Wrestling competes in first tournament of the season

By Jordan Xiao and Sandy Grossman

Tiger Staff

The South Pasadena High School wrestling squad finished Thanksgiving break with the Tom Bravo Invitational at Los Osos High School on Saturday, November 29 with mixed results, ranking 17 out of 28 teams. Also, three Tigers managed to place in the tournament.

Senior Harry Yun (113 lb) and juniors Emiliano Sornoso (152 lb) and Mason Lee (170 lb) placed fifth in their respective weight classes. A lack of varsity wrestlers lowered South Pasadena’s overall score.

“The tournament gave us a good barometer as to where we are and what we’re lacking,” assistant coach Victor Gonzalez said. “Most importantly, it let some of the newer guys get a feeling and know what they need to work on.”

Stamina turned out to be the Tigers’ greatest challenge this tournament, as exhaustion from early matches reduced wrestlers’ ability to perform in later ones. Head coach Al Shuton hopes to improve on this and other weaknesses before the league season starts. With a number of top schools joining CIF Eastern Division, the team will have to work hard to move on to the Masters tournament come February.

“There’s some tougher competition this year than we expected, which is by no means a bad thing,” Shuton said, “but it means we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us if we want to be competitive.”

One of the Tiger’s new additions, Sophomore Michael Zepeda (285 lb) is one of the few

heavyweights on the team. If he does well in his weight class, he could be the key to their success in team meets. Even though Zepeda was slightly disappointed with the results of the tournament, he has high hopes for the team’s improvement.

“We did pretty well as a team, but we plan to do even better in later tournaments,” Zepeda said

The Tigers will attend a tournament every Saturday for the next three weeks, with the Newbury Park Invitational next Saturday, December 6.