Thirteen moving to CIF Individuals
February 17, 2017
Despite its 2-3 league record, the Diamond Bar High School wrestling team will be sending 13 out of the 14 boys to compete for the CIF Individuals at Grand Terrace High School Saturday.
“The team had a great start but we seemed to lose our footing. But overall during tournaments, we do great but we still need to work together as a team,” senior Nick Wahba said.
One of the team’s most exciting and difficult matches of the season was against Walnut High School, according to Wahba. Due to all the boys having to move up one weight class, all the wrestlers were matched up against someone almost 10 pounds heavier.
However, the Brahmas would take home the meet in the last match ending the three year losing streak against the Mustangs.
Standout wrestlers this season include senior captains Michael Cardiel, the Palomares League MVP, and Donje Lee, who both went undefeated in league. Wahba also went undefeated and is heading into league finals as a first seed, meaning he only needs to win two matches to take the title of league champ.
With seven seniors currently in the lineup, the team will be looking to sophomores and juniors that are currently on the team to step up. Johnson anticipates that sophomores Andrew Cardiel and Conner Diamond as well as juniors Adam Salvosa and Daniel Perez will help lead the team next year.
“We could have done better in meets, but sometimes you have a good tournament team and sometimes you have a good dual meet team. This year we are better tournament team than we are dual meet team,” head coach Marcus Johnson said.
Increasing the number of dual meet wins is one of the main goals of next years team, according to Johnson. Johnson also hopes to find more wrestlers to have a full frosh, JV and varsity team, especially across the heavier weight classes. Although finding wrestlers to compete in weight classes ranging from 106 pounds to 170 pounds has not been a challenge for the team, finding wrestlers for the upper classes has been difficult.
“Hopefully most of them [current team members] come back and hopefully we also get some bigger kids next year as well,” Johnson said.
