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By Patrick Lujan

FD’s Tristan Palanca gains control over GW’s Alex Reyes in the 132-lb. division. Palanca would win 9-6. (photo by Jesse Castro)

While most of the island got a head start on the heavy Thanksgiving office meals, high school wrestlers around the island stayed focused on their Wednesday night meets.

The Father Duenas Friars, continuing to come out strong in numbers, go into the eating season on a high note after beating the GW Geckos 49-18 at the Phoenix Center.

“I don’t have a lot of kids dropping a lot of weight, so they are all within 1-2 pounds of their weight class,” Friars coach Terry Debold said. “There was a school barbecue today, but my kids made weight.”

Whatever was in the marinade worked because FD went on to win seven of the 10 matches to open the second half of the season on a good note. In the first round of the season, the two teams split the eight matches played.

The match of the night was in the 132-lb. category where FD’s Tristan Palanca was making his varsity debut against GW’s Alex Reyes.

After Palanca took a 2-0 lead at the end of the first round, both grapplers went back and forth, fighting for position and ending in a 6-6 tie going into the third and final round.

Palanca took a slight edge at 7-6 before getting some breathing room when Reyes was called for locking his hands and a two-point penalty, therefore giving Palanca a 9-6 lead with a minute to go. The score would stand as such.

126-lb. Dylan Lee was another Friar who stepped in from the alternate team to win convincingly 15-6 over Elijah Quichocho in the first match of the night.

Micah Lopez grabs a hold of Herbert Fukuda in the 160-lb. match. Lopez would win via pin with only :02 left in the first round. (photo by Jesse Castro)

“You hope for the best and we came away with the two wins, so it was crucial,” Debold said about Lee and Palanca’s wins. “I was more than pleased with the performance of these two kids who stepped up and managed to get their wins.”

In other matches:

– FD’s Edward Calvo came from behind to beat GW’s Shane Aguon in the 138-lb. matchup. Aguon held a 2-0 lead going into the second round, but Calvo made his move to score five unanswered points before pinning Aguon with a cradle at the :51 mark in the round.

– GW’s Isaac Balajadia was one of the highlights for the Geckos in the 145-lb class. Balajadia controlled FD’s Tristen Hocog for most of the first round before pinning his opponent with :24 left and leading 5-0.

– FD’s Alejo Santos was in the middle of a good battle with GW’s Tex Aguon before applying the pin with just :04 remaining in the first round.

– One of Guam’s best high school wrestlers, Micah Lopez, displayed his skills in the 160-lb. division. Lopez simply outmatched GW’s Herbert Fukuda. Fukuda did make a valiant effort to stay alive with Lopez controlling from the top position throughout the opening round before the Harvest Christian Academy student finally wrapped things up with a pin with just two seconds left on the clock.

– FD’s Leonardo Tudela, despite suffering from a slight stomach flu earlier in the day, survived three rounds of tough wrestling with a 10-5 win over GW’s Jaymen Shimizu.

Referee Shawn Gumataotao looks on as FD’s Alejo Santos moves in for the pin on GW’s Tex Aguon in the 152-lb class. (photo by Jesse Castro)

– GW’s Jonathan Sian woke up in the third round of his 220-lb match against Se Hyun Lee. Sian trailed 2-1 after two rounds and was on his belly in the defensive position for almost the entire two rounds. Something woke him up in the third as the Geckos senior suddenly was more aggressive to score six points before finally applying the pin, his third attempt, at the :17 mark.

– GW’s Chandler Aguon ran away from FD’s Cyril Maravilla 16-5 in the third round before pinning with 1:35 left in the 113-lb. match.

– Finally, FD’s Shane Garcia shut out his cousin Jude Garcia 5-0 in the 120-lb. match.

“I really commend GW because of their ability to overcome the challenges of a double-session. They’ve come back with a solid core in the second round (of the season),” Debold added.

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