Jesse Gomez and Max Kumashiro leads the wrestling team to their 11th win of season on Oct. 30 against East Los Angeles College.
The Falcons would win with a final score of 34-14.
Francisco Noyola, 125-pound weight class, set the tempo for the team with a pin and Dustin Kirk would continue the momentum by pinning his next opponent as well.
Noyola said, “I was a bit nervous until I stepped onto the mat, I was just focused on the match beforehand, it felt good to get the first win.”
Kumashiro, 180-pound weight class, defeated his opponent and scored more than 20 points, the most any wrestler scored that night. He felt very good coming into this match.
“I felt pretty good, I felt like I was in a good position to win. I felt ready and calm,” Kumashiro lauded.
Kumashiro actually did some new techniques and created his own approach to better prepare himself for his match.
“I have actually been working on mentality a lot, I’m trying to be more calm and I sleep before my matches instead of getting all pumped up. I try to just relax and take it slow and stay calm and focused. Stay positive that’s the key,” said Kumashiro.
Gomez, 285-pound weight class, would have a neck-and-neck match with his opponent and couldn’t find any holes, but finally found an opening to at least be able to score some points.
“Played the match on my pace, put it on my speed. Apparently he couldn’t hang with the speed so he got a little tired at the end, and I just kept pushing through,” Gomez said.
Despite the players feeling good about this match, Head Coach Don Garriott felt relatively good with his team and has seen good changes since the first season loss against Mt. San Antonio College.
“After the team lost to Mt. SAC, the guys have started coming together better as a team and train harder. We are ranked 1st in the state, we have been winning everything and it’s easy to get complacent when that happens and that was a wake-up call, woke up now and started to do the right things they are supposed to do and their doing it together as a team,” said Garriott.
There are two big conference games that remain this season for the team against Palomar College and against Mt. San Antonio.
The next match will be the Cerritos Open on Nov. 1 at 9 a.m.
