By Brandon Yung
Staff Writer
The wrestling team came home from its first tournament of the season with varied success, having only wrestled five of the varsity athletes. Two of the wrestlers were forced to compete in weight classes heavier than their ideal weights. The tournament took place on Saturday, November 23rd at the Tom Bravo Invitational at Los Osos High School.
Senior Caleb St. Julian (126 lb) came in at seventh place, with pins during his first, third, and fourth matches of the tournament, but had to forfeit his second match due to respiratory issues. Seniors Jason Takarabe (160 lb), Parker Bell (170 lb), and sophomore Sebastian Chinen (152 lb) all wrestled for seventh place, but came short of placing.
Because they were unable to meet their weight thresholds, Chinen and St. Julian both had to wrestle weight classes above their norms, making for a challenge during the competition. The usual lack of upper weight a series of injuries held the Tigers back this weekend with two matches forfeited. The team also had many of their wrestlers out of town during the Thanksgiving break weekend; resulting in an even greater lack of competitive diversity during the Tom Bravo Invitational.
“I’m happy with how we did,” head coach Al Shuton said. “I had to remind myself that we had two guys wrestling [in higher weight classes].”
The team plans to overcome the setbacks they experienced at the Invitational.
“If everyone is where they’re supposed to be and we don’t have any injuries, we will definitely be quite competitive [this season],” Shuton said.
The team will be competing next week on Saturday, December 5, at San Marino High School for the next tournament.
