ABOVE: The winners are: Sam Aguilar, Jacob Carmona, Joseph Salbino, Oscar Sanchez, and Daniel Hernandez (left to right). Joseph is holding Jason Simonek’s 5th place medal as well, but Jason was not shown in the picture as he left early with his father.
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The Mustang wrestling team traveled to El Monte to participate in the “Last Chance” tournament at Arroyo High School. With around 40 teams present, the Mustang wrestlers put on a good performance.
Sam Aguilar (106 lb) and Daniel Hernandez (126 lb) both finished 7th place with a 3-1 record for the day. With their loss coming early in the day they were knocked out of medal contention, but this did not stop Sam and Daniel from fighting on to finish out their day with wins. One of Daniel’s wins was a fast pin, putting his opponent on his back in 20 seconds. Sam was not to be bested as he topped that time with a 16-second pin.
Jason Simonek (170 lb) earned a 5th place medal with a record of 3-2. Jason was the only wrestler on the team that did not have a bye at some point during the tournament. Jason opted out of his final match. Still recovering from a previous concussion and getting a headache in his fourth match of the day it was decided that it was best to play it safe and not continue.
Jacob Carmona (145 lb) and Oscar Sanchez (195 lb) both earned 3rd place medals with a record of 3-1. Jacob and Oscar both lost in the third round but were still in medal contention. They were not discouraged and continued to fight hard for the rest of the day winning their remaining matches. The medal earned by Jacob was the first career medal for the sophomore wrestler.
Joseph Salbino (152 lb) brought home the gold medal with his 4-0 record. Joseph continues to show improvement at virtually every event. His determination to win is obvious every time he steps onto the mat. Joseph had three pins (one of those being 18 seconds) and 1 win by points at the tournament. Bringing home the gold for the Mustang team was a big deal for this freshman wrestler.
The most exciting matches of the day for the Mustang team were put on by Joseph Salbino and Jacob Carmona in the final round. The matches went back and forth between the Mustang wrestlers and their opponents before Joseph and Jacob got their pins to finish off the day.
With the Mustang team only having 10 wrestlers for the event, smaller than all of the other teams present, they still managed to come away in 6th place as a team.
The Mustang wrestlers are looking forward to league finals this next weekend. Finals will be held at Big Bear High School on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 8 a.m.