The first shots of the season were fired last Saturday by the Cerritos College wrestling team. It took second place at the Mount San Antonio team duals losing to Santa Ana 23-9 for first place.

The team placed first last season but a few close matches didn’t go its way. Fourth of the seven matches lost to Santa Ana in the finals were lost by two points or less.

The Falcons still managed to go 3-0 this dual meet. Their first was a 34-6 victory over Rio Hondo College.

They followed that with two more wins over West Hills College (36-9) and East Los Angeles College (36-7).

“I was really pleased with the freshman guys,” Don Garriott head wrestling coach said.

Two promising freshmen Anthony Duarte and Jose Lopez went 4-0 in their first matches of the season. Returners Jose Lopez and Caleb Gerl also went 4-0 in their matches.

Coach Garriott seemed pleased with his team’s performance saying it did well even though there are still athletes working to reach their optimal weights.

“This was an opportunity to get matches in,” Garriott added.

The more matches his team gets in, the more he will be able to observe the team live wrestling and make adjustments before more important matches approach.

Cerritos wrestling’s next matches will be this weekend at an individual tournament up north in Modesto, Calif.

This will be an individual competition rather than a team tournament which means it will showcase the accomplishments of each athlete rather than the entire team.

They will be driving up Friday but will wrestle the day after on Saturday.