GILROY
–– The Gilroy and Hollister wrestling match is always full of
surprises. Wednesday night’s Tri-County Athletic League opener was
no exception.
Gilroy, who was favored to win, came back from an early deficit
to win most of the lighter matches, posting a 40-30 score.
GILROY –– The Gilroy and Hollister wrestling match is always full of surprises. Wednesday night’s Tri-County Athletic League opener was no exception.
Gilroy, who was favored to win, came back from an early deficit to win most of the lighter matches, posting a 40-30 score.
“It was a chess match, and we had one less piece,” said Baler coach Matt Olejnik.
The Balers went up 24-6 after the first seven matches. But Gilroy caught up going through the lighter weights and took a 29-24 advantage with three matches to go.
Olejnik tried a few things like moving Octavio Lucatero up to 145 pounds and moving Alejo Velasquez up to 171. Those moves both paid off for the Balers.
Lucatero opened up the match with a 7-3 win over Callan Romesberg, and Velasquez pinned Joe Esparaza.
Velasquez’s pin followed a pin by Nick Carpenter of Gilroy’s Joseph Delgado in the 160 category. Both pins were in the first quarter.
A key bout early on (the second of 14 total) was in the 152-pound class between Mustang senior Miguel Maldonado and Haybaler senior Alex Diaz. After taking a 4-1 lead in the first period with a pair of takedowns, Maldonado scored a final takedown in the third period for a 6-1 win.
“I thought we would have won the 152 match which would have given us a six point swing,” said Baler coach Matt Olejnik. “I thought we had a chance at 135s as well. Usually there is a surprise somewhere. They kind of had that edge on 152s.”
Both Gilroy and Hollister had a couple heavyweight matches they were hoping for pins in.
At 215s, Matt De La Rosa barely beat Jose Albarron 4-1.
“I could have done much better,” De La Rosa said. “He was wrestling on his back the whole time and didn’t let me pin him.”
At 189s, Chris Horn kept struggling and avoided the pin by Mark Zabala in a 17-4 major decision.
“You’ve got to give credit to his opponent because the kid was scrappy. He was tough. He stalled well. He fought Mark off,” said Gilroy coach Armando Gonzalez.
After Tito Flores was awarded a forfeit at heavyweight, Hollister forfeited at 103s.
At 112s, San Benito’s Bob Glashan continually fought off attempts by the much more experienced Rudy Maldonado before a 18-2 technical fall in the third period.
Both Chris Mora and Andrew Sandoval were pinned in the 119 and 125 categories. Chris Uribe suffered a 19-3 technical fall, before Anthony Sunseri won the final match 12-2.
“All of the guys that got pinned by their studs fought very hard,” Olejnik said. “The difference was the matches we won were close, and the ones they won were by fall or pin.”
It was a good match between two good coaches.
“Of all the coaches that I’ve had to coach against or battle against, I’ll have to say that he is definitely the best coach,” Gonzalez added. “He’s smart. He’s crafty. He’s a motivator and I have a lot of respect for what he’s accomplished. He gave his team the best chance they could of to win.”
