Todd Beamer High School began their boys wrestling duel season Dec. 7 at Kentlake High School. The Titans took down the Falcons by a final score of 46-27. Beamer won eight of the 13 matches including the last four wrestling matches.
“It feels great. It has been a long time coming,” said Head Coach Brett Lucas.
Kentlake got out to an early lead in the overall duel, scoring on a pin and points victory, 10-0. Santiago Manzo-Figueroa stopped the bleeding, winning his match by a score of 10-1, and getting Beamer on the board 10-4.
“He has just come on. He was pretty good last year. And this year has made that difference to do better,” said Lucas.
Nazar Kharlanov won his match with a pin followed by an excellent match by Titan junior Miguel Serrato, who won via pin as well.
Kentlake’s Ryan Roseth would be the only other victorious Falcon on the mat in the competition. He was down 14-2 on points, but was able to pin the Titans’ Joey Gartland for the victory.
“We talked to the guys before about how it was different from a tournament, and how important it was to stay off your back and get the pin,” said Lucas.
For the rest of the contest they did just that: Yarema Solomko, Preston Vannoy, Adam Turner and Sekou Bangoura all won their matches by a pin in the first round except for Solomko, who got his in the 2nd.
Beamer’s Andrew Zierath and Kentlake’s Kereti Tupatoa got their teams points via forfeit in the 220-pound and 285-pound weight classes.
There are three Titan returners who competed in state last season — those veterans combined with wrestlers taking strides of improvement this season. Beamer will look to have even more representation at the year end tournament in February.
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