ACALANES

The Dons had 11 boys and two girls compete at the NCS Divisionals Tournament with both girls Lilah Kring (125 lbs) and Gwyneth Lee (100 lbs) and one boy, Kirian Gracie (126 lbs), all qualifying to compete at the NCS Championship Tournament. 

    Kring placed second  at the NCS Divisionals and finished 1-2 in the Masters NCS tournament, Lee placed third at the NCS Divisionals and finished 2-2 at the Masters. Gracie placed third at the NCS Divisionals but suffered a concussion in his first match at the Masters and could not wrestle after that.

    Head coach Steve Nelson was hoping for more but still saw many positives. “I had expected to get more of our wrestlers to the Masters, even with a young team, but Marley Oh suffered a torn rotator cuff in January and Ryan Crane chose to wrestle in a lower weight class and did not finish high enough to qualify for the Masters. Though he did not advance, Gabe Van Houten finished the season with 14 wins and it was the best that he had ever wrestled and I was ecstatic about that.”

CAMPOLINDO

The Campolindo boys wrestlers had Demitri Drury (165 lbs) place fifth place at the NCS Divisionals tournament and finish 2-2 at the NCS Championships. Soushi Bahramifar (215 lbs) finished second at the Divisionals tournament and went 3-2 at the NCS Championship. Maya Shu representing the girls, finished in fourth at the Divisionals tournament and at the NCS Championship lost both of her matches to top wrestlers. 

    “Even though it was difficult for the Campolindo wrestlers having to arrange carpools every day to come over to Miramonte for practice each day, it worked out well for everyone because there were more partners for everyone to work out against,” head coach Louis Suba said.

MIRAMONTE

Miramonte had all of their seniors finish in the top eight at the NCS Divisionals Tournament and sent a total of nine wrestlers to the NCS Champions tournament – six boys: Cael Suba (120 lbs), Jaxon Ziehn (132 lbs), Brody Suba (138 lbs), Finn Hura (144 lbs), Julio Villanueva (150 lbs), Elliot Orr (165 lbs), and three girls: Claire Casado (115 lbs), Ashley Silverman (130 lbs) and Cayleigh Farrar (140 lbs).

    Cael Suba, a sophomore, got great experience in his two matches, Brody Suba went 1-2, Jaxon Ziehn, seeded eighth, finished 2-2 and Julio Villanueva went 1-2. Leading the team was Finn Hura, a junior who came in unseeded and finished in third place and Elliot Orr who was seeded seventh and finished in seventh place.

    Head coach Louis Suba saw a lot to be proud of with his team. “Elliot was able to pin his man in 30 seconds in the last match of his high school career to finish in seventh. Jaxon probably had the toughest weight class and dominated in two matches and lost two very close ones. Julio finished his career wrestling the best he’s ever wrestled in his last two tournaments and Finn was outstanding, defeating the 2nd, 5th, 7th, and 10th seeds, defeating his final opponent 23-10 to clinch third place.”

    “Ashley making it to the second day was outstanding,” Suba said. “She’s a product of Chris Harrick’s Lamorinda Wrestling Program, where she began wrestling at a very young age. Cayleigh won her two matches with pins and Claire did well at the NCS; just ran into two top wrestlers.”

    In her last match, Casado took the long-term perspective in her wrestling career, “I fell in love with the team environment and my coaches were great. My freshman year I didn't win a single match but I liked coming back for my team. There’s a huge learning curve to wrestling and some of its mental and a lot of it is physical. I think it's the best sport for character building. You face the physical exhaustion when you’re wrestling, and you can develop the mental toughness necessary to keep on persisting when you lose. Wrestling teaches an insane work ethic and self-reliance which has carried over into my life away from wrestling. When I'm going to be doing something big, I carry the attitude that I've done everything I can to prepare for this and I have people supporting me and I’m just going to show what I know.”