Terra Nova Wrestlers Sweep Sequoia

Terra Nova’s wrestlers continued their dual meet winning streak Thursday, January 22 against the Sequoia Cherokees.

The Tigers dominated the varsity competition with a final score of 36-12, winning all of the four contested matches. Sequoia’s only points came from forfeits at 160 and 195lbs. Niko Richardson, 126lb senior; Jared Abellera, 132 lb freshman; and Danny Borrego, 106lb sophomore picked up forfeit points for Terra Nova. In contested matches, Brian Alvarez, 138lb junior, won his match 7-5. Ryan McGannon, 145lb senior, pinned his opponent at 2:52. Leo Grabowski, 182lb senior, also won by pin at 3:18.

The final match of the night featured Terra Nova’s Justin Pesino, who is ranked 4th in CCS at 113lbs against Sequoia’s Masa Danovitz, a sophomore who is ranked 7th. Neither wrestler scored in the first period. During the second period, Pesino deferred on the coin toss, leaving the starting position in Danovitz’s hands. Danovitz chose to be on the bottom of referee’s position, which carries the advantage of being able to score a point simply by breaking free of the man on top. Danovitz was able to reverse Pesino to score 2 points, but Pesino quickly answered with escape, earning one point to end the second period 1-2. Pesino then had the advantage entering the third period because he was able to choose to be on the bottom. Pesino was able to escape, tying the score at 2-2. Neither wrestler was able to take the other down, and the match went into overtime. Overtime can have up to 3 rounds. The first OT is one minute of sudden death in which the first takedown wins the round. Neither Danovitz nor Pesino were able to score during that minute. The match then entered the next phase of overtime in which each wrestlers gets to start on the bottom in referee’s position and has 30 seconds to score. Pesino was down first, and he was able to reverse Danovitz and take control for 2 points. Then in the final 30 second OT period, Danovitz was down. Danovitz was able to escape from Pesino for 1 point, but he simply did not have time to score a takedown against Pesino. Final score: Pesino 4, Danovitz 3. Final team score was 36-12.

Terra Nova’s Lady Tigers proved once again that they are the team to beat in the PAL. Victoria Borrego, 108lb freshman, pinned her opponent at 1:24. Marian Mejia, 113lb sophomore, pinned her opponent at 1:16. Gwendolyn Theriault, 118lb sophomore, pinned her opponent at 2:59, and Jessa Mae Huerta, 128lb junior, also pinned her opponent at 3:14. Sequoia’s only victories of the evening in contested matches came in the girls’ dual at 150lbs and 121lbs. Final team score, counting forfeits, was 52-12.

In the JV competition, Yosef Mahmoud, 120lb freshman, pinned Kazemi of Sequoia at 3:19, and Michael Pitts, 138 lb Sophomore, defeated Inalis of Sequoia 6-1, whose only point was scored on a technical violation in the third round.

The remaining dual meets for the Tigers are away meets. February 5, the Tigers travel to South San Francisco, and February 12, they take on Half Moon Bay at HMB High School. Both meets start at 6PM.