Wrestling season ends with a CCS victory and 2 state berths

On March 1 and 2, senior Henry Wei and junior Graham Grant participated in the CIF Wrestling State Championships,  a huge accomplishment for a program that often struggles to fill weight classes in dual meets.

Wei had a record of 2-2 in the state tournament, while Grant finished 1-2. Although Wei said that it was not their best wrestling of the year, the atmosphere at states was something that he will never forget. The tournament took place in Bakersfield and included 600 wrestlers from across the state.

“The atmosphere is crazy,” said Wei, wrestling in the 182-lb weight class. “It’s a huge arena where the entire state goes to, and you have 40 wrestlers for 15 different weight classes, and it is nuts because every wrestler is there to win.” 

Wei also said that the experience of being on the same level as the state's top wrestlers was a thrill.

“They call you up, you walk out of the tunnel, and you enter this arena filled with two to three thousand people,” said Wei. “There are eight mats and the best wrestlers in the entire state. There are people you heard of, and when you get to see them wrestle, and you realize that you are on the same platform as they are. It is really special.”

Wei said the state tournament is on a different level than other competitions.

“I like to say that there is the taste of crushed dreams in the air,” Wei said. “You have to realize that when someone wins, someone else’s dreams end that day, so you have the feeling that this is it, and that nothing before this moment mattered. It’s all about now.”

Wei placed 32nd out of 40 wrestlers in his weight class. He said this competition was special since he missed states last year due to injury. 

Grant said that both he and Wei had some close matches. Grant had managed to pin his opponent in his first match, after being down early. 

For Grant, this season was also special, as he became the sixth wrestler in school history to become a CCS champion, the first since Jasper Loren four years ago. Grant was able to defeat Jairo Rocha from Overfelt High School, wrestling in the 220-lb weight class.

“Getting CCS champion was really great,” Grant said. “I knew I was ranked No. 1, but to finally go out and prove it felt very good.”

Wei had lots of great memories from the season, but he said that two of his favorites were winning a dual meet against Cupertino on Jan. 10 and another meet against Santa Clara for the first time in three years on Jan. 15. 

At leagues on Feb. 9, even though the team took sixth place overall, Wei said that a bigger achievement was that Saratoga had four league champions besides him (Grant and sophomores Araad Sarami and Christian Murabito), the most among any school there. At CCS on Feb. 22 and 23, Saratoga also achieved great success, taking eighth place.

Sarami and Murabito were both not far off from the state competition, both earning fourth place in CCS with close losses in their respective third/fourth place matches.