The San Benito wrestling team may still be juggling positions
around, but that didn’t stop it from defeating Bellarmine 37-27
Tuesday night.
”
We had a couple guys that came through for us,
”
said Baler coach Matt Olejnik.
”
Our heavyweights wrestled really well, and that kind of set the
pace. Most of the older guys for us were there, while our younger
guys are mostly lightweights. Their strength was in the lighter
weights.
”
The San Benito wrestling team may still be juggling positions around, but that didn’t stop it from defeating Bellarmine 37-27 Tuesday night.
“We had a couple guys that came through for us,” said Baler coach Matt Olejnik. “Our heavyweights wrestled really well, and that kind of set the pace. Most of the older guys for us were there, while our younger guys are mostly lightweights. Their strength was in the lighter weights.”
The Balers built up a 31-0 lead that started with Nick Carpenter at 160 pounds and extended through Joe Verissimo at 112.
But Bellarmine came back winning a decision and recording three falls before Evan Rodriguez, at 140 pounds, sealed the win with a 12-5 win over Scott Rodehorst.
“I expected to lose by a little more,” said Bellarmine coach Tim Kerr, who started the program in 1986. “We had a number of inexperienced kids come out for us. They (the Balers) are just a little tougher than we are. They put in a lot more time than my athletes do.”
Bellarmine was without section placer Danny Summers, who would have wrestled at 112s but couldn’t make weight.
Carpenter muscled up over Andrew Power to win the opener in one of the closest matches in the tie-breaker round, 7-4. Carpenter had a couple of escapes and a near fall, and Power scored a couple takedowns during the regulation period.
Alejo Velasquez, Kyle Horn, Jesse Grace and Tito Flores each pinned their heavyweight opponents in the first or second round.
After both teams forfeited the 103 match, Verissimo put some heat on Steven Smoker in the 113-weight class. Verissimo had a couple of reversals and also two three-point near falls.
Chris Mora (119) lost a 7-2 decision to to Moses Guillardo, and Luis Baracio (125), Andrew Sandoval (130) and Nilo Velasquez (135) were pinned in their matches. Velasquez’s match had to be temporarily stopped in the second period because both grapplers had bloody noses.
The Balers had a 31-21 going into Rodriguez’s match, and a 12-5 decision sealed the match win.
“He has been wrestling real well,” Olejnik said. “We have a log jam in some of our weight classes. In order to make our dual meet team stronger, we had to bump a couple people up to get him in the lineup.”
Anthony Sunseri, at 145, took a 4-3 lead in the second period with a reverse, but he was pinned in the third period.
Octavio Lucatero won a heated 7-1 decision over Pat Gillick to cap off the scoring.
“We still have a little more conditioning to do,” Olejnik said. “We had nine dual meets over the weekend. I don’t know if we were quite recovered from that.”
The wrestling team will be heading down to Bakersfield on Thursday for a weekend tournament.
Note: Olejnik’s brother and dad are opening up a sports bar called Tailgaters near the wrestling facility in Bakersfield. The plans are to have it open by February.
JV Note: The JV team lost 46-22 to Bellarmine.
