By Pardis Khorasani
Staff Writer
After qualifying to compete in the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section playoffs, the Mira Costa wrestling team lost in the first round on Saturday in the two-day Temecula Wrestling Tournament.
Costa finished 27th out of 43 teams, scoring a 27.0 to end its season.
“It was a tough tournament,” senior Kit Murphy said. “I felt like the whole team went in prepared, but we didn’t manage to produce the results that we expected.”
On the first day, most of the wrestlers did not advance. However, senior Jake Shapiro, junior Miles Gilliam and sophomore Zach Schrader advanced with scores of 8-4, 4-2 and 3-2, respectively.
“Everyone on our team tried their best, and we can only learn from our mistakes,” Shapiro said.
Costa competed in both the Most Valuable Player lower weight and Most Valuable Player upper weight divisions. Both Gilliam and Shapiro competed in the lower weight division, while Schrader competed
in the upper weight division.
“We learned a lot from the Temecula Tournament, and although we aren’t pleased with the results and everyone thought we could’ve done better, all we can do at this point is to learn from our
mistakes and try to improve next season,” junior Michael Cervantes said.
At the team’s previous league meet at El Camino on Feb. 15, sophomores Niilo Niemi and Schrader, along with Shapiro, all placed first.
“The boys fought really hard,” coach Jimmy Chaney said. “I expected better results, and we all thought we deserved a better ranking, but it was a great learning experience for them, and they all have new techniques to apply.”
Leave a Reply