Wrestling opens 2016-2017 season with a bang

On Nov. 30, the wrestling team opened their season with a bang and competed against Palisades High School, winning 7 out of 12 matches. “I was expecting Palisades to beat us, so I was pretty darn happy with the results,” coach Mark Black said. “I thought they would be better than they showed, maybe they had some injuries, but I'm happy with our team’s performance.” “Overall we did really great and we destroyed Pali. Our JV and Varsity teams both nearly won all of our matches against them. I thought I did extremely well,” wrestler Degas Tabarez (’19) said about the meet. Tabarez won his match by scoring 15 points against his opponent’s two, then pinning him in the last period. The following weekend, on Saturday, Dec. 3, wrestler Riha Prasad (’19) won the Magnolia tournament in Anaheim. “I was very happy I won first,” Prasad said. “The intense mental and physical training as well as motivation of my teammates, coach and family led to [my victory].”Black is looking forward to the team’s next set of tournaments where he hopes they will continue to perform well and bring back wins for Samo. The athletes also hope to do well, and be able to continue their winning streak.“I hope that we can accomplish first place again against our opposing team,” Tabarez said.