The boys and girls wrestling team reigned supreme at the PAL championships on Saturday, claiming five podium spots in a commanding performance. Led by three first-place wrestlers, the team also picked up a second and third-place finish to cap off a successful tournament.
Fueled by whistles, cheering, and the constant echo of her coaches, sophomore 105-pounder Anjali Sid was the first M-A wrestler to take the mat for the podium rounds. In her third-place match against El Camino, Sid controlled the match early, flattening her opponent out to build a quick 8-0 lead. She fought hard for the pin, and while she couldn’t quite manage the decisive move, she kept the pressure on for the full six minutes, eventually walking away with a strong 16-1 victory.
Following Sid’s victory, freshman 135-pounder Genesis Maciel took the mat against Woodside’s Helen Rabkin. Maciel entered the match cautiously, falling behind early after Rabkin executed a head-and-arm throw to secure near-fall points. Maciel managed to fight off her back and avoid the pin, battling for the full six minutes and showcasing valiant effort before eventually losing 15-6 to finish in fourth place.
“I wanted to get back at her because she’d already beaten me once,” Maciel said. Although she missed the podium, she viewed the match as a significant improvement. “Overall, I’m pretty glad I lasted the full six minutes, because last time [I wrestled her] she beat me pretty quick.”
As first-place finals drew near, the four qualifying M-A students warmed up by sparring with teammates.
Junior 109-pounder Eva Bhattacharya kickstarted the Bears’ push to the top of the podium with a characteristic strategy and aggression that has led her to medal at nearly every matchup this season. Though the score stayed close at 3-0, she remained consistently on the offensive, working to flip her opponent after the initial takedown.
“When I was on top of her, I had the arm bar, but she wasn’t going over. I had to do a lot of side to side movement to push her hips over, and then I had to settle my own hips so that her other shoulder blade would touch the mat,” Bhattacharya said.
Eventually, Bhattacharya was able to exhaust her opponent and get both of her shoulder blades to touch the mat, securing the pin. “My favorite part was just being able to move around and wrestle. I mean, I just love wrestling. I kind of just go for whatever I see is there in the moment,” she said. “And so, yeah, it was pretty good to get the pin and just listen to my coaches guiding me through it.”
Following Bhattacharya’s resounding victory, junior 106-pounder Jorge Arceo-Lopez went up against Niko Selianitis from El Camino. Though Selianitis came out with intense pressure and worked to take Arceo-Lopez down and restrain him to the mat, Arceo-Lopez braced himself, unwilling to collapse, and made an escape. Ultimately, Arceo-Lopez fell short, getting pinned 2:24 into the match, but still secured second place overall in his weight class.
After the final rounds for the intermediate weight classes, junior 146-pounder Colin Chung entered the ring with focused calmness. “I’m gonna go out there and I’ll give it my all, but I’m not gonna stress myself out too much, because I tend to do that. At one point I was, but I started to just think of [my opponents] as just pairs of arms and legs, and I think that helps,” he said.
Chung’s opponent, El Camino’s Keanu Perez, put up a fight, only letting Chung gain a 2-point lead, at 3-1. Even so, he was unable to keep up with Chung’s moves, ultimately succumbing to a pin 1:22 into the match.
After Chung’s commanding win, M-A’s team energy grew as senior 159-pounder Asher Supple took to the ring. Facing off against El Camino’s James Newton-Busalacchi, Supple quickly took the match from neutral sparring to attempting takedowns. Early on, Supple was close to pinning his opponent, but Busalacchi escaped into an upright sitting position. As Supple scored points by getting escapes himself, he fended off Busalacchi’s desperate, leg-grabbing attempts to destabilize him with agility and well-timed fakes. Supple emerged victorious with a 14-1 win and pinned his opponent, thanks to his patient but fierce strategy.
“I guess [toward] the end, I was kind of scared I wasn’t gonna take him down. He was gonna, like, throw me to my back, but I just squared up and was safe, and he kind of just fell over,” Supple said. “I focused more on staying low and controlled. And when he was throwing super hard, I was still just focusing on my technique.”
All the competing M-A wrestlers will be moving on to the CCS Northern Regional Tournament next Saturday at Gunn.
