The Falcon wrestling squad got the 2015-16 season rolling in a big way last week, going 4-0 in the first event of the year, an away match hosted by Valley Christian on Tuesday, Nov. 24.
Before heading off for the Thanksgiving holiday, the high school wrestling team had to put in a bit of extra work on the mat. The team doesn’t usually begin its season until December arrives, but head coach Luke Salzman said he wanted to get in some actual competition earlier this year.
Winter break can throw a monkey wrench into the flow of competition for winter sports, meaning that athletes typically get in a match or two before vacationing for two weeks and then returning for competition in January.
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The Falcon wrestling squad got the 2015-16 season rolling in a big way last week, going 4-0 in the first event of the year, an away match hosted by Valley Christian on Tuesday, Nov. 24.
Before heading off for the Thanksgiving holiday, the high school wrestling team had to put in a bit of extra work on the mat. The team doesn’t usually begin its season until December arrives, but head coach Luke Salzman said he wanted to get in some actual competition earlier this year.
Winter break can throw a monkey wrench into the flow of competition for winter sports, meaning that athletes typically get in a match or two before vacationing for two weeks and then returning for competition in January.
Instead of spreading things so thin in 2015, Salzman decided to get his grapplers into some extra competitions early this season in order to gain some much-needed experience before taking a break.
And the local boys didn’t fail to impress in this first outing, besting all four of their opponents in the opening match of the season.
Salzman said the Falcons beat all of their opponents by a sound margin, including going 45-24 against Northwest Christian, 42-24 against Bourgade Catholic, 66-6 against Valley Christian and 54-21 against Arizona College Prep.
While the entire team helped contribute to these wins, a handful of athletes stood out on the night. Going 4-0 overall were Daniel Butler at 145, Kainoa Reid at 160, Tyler Wedding at 170, Chris Hernandez at 220 and Parker Kauffman in the heavyweight division.
“Our lineup is pretty solid with most of the guys being veteran juniors and seniors,” Salzman explained.
“I thought the boys wrestled really well. We got after it and pinned when we needed to.
“We saw a lot of things we need to work on, but I was impressed by how the boys wrestled aggressively from the start.”
The wrestling season continues on the road tomorrow, Dec. 3, with a 5 p.m. outing at Cactus Shadow High School. The team will then compete at Snowflake High School at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 9, before breaking for the winter holiday.
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