Winning both Trans-Valley League matches this week, the varsity Escalon wrestling boys then capped off a busy few days by capturing the Division 5 Sac-Joaquin Team Duals Section Championship.
They started out with a Jan. 28 trip to Sonora and put a 59-23 win on the books.
“Key there was our middleweights all won,” said head coach Derek Scott. “That basically clinched the number one seed (for the team duals) for us.”
The JV boys were 42-18 winners at Sonora while the girls got a win by forfeit.
Wednesday, they were on the road at Orestimba, completing the second of back-to-back nights on the mats.
The varsity boys won 70-3 to complete an undefeated run through the TVL for the league title. The girls, winning 48-0, also clinched the TVL title, marking the first such championship for the squad. The JV boys shut out Orestimba, 52-0, and finished the TVL season in second place at 4-1.
The Escalon varsity boys then continued on to the Division 5 Team Duals, hosted Saturday, Feb. 1 at Lincoln High School in Stockton.
“We had a first round bye,” Scott said of getting the top seed from the TVL. “In the second round, we faced Casa Roble.”
Though Scott said he was a little nervous going in to that match, several wrestlers came through with strong performances, and the boys cruised to a 60-15 victory.
That put them into the finals against Sutter.
“We got off to a great start; we won the first three matches, all by fall and got the lead,” Scott explained of the showdown with Sutter. “But then we struggled in the middleweights and fell behind.”
Some higher weights – with less experienced wrestlers taking the mats for Escalon – made the difference on Saturday, however.
“Landon Underwood won in overtime at 175 pounds,” Scott said of a key victory for the Cougars. “Also, Christian Rodriguez, who is primarily our back up at 215 pounds, won by fall.”
Scott said he was extremely pleased to see those two, especially, get the chance to shine on the big stage.
Also, heavyweight Frank Rodriguez, who has been battling illness for a couple of weeks, gutted out a victory.
“He faced the number three ranked guy in the section and earned a 5-4 decision,” Scott said.
Escalon went on to win the blue banner in a close match, edging out Sutter by a 40-35 final.
“Our veterans did good and we had other guys that stepped up,” said Scott.
The coach noted that the biggest disappointment of the day was not being able to have the Escalon girls compete, as only Division 1 and 2 had team duals for girls at the Section level.
However, all Escalon squads, JV, girls and varsity, will be at Hughson for the TVL Meet on Saturday, Feb. 8 starting at 9 a.m.; Scott anticipates the semifinal and final rounds about noon.
Top four placers in each weight class there will move on to the Section 5 Divisionals scheduled at Calaveras on Feb. 15, with the fifth as an alternate.
