Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Jacob Wells rolls his opponent on his way to a third place finish in the 220 lb. weight class.
Lionzo Escobedo dominates an opponent on his way to his first podium appearance. Lionzo took fourth place in the 138 lb. class at the Don Runner Invite.
The Saratoga wrestling squad traveled to Pavillion to compete in the Don Runner Invite. The invite had 21 teams and the grapplers faired well in the competition.
“We wrestled well this past weekend, placing six of 11 wrestlers,” coach Mason wrote in an email. “We also finished sixth as a team in the 21 team tournament.”
Thatcher Spiering and Jacob Wells were the top Panther finishers taking third in their weight classes. Spiering wrestled well at 120 lbs. and Wells cut weight to reach his goal weight of 220 lbs.
Until recently, Wells wrestled in the heavyweight class but has faired much better at the new weight.
“I got sick of wrestling kids 20 and 30 and 40 lbs. heavier than me,” Wells said last week after the Douglas tournament two weeks ago. “It was tough to win in heavyweight.”
Wells lost his first match on the first day but ended up wrestling back through the brackets to beat the same kid on day two for third place.
Spiering came close to winning a tough match to an opponent that eventually won the 120 lbs.
At 106 lbs. and 138 lbs., Bradley Bifano and Lionzo Escobedo both placed fourth.
Escobedo was just seconds away from finishing third with his opponent stuck in a cradle. Ahead by one point holding that cradle, Escobedo mistook a whistle from another mat and let his opponent out of the cradle and the referee awarded his opponent one point for the escape.
With the match tied at 8-8 and one second left, Escobedo touched the mat on the restart prior to the whistle picking up his third caution of the match. The referee had no choice but to award his opponent 1 point for the false start and the match ended 8-9.
Trey Ingleby, at 120 lbs., and Tate Stinson, at 152 lbs., both placed fifth to round out the podium finishers for Saratoga.
“Stinson wrestled very well for fifth,” Mason said. “His effort won him the wrestler of the week in our locker room.”
Mason voiced his concerns about mat awareness that hindered two wrestlers in particular this last weekend.
“Everyone understands that we have to know where they are in a situation,” Mason said. “Mat awareness hurt Stinson and Escobedo this tournament, but we as a whole will work on that over the week in practice.”
Up next for the grapplers is another road trip to Lingle this coming weekend for the Dogger Invite.
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