By Jay Leon Guerrero
The 2018 IIAAG Wrestling League held its first meet of the season on Saturday at the Guam High Gym featuring the Okkodo Bulldogs, Southern Dolphins, FD Friars and host Guam High Panthers.
Okkodo, Academy/FD start season 2-0
The Okkodo Bulldogs are off to a good start in the girl’s league, winning their dual meet against the Southern Dolphins and Guam High Panthers. Alexandria Cruz (155 lbs) and Christine San Nicolas (184 lbs) both recorded victories via pinfall to help the Bulldogs off to a good start for the season.
The Academy Friars also started off their season with a 2-0 start; defeating Guam High Panthers 42-18 and the Southern Dolphins 42-0. Returning all-island gold medalist Lauren Lujan started her season with a pair of victories, one via pin and the other via forfeit.
“We lost a couple of seniors from last season but I have a lot of faith in the team that we will do well this season,” said Lujan. “I definately got all the jitters out in the first match and my confidence level will be higher for the rest of the matches .”
In the boy’s division, the Southern Dolphins defeated the Okkodo Bulldogs 34-28 in the closest match of the meet. Okkodo’s Samuel Ghose (145 lbs) recorded a victory by points (8-5) and Peter Olandez got a first round victory via pinfall to give Okkodo an early lead.
Brock Bonnette (160 lbs) and Gavin Terlaje (195lbs) secured the win with victories via points and pin, respectively. Okkodo’s heavyweights Bartolome Jose Abuan (220lbs) and Jared Suelo (285 lbs) both recorded wins via pinfall but the deficit was too large to overcome.
Southern ended the day with a 1-1 record, falling to FD 48-30. FD’s Matias Calvo (195 lbs) and Kaleb Gamboa (120 lbs) both recorded victories via pinfall for the Friars. The Friars, the defending champions, will get a bit stronger in the next few meets with some football players joining the team.
Calvo was an all-island champion last season (182 lbs) and moved up a weight class (195 lbs) for the new season.
“Getting back on the mat can be a bit nerve-racking; I was a bit anxious but I also wanted to see what the competition looks like. For our first meet, we wanted to establish a good team culture. We had seniors last year guiding us so this season we wanted to get some underclassmen on the mat to get some experience,” said Calvo.
“The confidence in the team stays the same but the culture did change a bit. We lost some good senior leaders and now that they are gone, a lot has changed,” said Gambala.
“Today the team recognized what they needed to do (on the mat) and they did it and some saw what they needed to work on and I’m pretty sure they will come back and improve,” said Gambala.
Scores:
Girls division –
Okkodo 30, Southern 6
Okkodo 30, Guam High 18
FD/Academy 42, Guam High 18
FD/Academy 42, Southern 0
Boys division –
Southern 34, Okkodo 28
Okkodo 36, Guam High 15
FD 51, Guam High 0
FD 48, Southern 30
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DID U KNOW?
Sports legend Joe Taitano used to run to school at JFK from his Yigo home and back. He continued this routine up to 1979 when he’d run from home to GW gym and back to practice for the South Pacific Games with the national basketball team. Guam went on to win its second straight SPG gold medal.
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