Despite resting a portion of its team and moving most
individuals up a weight class, Gilroy wrestling still had little
trouble taking care of a couple of Tri-County Athletic League
squads Wednesday night.
Salinas
Despite resting a portion of its team and moving most individuals up a weight class, Gilroy wrestling still had little trouble taking care of a couple of Tri-County Athletic League squads Wednesday night.
The Mustangs defeated the North Salinas Vikings and Alvarez Eagles with ease, losing only one of 10 total matches. The Salinas-based schools both forfeited the rest of the weight class divisions.
Gilroy swept the Vikings in seven matches and forfeited three to give its opponents points.
Jesse Delgado, Rodney Balajadia, Jesse Rogers and Luis Barragan all won their matches against the Vikings by pin. Ethan Ogle won an 8-0 decision while Danny Contreras (18-3) and Vincent Aboytes (21-5) both won by technical fall.
For Contreras, who joined the team after football season but was held out of previous events due to Central Coast Section weight loss restrictions, the victory was a long time coming.
“It was good, it was cool,” he said. “I felt relieved afterwards.”
GHS assistant coach Mike Koester was also happy about Contreras’ performance.
“He looked good,” Koester said. “He got a little winded, but that (makes sense) since the last time he wrestled was junior high.”
Until Wednesday, Contreras hadn’t wrestled in an organized meet in years after a prolific career at South Valley Middle School.
After competing against North Salinas, the Mustangs began their matches against Alvarez, winning two out of three. The Eagles forfeited 11 other weight classes.
Aboytes won a 15-5 major decision over Javier Avila, giving the sophomore his second victory of the day.
“I think I started off pretty slow,” Aboytes said. “I started feeling him out more, seeing more of his tactics.”
Gilroy’s Tim Caspary lost a decision to Joe Molina 8-6, but did make the match close in the end after trailing 6-2.
The evening concluded with the Mustangs’ Mike Penyacsek pinning Ray Harder.
The moment was worth savoring for Penyacsek, who was unable to compete last season after being in a serious automobile accident. Compared to how he spent his days just 12 months ago, Penyacsek said it felt “a million times better.”
Gilroy head coach Armando Gonzalez said he was pleased with overall performance, but that his team didn’t receive the same kind of challenge it has had at national tournaments in past weeks.
“It went fine, there’s not much to comment on,” Gonzalez said. “We’re at a whole other level than our competition. I thought we wrestled well and had a couple good matchups.”
The Mustangs chose to keep Hunter Collins and Martin Gonzalez out of the meet to keep their match count down. The reason being that the Central Coast Section allows an individual to take part in 40 matches maximum during the regular season. Travis Sakamoto also didn’t compete for Gilroy, as both opponents forfeited matches by not putting anyone in his weight class.
Junior varsity note:
Gilroy’s junior varsity wrestling squad was also impressive Wednesday, winning all but two of its 14 matches against Alvarez.
Coach John Gurich said heavyweight Daniel Arnold, 189-pounder Cesar Garcia and 171-pounder Sean Hale were his top performers.
