Samo wrestling comes back after Mira Costa loss

On Thursday Jan. 26, the wrestling team took an easy win against Redondo Union High School with a total score of 10-3. Recovering from their loss on Tuesday, Samo beat Redondo with impressive takedowns and pins. Even though Redondo was forced to forfeit two matches, Samo still dominated with eight wrestlers. The start to the match was slow, with Samo’s first two wrestlers losing their matches. Both wrestlers lost by a matter of points, meaning the Redondo wrestlers made more prominent moves in the match. “I think it’s more mental than physical,” Vincent Daclan (’19) said. “I felt like my team needs to work harder in the beginning, including me.” As the matches continued, the entire room cheered up when Vladimir Vonklan (’18) came up to his opponent. Vonklan began to wrestle with extreme energy and threw his opponent down within the first few moments of the match. “When Vlad went everyone got super hyper and started cheering way too loudly,” JV wrestler Andrew Liu (’19), watching from the sideline with the rest of the team, said. “He definitely boosted our morales from the start.” With newfound fire, Balty Solorzano (’19) had a very powerful win against his opponent. As the minutes on the mat began, the two carefully walked around each other, making slight jabs and lunges. When Solorzano made his move toward the Redondo wrestler, Solorzano grabbed him by the hips, carried him over his shoulder then slammed the wrestler to the floor; it was clear who had won. The referee declared Solorzano the winner.“The team did well,” Chikara Sakamoto (’19) said. “But there are some small things we need to work [for the next match]. With the win under their belt, and the regular home season over, the team has the pressure raised for the next matches. Next week they face Beverly Hills High School away and hope to capture another win for Samo.