If Wednesday night’s TCAL wrestling opener between Gilroy and
Palma is any indication nobody in the TCAL is going to want any
part of the Gilroy Mustangs wrestling team during the 2005-06
season.
Gilroy – If Wednesday night’s TCAL wrestling opener between Gilroy and Palma is any indication nobody in the TCAL is going to want any part of the Gilroy Mustangs wrestling team during the 2005-06 season.
Despite the fact that the Mustangs had four of their best wrestlers, state qualifiers at that, out because of either injury or sickness Gilroy rolled to the easy 60-18 victory over Palma.
The four key missing ingredients in last night’s meet were at 140-pounds Armondo Gonzalez who was out with a neck injury that he suffered at the Reno TOC, at 145-pounds Austin Gubred out with a sore knee and two wrestlers both suffering from the flu, namely, Nicolo Naranja at 112-pounds and Tim Ibinezat 119-pounds.
“It gave some other wrestlers a chance to step up and shine and they came through big time for us,” Gilroy head coach Armondo Gonzalez said. “We had to do some shuffling around but in the end I think it paid off for us.”
The Mustangs entered the match having learned just hours earlier that they had fallen in the state rankings from No. 2 to No. 9. I fact that Gonzalez and his squad took in stride.
“Honestly, in some ways it’s a relief. It takes the bulls-eye off of our back a bit,” Gonzalez admitted. “It’s a repercussion of what happened at Reno and you know what, that’s fine. We had five guys lose one match before placing and they all lost by one point. Twelve of our 14 wrestlers are CCS ranked and that’s something that we’re super proud of.
“The truth is we’re more fired up than ever and we’ll be healthy soon. When we are firing on all cylinders we’ll be fine,” Gonzalez continued. “We have three goals. First – League. Then – CCS. And finally – Bakersfield, home of the state tournament.”
Gilroy finished the meet strong winning the final six matches from the 152-pound weight class to the heavyweight class.
In junior varsity action the Gilroy wrestlers were equally impressive. Despite having to forfeit five matches and spotting Palma 30 points Gilroy managed to rally and win the meet 38-33.
Gilroy will travel to Clovis on Friday and Saturday for the Doc Buchanan Tournament before returning to TCAL competition next Wednesday night at Salinas.
“Chris (Krough) and Martin (Gonzalez) both had solid matches for us tonight,” Gonzalez bragged. “Also wrestling real hard tonight with good results were Travis Sakamoto against Palma’s Zach Jimenez. That was a great match. And then Ethan Ogle had a great match against Zach’s brother Isaiah. I’m really happy with they way we showed up tonight.”
