Varsity wrestling lost to the Las Lomas Knights on January 31, but that didn’t stop them from having a couple of winning moments.
The Cougars went into the match with 6 wrestlers out with injury or sickness. “We had to have a couple freshman come up who have never wrestled varsity before,” said head coach Bob McLaughlin.
The competition started out well for the Cougars, with junior Grant Smith winning his match. Senior team captain Marc Monasevitch wrestled tough, coming back to win 9-7 in the last 5 seconds.
The next 3 matches, wrestled by junior Kert Vegara, senior Eric Oeth, and sophomore Cooper Swanson, were all lost. Vegara had to forfeit due to injury, and Oeth battled it out for the full 6 minutes only to lose by 2 points. Finally, Swanson was pinned by his opponent in the 1st period.
Team captain, junior Jackson Wiley, wrestled next. He wrestled 3 perfect periods, winning the match 8-0.
Junior Jeremy Dunbar, and sophomore Fine Gumpert both were pinned by their opponents.
The highlight of the match came next, when junior Jaqui Guelfi pinned her male opponent in the 3rd period. This was her first varsity win, and her first win against a male opponent. McLaughlin named her the “MVP of the match.”
Guelfi said, “It makes me feel really good because I worked really hard to get better over the last 2 years.”
The final 2 wrestlers were both pinned, for a final team score in the match of 57-16, the victory going to Las Lomas.
Las Lomas also won 2 matches by default, as Campo did not have any wrestlers in those weight classes.
Smith said, “I think we wrestled OK. We should have wrestled better, but over all I think we did very well.”
“Las Lomas is a good team, well coached. I knew it was going to be a tough match, but we fought well,” said McLaughlin.
According to McLaughlin, Campo is expected to finish 3rd at DFALs [Diablo Foothill Athletic League] behind Las Lomas and Dougherty Valley.