Julia Benton

Wrestling team travels across the West Coast to compete in the Sierra Nevada Classic held in Reno, Nevada as well as the Coast Classic held in Scotts Valley, California. Paly placed in the two events.

The Palo Alto High School wrestling team started off a good season with dual victories against Milpitas High School on Jan. 6 and Wilcox High School on Jan. 8, giving this year's team a 2-0 overall league record so far.

"As a team, we did pretty well, even though we didn't have people for some weight classes," senior co-captain Patrick Sheehan said. "Our best guys were able to score big points. Against Wilcox, we forfeited a few weight classes, but we wrestled well and were able to win again."

The Paly Varsity team saw a new member, as freshman Ryan Oshima, who began as a Junior Varsity wrestler, participated in the Varsity division at both meets.

"Oshima did really well and won both his matches, so he really stepped it up this time around," Sheehan said.

Junior Chris Hood also performed well at the two meets.

"I ended up winning both of my two matches at the dual meets," Hood said. "Though the teams we faced weren't really hard schools, it was still good that we won. Even though I think we still have a whole lot of things we need to improve on, we did very well."

A week before the meet against Milpitas High School, several Paly wrestlers traveled to the Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno, Nevada to compete against 96 other schools. Paly placed 60th overall.

"We spent two days at Reno," head coach Dave Duran said. "It's a big tournament and the toughest one we go to, even tougher than CCS."

Although Sheehan, who wrestles in the 116lb weight class, faced a highly competitive pool of wrestlers, he was still able to pull off a 7-1 record and to tie for third place.

"The first day I went two and one because I lost my first match to a very good guy," Sheehan said. "But the second day, I was able to win all my five matches. I was able to beat the state champion from Oregon."

Overall, Sheehan was satisfied with the outcome of the Reno tournament.

"I had come into this tournament with a goal to get a medal, so I achieved my expectations," Sheehan said. "As a team, we did okay, and we wrestled pretty tough. It's a tough tournament, so it wasn't going to be easy."

Hood was one wrestler who saw only a minimal amount of success at the Sierra Nevada Classic against the tough pool of wrestlers and left disappointed.

"I wasn't expecting anything from this tournament because it was going to be really tough," Hood said. "But I had two matches I should have won, and both were very close matches."

Junior Jack Sakai also anticipated fierce competition and concentrated on learning as much as he could from the Nevada Classic and then on creating goals for the following tournaments.

"I didn't have any expectations except that there were going to be a lot of tough wrestlers," Sakai said. "The thing I wanted to accomplish was to just get as far I as could and gain experience from this big meet for next tournament. I need to focus on staying mentally tough through the whole meet."

The Coast Classic took place on Dec. 19 and 20 at Scotts Valley High School in Scotts Valley, Calif. Paly placed 22nd out of the 50 participating schools. Sakai, Sheehan, senior Noah Feldstein and junior Max Simon wrestled well enough to advance to the second day of tournament.

"The tournament was pretty good," Duran said. "Four of our wrestlers advanced to the next day, which was good, even though only one placed."

Sheehan, who lost to the number two seed in the finals, was still content with his performance at the Coast Classic.

"Personally, I think I did a good job," Sheehan said. "I was able to upset the first seed in the semifinals, and I got all the way to the finals. But, I thought we could have done better as a team. We had several people advance to the next day, but unfortunately they didn't quite make it."

While it was the second tournament of the season for many of the wrestlers, the Coast Classic was the first tournament for the wrestlers who had been absent due to the football season. These wrestlers will no longer be missing matches.

"It was a tough time because it was a first time in a while for the wrestlers coming from football," Sheehan said. "But, they're learning from their mistakes, and they'll hopefully get back into the season quickly."

Duran agrees with Sheehan and adds that the football wrestlers improved their performances after the Coast Classic.

"The Coast Classic was the first tournament the football wrestlers were at," Duran said. "They still weren't used to the stamina needed for wrestling, and they got tired easily. However, they definitely improved at the next tournament in Reno."

While the second round of the Coast Classic was taking place, the JV team was wrestling in the Tyro Challenge at Lynbrook High School and saw several people place in their respective weight classes. Oshima placed first, freshman Gabriel Landa second, sophomore Raphael Miranda third, freshman Morris Mouton third, freshman Justin Grey fourth and freshman Nicholas Ortiz fourth.

Although Oshima, who is 16-0 in JV matches, already had two first place wins at the Peninsula Invitational and the Wildcat Invitational, he still felt some apprehension going into the tournament.

"I go into each competition, dual and tournament, anticipating that there will be one guy who will just overwhelm me," Oshima said. "I'm just really fortunate that I haven't met that guy yet."

Oshima, however, continued his winning streak to go 4-0 at the Tyro Challenge. Oshima believes that the JV team is doing well but has plenty of things to improve on for the future.

"We have a lot of new wrestlers that are doing pretty well for their first times." Oshima said. "In general, we need to work on just applying our basics to matches and staying off our backs."

Sakai sums up what the wrestling team needs to accomplish in order to win the future important matches.

"We need to just go for it," Sakai said. "We all have a bunch of potential, and we just need to not fear being dominant."