The Sobrato varsity wrestling squad opened play by defeating Archbishop Mitty on Wednesday and Pioneer on Thursday in dual meets.
Despite having to forfeit three matches as the result of injury and ineligibility, the Bulldogs were able to come out and defeat Mitty 52-16 and Pioneer by a score of 49-24.
Sobrato lost only two matches – outside the forfeits – in both of those meets.
Against Mitty, Sobrato scored five pinfalls, getting them from Joe Redmond at 103 pounds, Mike Duran at 119, Mike McChesney at 125 and Pierce Lowman at 135 and Taylor Ortez at 160. Victor Gillespie scored an 11-8 victory at 171 pounds.
Luna said Genaro Redmond at heavyweight could easily have pinned his opponent, but he wanted the wrestler to get some practice with his moves and instead won 20-4.
“We knew they didn’t have a heavyweight,” Luna said. “So at least we had him practice a few things.”
Overall, Luna said he was pleased with the performance from his wrestlers, although he noted that Mitty might be on a rebuilding year.
“We were stronger at certain weights, but our other young wrestlers did well,” Luna said.
The Bulldogs followed up that performance with a win against Pioneer that wasn’t as easy as Mitty.
Sobrato lost two matches by way of pin, including Ortez at 160 who had been moved up from junior varsity to get some experience, Luna said.
Luna said he bumped up a few junior varsity players for that same reason.
“We are bumping them up to give them an opportunity,” Luna said. “They are going to get better by bumping up.”
Once again, the Bulldogs were forced to drop three matches by forfeit.
“I look at the guys who wrestled,” Luna said. “We wrestled nine matches and we won seven of nine. I’m pretty happy with that.”
The Bulldogs will next take on Pioneer on Thursday at home.
“It is going to be very tough,” Luna said. “They first two matches are possible championship problems.”
Junior Varsity
The junior varsity squad was divided on Saturday, sending the freshmen to the Overfelt Tazz tournament and the rest of the squad to Leigh.
Among the freshman, Phil Galley placed the highest, taking third at 215.
At Leigh, the junior varsity squad took fourth after losing to Los Gatos in the semifinals.
Luna said it came down to needing a pin from Joe Redmond in the last match. He said that Redmond could have won on points, but that would have tied the match at 36-36 with Los Gatos winning the tie breaker.
However, by trying for the pin, Redmond was left open for a counter and lost by a point, 12-11.
At the tournament, McChesney won the outstanding wrestler award for his four pins in five matches that spanned a total of two minutes, 58 seconds.
