Leagues held at home front

by Guy Quanrud and Holden Sparacino (Saratoga Falcon Print Edition 12/15)

For the first time in 14 years, Saratoga hosted the Santa Clara athletic league finals, which proved to be relaxing for many wrestlers and resulted with six wrestlers placing out of 15 teams and advancing to CCS.

“Being in familiar surroundings and getting free food from the concessions was nice,” said senior Trent Dozier. “My mom helped run some of the concessions along with every other parent. Everyone was involved.”

With CCS next week, advancing wrestlers are preparing for their upcoming challenges, while the others get ready for next year.
Juniors Nathan Nguyen, Richard Macklin, Jasper Loren and Raymond Boles and sophomore Alan Yen all qualified for CCS competition. Dozier also qualified as an alternate. Throughout the day, they wrestled strong, pinned opponents and won impressive victories.

Nguyen and Loren both placed first in their weight classes, Nguyen took first at 105 after taking a bye in round one, winning 18-3 in round two, 19-4 in round three and finally 6-4 in the championship round. Loren earned his first place in the 147-pound weight class with a bye, pinning his next opponent and two victories of 5-2 and 10-5.

Macklin and Yen just lost first place, finishing second in the 132- and 191-pound weight classes, respectively. Macklin took a bye, a pin and a 9-2 victory but lost in the championship round. Yen had similar success, making it to the championship and then suffering his first loss of the day.

Boles had an interesting tournament debut. With a total of three byes, a loss and pinning an opponent, he took fifth in the 217-pound weight class. Dozier had two byes, pinned once and lost two rounds to earn seventh in the 287-pound weight class.

“Overall, I think we are pretty satisfied with the way we played in leagues,” said Yen. “This is the first time I am going to CCS and I’m pretty excited.”

“We did pretty well,” said head coach Kirk Abe. “We had some holes in our lineups, some injuries, but the guys who wrestled did well. Some of the freshmen in the varsity got some experience.”

Senior Samir Mathur could also do to CCS. He wrestled this week against the sixth place wrestler since he was previously injured. Results were unavailable due to printing deadlines.

2/6 Monta Vista Duel Meet

On Feb 6, the Falcons wrestled Monta Vista in their last league dual meet of the year, winning with a total score of 66-12.

Individual wins from freshmen Joe Kim at 127 pounds and Sam Mulholland 142 pounds, Yen at 191pounds, Nguyen at 114 pounds and Macklin at 137 pounds and seniors Stephen McInnis at 147 pounds and Ryan Stoffers at 154 pounds all contributed to the score.

Since this was the last home meet of the year, the wrestlers began with a ceremony honoring seniors Justin Seo, Samir Mathur, McInnis and Stoffers. After a few words about each from head coach Kirk Abe, parents gathered for a picture with their son and each mom was given a bouquet of flowers and a red scarf, adhering to the growing wrestling tradition.

An exhibition match between Loren and assistant coach Gabe Tseng ended the night, but was stopped midway when Tseng chipped his tooth. After a few minutes Tseng was back on the mat, finished the match and won.

“It’s just wrestling,” said Loren, about Tseng’s injury. “That’s what happens.”