch at the upper weights to settle for a 53-20 win. Frank Rodriguez had a nice win to finish the meet off on a positive note.”
The win put the varsity Cougars at 4-0 for the league season.
Next up for the Cougars was a road trip to take on TVL rival Hilmar on Wednesday, Jan. 17. The varsity girls went first with JV boys being a forfeit.
The girls went 4-0 on matches for the night.
“Miroslava Torres, Violette Kent, Natalie Martinez and Helena Arroyo all were winners looking very good,” Scott said.
The varsity boys wrestled well with Cruz, Sizuela, Rangel, and Talan Rieder all winning their matches for the team to improve to 5-0 in TVL with a 75-9 win.
Saturday, Jan. 20 the JV boys and varsity girls teams went to Gregori High School for the Gregori tournament.
Several of the 12 JV wrestlers competing for Escalon placed in the event.
Elijah Salazar, Cole McDowell, Landen Underwood all took fifth place while Ethan Tellez took fourth.
“I have been really happy with the improvement of Underwood as of late,” Scott explained.
Taking third place were Leo Carrillo, Colton Fernandez and Ethan Butler.
“These three have been putting in the most work and have by far improved the most. They are all right on that line that they could go varsity, they just have to improve a little bit to make the lineup,” added Scott. “I was really pleased with Butler. He kind of ran out of gas to lose to his opponent in the first match of the day, then came back from behind to defeat the same opponent in the third place match.”
The varsity girls had six girls compete at the event, coming away with four medals.
“First, in her best tournament of the year, Athena Quiroz took fourth place. Once again competing hard and looking good was Violette Kent; she is just tough, I enjoy watching her compete,” Scott stated. “We came away with two champions. Returning to her state level form of two years ago was Isabella Alcala. Isabella out toughed two earlier matches where she was behind early. In the finals against a higher ranked girl she destroyed her and pinned her in the second round. In the most exciting match of the evening winning her third tournament of the year was Helena Arroyo. She wrestled a much more experienced girl who was seeded ahead of her in the finals. She got thrown on her back early. She fought off her back and went after the girl and by the end of the second round wore her down and pinned her. It was a great match and proves what I often tell the kids. If you can avoid big mistakes the tougher person wins.”
The varsity boys went to their last meet before the playoffs, traveling to Pitman.
“We had a few guys take the weekend off to heal up for the playoffs. We had 13 wrestlers go to Pitman with five medaling,” Scott said. “We could have had more medaling but we had several leave early for formal. We really as a team need to fully focus these next couple of weeks.”
Medaling for the Cougars in seventh place was Conner McDowell, with sixth place going to Houston Sizuela.
“These guys are freshmen who have really handled the pressure of being a varsity wrestler well,” Scott said.
Taking fourth, both forfeiting their third place match leaving for formal, were John Konradi and Frank Rodriguez. The lone EHS finalist, taking second place in a great match, was Christian T Cruz.
On Wednesday, Jan. 24, the Cougars wrestle Ripon on Senior Night for the TVL title. Ripon comes in with one close loss and Escalon is 5-0. JV starts at 5:30 p.m. with girls starting at approximately 6 p.m. and varsity approximately 7 p.m.
The TVL tournament will be held at Escalon on Saturday, Feb. 3. The event will start at 9 a.m. and conclude at approximately 3 p.m.
