LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Lamorinda Wrestling Teams finish at the DAL Tournament


Part of the Miramonte Wrestling squad show off their 2018 banner for Top GPA in NCS out of 175 schools. Back to Back Champs. Great season on and off the Mat. Provided by Jason Rosiak

The wrestling season for the Lamorinda teams concluded at the Diablo Athletic League tournament.

Though Acalanes, Campolindo and Miramonte finished 1-2-3 in league competition and were represented at the DAL tournament, each of the team's competitors were unable to make the next step to the state finals.

After concluding an undefeated league season, Acalanes head coach Dave Ridge was anticipating sending as many as seven of his wrestlers to the DAL tournament. Due to illness and injuries, James Trainer, Ed Gray, Jeremy Ridge, Antonio Correa and Togy Batkhuu were unable to wrestle. Acalanes was only able to send two wrestlers, Issac Douglas (162) and Addison Early (184).

Ridge spoke highly of both of his wrestlers: "Both had very good tournaments, going 3 and 2. Douglas lost his last match in the last few seconds and would have medaled had he won that match."

Particularly frustrating to Ridge was the injury suffered by his best wrestler, Jeremy Ridge: "I was confident that Jeremy was going to win. He was going to be seeded No. 1 and was ranked seventh in the state overall, had easily beaten the ultimate winner in his weight class earlier in the season." Ridge will be continuing his wrestling career next year at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ridge succinctly summed up the unfortunate turn of events: "It was just one of those things."

Campolindo had five wrestlers that qualified for the tournament: Noah Hamann (108), Adrian Bautista (122), Steven Williams (154), co-captain Craig Amador (182) and Nick Shaw (195).

Though none of the wrestlers were able to make it to the second day, head coach Sam Sotelo spoke highly of their efforts: "Though none of them qualified for the state tournament, they all battled hard and represented themselves and Campolindo very well.

Leading the team was Amador with three wins and Hamann with two.

Miramonte was represented by Eric Banisadr (138) and Owen Madaus (145). Head coach Jason Rosiak was pleased with the showing by both of his wrestlers: "Banisadr had a good showing losing his last match in the final seconds 10-9. Madaus went 4-1 on his first day and made it to the top 12 before being eliminated."