Above, Brandon Marquez is shown just before winning his match. Below, Brittany Vargas-Alvarado is shown just before pinning her opponent last week at MCHS. Photos by Amanda White
The Grizzlies wrestling squad hit the mats last week as they hosted their first home meet of the season against the Ripon Indians.
In the girls division, Ripon took the win 33-12 and also in the boys division, 77-3.
“There were a couple kids that I thought were going to perform a little bit better but they didn’t do as well as I hoped,” said coach Marquis Roberson.
“Overall, everyone, especially varsity, wrestled well.”
Brandon Marquez is a junior this year who didn’t wrestle last year.
“He came out strong and dominated his first JV match,” Roberson said.
“When he came out and wrestled his varsity match, he didn’t win but he showed a lot of potential by putting a lot of things together; he’s really picking things up.”
Wyatt Lockett is a junior who is really putting concepts together.
“His first match was really good; he was able to capitalize and get the pin,” the coach said.
“During his varsity match, he was wrestling well but he took a sloppy shot and he got stuck.”
Other Grizzlies who won one or both of their matches were Xzavier Romero, Sophia Forga, Brittany Vargas-Alvarado and Arturo Lozano.
Many of the matches ended in a loss by pin for MCHS.
“There are a couple things we can work on,” Roberson said.
“We need to work on our focus as well as maintaining being on the mat.”
Several of the losses were the result of the same specific moves.
“A lot of our kids were getting legs put in on them so we’re going to work on countering the legs,” explained Roberson.
“That’s important especially for our varsity wrestlers going to the varsity tournaments.”
Another sore spot for the Grizzlies was countering the barbed wire move.
“Pretty much all of our JV wrestlers were pinned by barbed wires so we’re going to go over identifying that, getting hand control and moving from there.”
The Grizzlies got some tournament action as the JV and girls went to Atwater on Dec. 7 while the varsity group went to Madera South.
Wyatt Lockett pinned his first opponent during the meet against Ripon last week.
The wrestlers were right back at it on Dec. 11 at home against Buhach Colony.
Results were not available at press time.
Next up, the JV and girls wrestlers will compete in tournament action at Livingston on Dec. 14. Matches begin at 9 a.m.
“I really want to focus on just being present and keeping our heads in the game no matter what else is going on,” the coach said.
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