Wrestlers end amazing season at State Championships
Brayden Slane dominates his opponent during a season to remember for Greyhound wrestlers.
Photo by Morgan Orgeron
The AHS wrestling team has had an exceptional season with no losses and went into CIF undefeated. The size of the program and the amount of new athletic wrestlers picking up the sport, paired with the leadership and development of their main four seniors, Zerek Brown, Cael Cooper, Alex Chavez and Brendan Haydon, led them to their success.
While the seniors help teach the young wrestlers, Sohrab Movahedi, the new head coach, has had time to work with seniors and pass on some of their wisdom.
In the CIF Central Division Championships, eight wrestlers--Brown, Cooper, Chaves, Alex Hall, Isiah Gleason, Vincent Zertuche, Carson Braner, and Hayden--each finished within the top seven in their weight classes, respectively. The Hounds placed fourth overall out of the 22 teams that participated.
The girls team sent two of their own wrestlers, Allison Jespersen and Eleanor Rodriquez, who placed second and fifth.
On Jan. 8, the Atascadero Greyhounds played their second home match of the season to defeat the San Luis Obispo Tigers in the final match of the meet.
The first match was freshman Jack Hathway, who spent most of the season on junior varsity while also wrestling varsity matches. Hathaway found himself up 4-2 after the first period.
Hathway flipped over his opponent with just over a minute to go in the second period. Hathaway's pin earned the Hounds a 6-0 lead after one match but in the next three matches, the Tigers got three straight wins.
Down 16-6, senior Zerek Brown took shots and at the end of the first he trapped his rival.
Traven Olson pinned his opponent in the second bringing the Hounds back only four points down 16-12.
Cael Cooper was up next and nearly pinned his rival but had his win taken from him when the official pulled the two off the mat with the whistle.
In the 145-pound division, a pin put the Tigers back up six. Sean Hall and SLO’s Ari Maksudian were still tied up after the first period. Entering the the third and final round Hall found himself down 2-1. With about 45 seconds left in the match, Hall earned a point due to a penalty against SLO which tied the match at 2-2. Hall broke the grasp of his opponent, earning a point and winning the match.
The next four fights were divided between Atascadero and SLO with Alex Chavez and Vincent Vertuche both taking their battles and had a fantastic finish.
Atascadero was down six points with two matches to go, meaning one more would lose them the dual. Carson Brander was up first and won his match winning 7-2 and leaving it all up to Haydon who did the rest. At the 3:31 mark in the match, Haydon pinned his opponent, earning the Hounds six points and the dual victory.