South Pasadena Wrestling Drops Bout to Beverly Hills

South Pasadena's wrestling team lost to Beverly Hills at home by a score 44-33 on Tuesday afternoon. 

The Normans took an early lead after Nathan Bahk pinned his opponent 30 seconds into the match and the Tigers had a no show for the 112-pound class. 

In the next match, the Normans' varsity wrestler didn't make weight, so Beverly Hills coach Mark Mead trotted out junior varsity wrestler Matthew Kohanbash against the Tigers' Sean Ehrlich. 

Kohanbash took the lead into the final minute before Ehrlich pinned him with less than a minute left to bring the score to 12-6. 

"[Kohanbash] fought his best match of the year, right up until the heartbreaking last five seconds," Mead said.  "He went for the pin, got turned, and got pinned himself. I give him credit for coming out … and nearly pulling out what would've been an upset."

Beverly Hills captain Payton Bakh came out the next match and scored a technical pin by beating his opponent by more than 15 points. After another no show by South Pasadena, the Normans led 23-6. 

"It was a big hole, but there definitely is such a thing as momentum and I think you saw it here tonight," said South Pasadena coach Jordan Zipkan, taking over for varsity coach Al Shuton, who couldn't make the meet Tuesday. "One kid gets out and gets a big win, kids see that, they get pumped up."

Chris Nunez scored a technical pin for the Tigers in the 135-pound class to pull South Pasadena within 23-11. 

Mead said before the meet his middleweights are the strongest portion of his squad and they showed it against the Tigers, pinning their next two Tigers opponents to bring the score to 35-11. 

"I told the middleweights before the match, if we're going to win, they all had to pin," Mead said.  "They didn't all pin, but they came pretty close. And that's what won it for us." 

The Normans' Josh Rezvani defeated his opponent before Ralph Yun scored a technical pin to increase Beverly Hills' lead to 44-11 and securing the victory for the Normans with four matches left. 

The Tigers won the remaining four matches, starting with Joaquin Rascon's 22-11 victory that had the Tiger wrestler showing a bit of emotion on the mat. 

"Joaquin, he's an interesting guy, definitely a bit of [swagger] to 'Quin," Zipkan said.  "I love the kid … he's got a way about him. He's charismatic."

Ned Estrada then started a string of three straight pins for the Tigers. He was followed by Alex Larrimore, who pinned his opponent in 16 seconds. 

"Ned tonight transitioned from something good to something great," Zipkin said. "We've been telling him to be more aggressive. He finally did it tonight, I'm impressed." 

In the final match, the Tigers' Max Sanchez pinned Chris Ford, who stepped up from the 215-pound weight class to wrestle in heavyweights. 

Both coaches said there was "a lot" their respective squads needed work on before the next meet.

Zipkin said the Tigers have to get better at getting out of bottom position and improve each wrestler's go-to moves from standing position. Mead said the Normans needed to improve their take down defense and their stances.