Terra Nova Varsity Wrestlers Fall to El Camino

On Thursday, January 29, the Terra Nova wrestling team traveled to El Camino High School for their first dual meet on the road this season.

The Lady Tigers won all contested matches. Victoria Borrego, 108lb freshman, pinned the Colt’s Joreen Mendoza at 1:22. Teagan Allen, 112lb junior, pinned El Camino’s Natali Vazquez at 53 seconds. Terra Nova’s girls are 3-0 in league dual competitions.

In the JV competition, sophomore and first year wrestler, Daniel Almonte lost in a major decision to Paolo Maralit. Jared Abellera, 132 lb freshman, pinned his El Camino opponent at 1:14.

Terra Nova’s varsity faced an uphill battle, giving up 24 points in forfeits of uncontested matches. Leo Grabowski, 182lb Terra Nova senior, pinned Justin Ilao at 48 seconds to earn 6 team points for the Tigers. It would be the only pin of the varsity competition. Jeremy Watts, 195 lb junior, lost to returning CCS qualifier, Bilguun Khishingbat 7-11.

El Camino bumped up some of their lower weight class wrestlers to maximize their team’s scoring potential – which is both completely within the rules and an excellent strategy. As a result, Danny Borrego, Terra Nova’s 108lb returning varsity sophomore who is ranked 8th in CCS, won by forfeit while his teammate, Yosef Mahmoud, a 115lb Terra Nova freshman, lost to a lighter but more experienced Manuel Baculi 0-5. Justin Pesino, a senior who is ranked 5th in CCS at 115 pounds, wrestled against El Camino’s Evan Balestier, who is CCS ranked 8th at 126lbs – but the contest took place in the 120lb match. Pesino beat Balestier by technical fall 23-7, one of the highest scoring matches of the season. Ironically, El Camino’s best wrestler, Christian Diokno, who is ranked 2nd in CCS at 120 pounds wrestled up to face Terra Nova sophomore, Michael Pitts at 134lbs. Pitts, who is in his first season of varsity wrestling, lost by technical fall to his more experienced opponent, but he fought valiantly the whole match. Niko Richardson, 126 lb senior, dominated the Colt’s Javis Balestier, beating him 10-3. The only points scored by Balestier were from escapes and penalty: he was not able to take Richardson down once. Brian Alvarez and Rodrigo Huazano, who are both newcomers to varsity competition lost their matches on points.

The final match of the evening pitted Terra Nova’s Ryan McGannon against El Camino’s Roman Reich at 147lbs. Reich earned 3 takedowns in the first period which were answered with rapid escapes by McGannon. McGannon started the second period on the bottom in referee’s position and escaped. The two traded takedowns, and the score at the end of the second period was 7-8 (Reich). Reich started the third period on the bottom and reversed McGannon, who quickly returned the favor, bringing the score to 9-10 near the end of the period. When the wrestlers were reset after going out of bounds, McGannon let Reich up, allowing the escape point because it was the only way McGannon would be able to score again before the end of the match. With the score at 9-11, McGannon shot and took down Reich to tie the score at 11-11, forcing the match into sudden-death overtime. Unfortunately, Reich was able to get the first takedown, and the match ended 11-12.

The final team score was Terra Nova 20 – El Camino 45. Terra Nova’s varsity dual meet record is now 2-1 with dual meets remaining against South City and Half Moon Bay. The HMB dual will take place February 12 in HMB at 6PM. Come support the Tigers!