After a successful Senior Night wrestling dual against Ripon, the varsity Cougars went on to claim the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 5 team duals blue banner on Saturday.
The win over Ripon came on Senior Night for the Cougars, hosted at EHS on Wednesday, Jan. 24.
“Ripon had only one loss coming in,” head coach Derek Scott noted.
But Escalon proved to be more than ready, as they thrashed the Indians by a 58-6 final.
“We wrestled really well, especially at the upper weights,” Scott said.
He pointed to the efforts of Anthony Jones at 190 pounds and Guadalupe Calderon at 215 as being key.
The evening started with the JV boys match, however, with both Escalon and Ripon coming in undefeated.
Ripon did get the win, just edging out the home team. Best performances of the night for Escalon, said Scott, came from Cruz Snow at 175 pounds and Ethan Tellez at 215 pounds.
Then, the Senior Night recognition program was hosted, with four Cougar seniors getting introduced and standing with family members in the center of the mat for a photo opportunity. Senior wrestlers included Violette Kent of the varsity girls and Matthew Rangel, Talan Reider and Anthony Jones of the varsity boys team. It was also noted that Rangel had previously been honored, at the Foothill Tournament, by receiving the Pursuing Victory with Honor award for his sportsmanship and dedication to his team.
After the recognition for seniors, it was back to action and the varsity girls took the mats. Both Ripon and Escalon came in with one league loss.
“It was a 42-30 win for Escalon and this was the first time they’ve ever beat Ripon,” Scott said, with the Lady Cougars getting five straight pins on the way to the win. “I was very happy for the girls.”
The varsity boys then got their turn and earned five wins by decision and five by pin while taking just two losses.
Saturday, Jan. 27 it was a trip to the Team Duals for the varsity, hosted at Lincoln High in Stockton.
“We came in as the number two seed which got us a first round bye,” Scott said. “This is the toughest bracket we’ve been in.”
Escalon first faced off with Union Mine and won by a 54-16 final.
“At 126 pounds, Christian T Cruz had a big win and by far the best match was at 138 pounds, Ben Gonzales came back from first period trouble to get the win,” said Scott. “Talan Reider was also very steady for us in the middle.”
That put Escalon into the final round against top seed Sutter.
“They put it on us last year,” admitted Scott. “This time we got way ahead but then had to hold on at the end and we won 39-27.”
Keys were having wrestlers not get pinned in several losses, he said, which kept the Sutter points to a minimum.
“We had huge wins by Talan Reider and Logan Dooley and the final match was at 144 pounds, that was Matt Rangel,” Scott explained. “In order for us to win, he had to not get pinned and he ended up taking the win by fall.”
So that sealed the Section team dual title and Scott said the Cougars won the last five matches wrestled against Sutter, including the pin by Rangel to capture the banner.
“He’s not a guy that shows a lot of emotion and it made me feel good to see him jumping around after that,” Scott said of Rangel. “That was pretty cool.”
This week, the wrestlers will be back in action at home, as Escalon will host the Trans-Valley League Tournament on Saturday, Feb. 3 starting at 9 a.m.
“The top four in each weight qualify to move on to the Division 5 sections,” said Scott.
That divisional tournament is scheduled Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9 and 10 in Rosemont.
Escalon will look to pin down the league title this week as well; they come in as the top seed and have to finish first or second in the TVL tournament to win the league crown.
