Wrestling team outstanding at Mid Cal Tournament

Regardless of the nervousness emanating throughout Gilroy High school during the weekend of Jan. 22, the wrestling team remained staunch and wrestled their way into the upper rankings of Mid Cal, one of the most difficult wrestling tournaments in California.

The tournament, which had started on Jan. 21, yielded outstanding results. Sophomore Henry Wei placed sixth, freshman Isaac Tung took seventh and junior Alfred Murabito took fourth.

With only seven of 14 wrestlers, Saratoga placed 26 out of 70 teams, which put the team ahead of every other school in the SCVAL league which participated, including powerhouse teams like Palo Alto, Gunn, Fremont, Harker, Homestead, Monta Vista and Wilcox.

“Because of their hard work and heart, we proved once again that Saratoga wrestling is all about Falcon Pride,” said coach Joe Pele.

The team managed to wrestle its way to the top ranks through diligence and hard work; in fact, most members spent over 12 hours at the tournament. In the two-day tournament, only wrestlers who won their matches on Friday could proceed to the Saturday matches. Murabito, Wei and Grant wrestled both days.

“There’s no substitute for hard work,” said Murabito. “I didn’t do anything special, I just wrestle a lot. It’s the experience that helps a lot.”

Though the wrestlers said the tournament went well, they still want to improve on certain nuances in their wrestling.

“We probably need more strength in numbers, because we don’t really have that many upperclassmen,” Borch said.

Nevertheless, the team’s results at the tournament were outstanding.

Pele called the weekend “quite a performance, considering this is one of the toughest tournaments in the state.”

The team has been faced with many problems all season long so far. Key wrestlers have been injured and some teammates even dropped out of the sport. However, freshman Jason Li remains positive about the future.

“We show improvement every tournament,” Li said. “Even though so many people have been quitting or getting injured and we obviously aren’t as strong as we should be, we still will be doing very well at the league finals coming up.”

The team will be competing at the League Finals tomorrow, Feb. 12. The varsity team will also be going to the CCS Tournament Feb. 25- 26 at Independence High School.