By far the largest Lloyd C. Engel Wrestling Tournament staged at Escalon High School, the two-day, 45-team event went off smoothly Jan. 5 and 6.
Hosted on Friday and Saturday, Escalon head wrestling coach Derek Scott said it was a team effort to pull off the event.
“In general, everything went about as smoothly as we could have hoped,” he said. “We had 45 teams, that is the most we have ever had and we had well over 400 wrestlers.”
Though admitting to being nervous about the large number of attendees, Scott said some suggestions from the administration helped in terms of traffic flow and he also praised Seth Davis, who served as tournament director, for keeping the event relatively problem-free.
“My family did the head table and the coaches’ lunch,” Scott added of support personnel. “Also thanks to the Williams family for doing the snack bar, to Brianne Cerasi and a lot of parents for their help, plus the staff and administrators were here and very helpful.”
In terms of the competition, Escalon had 15 wrestlers take part, coming away with 10 total medals from the Engel Tournament.
In Pool D, Logan Wentzell finished third at 160 pounds.
Pool C competition saw Logan Dooley take third place at 165 pounds and Anthony Jones taking third at 190 pounds. Ben Gonzales finished second at 148 pounds.
In Pool B, it was a fourth-place finish for Preston Sizuela at 138 pounds and David Ingels took home first place honors at 217 pounds in his first full tournament back, coming off an injury.
In the highest division, Pool A, Christian Cruz was a fourth place finisher for Escalon at 132 pounds. Two Cougars finished in second place, losing out in the final round.
“Both wrestled really well,” said Scott.
Luca Cerasi was second at 120 pounds and Matt Rangel was second at 144 pounds.
“Our one champion in the tournament was John Konradi,” said Scott. “He took first place at 175 pounds in Pool A, he went 6-0 over the weekend. He’s so talented; so far he is 15-2 on the year.”
The Engel Tournament was sponsored by Quality Service, Inc. – Tom McCoy and featured wrestling on multiple mats throughout the two days.
In Trans-Valley League action on the road at Riverbank earlier in the week, the varsity boys earned a shutout win, 77-0, over the host Bruins. The girls were 41-6 winners and the JV boys took a 66-0 win off the mats.
Holiday tournaments
Earlier tournament action, during the long holiday beak, saw the varsity girls head to the Super Girls Showdown at Ceres High School on Dec. 22.
“We had eight girls wrestle with six girls taking home medals,” Scott explained.
Taking home seventh place was Athena Quiroz. Taking home fifth place medals were Angeline Mills and Sofia Duran.
“Looking tough again taking third place was Miroslavia Torres. Looking really tough taking second place was Violette Kent,” Scott pointed out. “Her finals match was against a state ranked girl. Violette had I thought probably our team’s toughest match all year. She lost six to zero, never thought of quitting or got discouraged just kept competing, giving herself a chance to win all three rounds.”
Taking home her second title in a row, and avenging a loss that had occurred just a couple of days earlier, was Helena Arroyo. She pinned a girl in the finals who had just beaten her.
“She got the girl on her back at the end of the first round and was not going to let her go,” said Scott. “She has a great killer instinct and loves to compete. You can’t teach that. I was very proud of the character she showed to bounce back like that.”
On Dec. 23, the varsity boys went to the Bulldog Classic at Ceres High School. There were 40 teams in attendance. Escalon had 12 wrestlers and four came away with medals.
John Konradi and Frank Rodriguez each medaled short of the final round.
“Frank had a great tournament; he just got a little tired late in the tournament. John had a section ranked wrestler beat 11-2 going into the final round of semi’s and got caught. John is close; he just has to learn some match strategy,” noted Scott. “In his best tournament of the year, taking second place to a Nevada wrestler, was Luca Cerasi. Our lone champion, having a great finals match, was Christian T. Cruz. Christian wrestled a smart match to get the win. I’m really happy for him. Christian deserves the success he is having. He has really worked hard all year.”
Escalon took sixth overall as a team at the Bulldog Classic.
