Terra Nova Wrestlers Crush Capuchino

The Terra Nova Tigers kicked off the PAL dual meet season with wins over Capuchino for the Girls, JV, and Varsity.

The Lady Tigers set the tone for the evening, dominating the Cap team from start to finish. All matches were won by pin. Victoria Borrego, 106lb freshman, and Teagan Allen, 111lb junior, pinned their opponents in the first period. Cassie Arenas, 116lb senior and Lucy Ramos, 150lb freshman, pinned their opponents in the second period. Terra Nova won all other rounds by forfeit, giving them a perfect team score of 84.

While wrestling matches are individual competitions, dual meets are won and lost on accrued team points. A pin and a forfeit are both worth 6 team points. An individual win by 15 points is worth 5 team points, a win by 8-14 is worth 4 team points, and a win by 7 or fewer is worth 3 team points. If a team does not have a wrestler in a contested weight class, they give up 6 points. Terra Nova’s Girls field a team that is 20 members strong this year. They will not be giving up forfeit points due to uncontested weight classes, and this puts them a distinct advantage over the girls’ teams from other schools in the PAL before their extensive experience and prowess are even part of the picture.

Unfortunately, the boys’ teams do not have the advantage in numbers. Lacking team members in 4 weight classes, the Varsity will be giving up 24 points in every dual meet this year when facing teams with full rosters. The loss of teammates to injury, grades, and attrition will be felt keenly for the duration of the season, but what the Tigers lack in numbers is surely countered by the strength of their punishing varsity line up.

Of the 7 contested matches against Capuchino, the Tigers won 6 by pin. Danny Borrego, 106lb sophomore, pinned Paul Diaz in 37 seconds. Yosef Mahmoud, 113lb freshman, pinned Michael Morgan-Ellcessor in 59 seconds. Jared Abellera, 132lb freshman, pinned Benjamin Loudermilk in 1:46. Brian Alvarez, 138lb junior, pinned Jordan Maxion-Conway in 2:41. Ryan McGannon, 147lb senior, pinned his opponent in 2:40, and Leo Grabowski defeated Brendan Garcia by pin in 1:30. Justin Pesino, a senior who usually wrestles 115, stood in at 120lb to take a round by forfeit. He was joined by Niko Richardson, 128lb senior, and Sara Braun – on loan from the girl’s team, standing in for the heavyweight to take additional points on forfeit.

The only loss of the night, and one of the most exciting matches, came at 195lbs where Ramon Enriquez beat Terra Nova junior, Jeremy Watts. Enriquez took Watts down again and again – but each time, Watts was able to fight him off and gain escape points. Enriquez attempted pinning combinations, earning near fall points, but Watts refused to be pinned and fought hard off of his back. Towards the end of the third period, a fired-up and well-conditioned Watts took advantage of a misstep from his flagging opponent and took him down. Watts turned Enriquez with a power half and settled in, but was just not able to complete the pin. Enriquez escaped and went on to win the round by a decisive margin giving Cap 4 team points instead of 6. Watt’s tenacity saved his team 2 points in the scoring total. The final team score was 54-28.

In the JV competition, Lynx Rose, a freshman, wrestled at 106lb, the smallest weight class. Rose weighs about 10 lbs less than that, but this brave first year wrestler went on the mat and gave it his all, withstanding the strength of his larger opponent until the very last seconds of the second period when he was caught in a pin. Daniel Almonte, a 132 sophomore, dominated his opponent 11-4, and Michael Pitts, a 138lb sophomore, pinned his opponent.