Boys' wrestling redeems itself at West Covina High School

Madelyn ShaughnessyStaff WriterBoys' wrestling battled against 30 schools on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 20 and 21 in a tournament at West Covina High School.Some of the schools the team wrestled against included West Covina High School, Sunny Hills High School, Quartz Hill High School, North View High School, Alhambra High School and Yucca Valley High School.The team was successful with many wrestlers besting their opponents. Senior Enrico Cascio took second place, senior Omar Solorza took fifth, junior Spencer Gordon took seventh and senior Gianni Forster took eighth.“I think everyone is progressing, getting closer to peaking in our physical fitness and ability.  Our matches reflect everyone’s work ethic,” Gordon said.While Gordon was wrestling an opponent from Gabrielino High School, he was thrown by the “head and arm” maneuver (being thrown to the ground) and pinned in the quarterfinals.Cascio was also taken by surprise during a match when his opponent had a cradle and Cascio was in a four-point stance which involved him lifting his left leg while his opponent swung over and hyper extended Cascio’s elbow.  However, this didn’t stop him from wrestling. He continued on but lost to the opponent from El Hambra.“The pain couldn’t overcome his drive,” Gordon said.According to Cascio, the adrenaline kept the injury from taking him out of the match.“I was more angry at the fact that I was hurt than at the pain itself. I thought I still could have won. I only needed a point to win. Also, I put myself though torture cutting down to 162 pounds, and I couldn’t let all my hard work go to waste,” Cascio said.On the way home from the tournament, Cascio went to the hospital and an X-ray revealed that nothing had broken and there was no joint or bone damage. The injury was diagnosed as a ligament and muscle strain.The team is now preparing for the Ocean League finals that will take place on Feb. 4 at Samo, followed by individual CIF competition in two weeks. Coach Mark Black hopes to have two or three wrestlers qualify for the CIF competition.“Our goal is to peak at CIF so we have a chance to do something later, like go on to state," Black said. "We have to put in a lot of work in the next few weeks. We have to bump it up another level if we want to progress."mshaughnessy@thesamohi.com