Warden Cougars defeat Quincy Jacks in home wrestling dual
Casey McCarthy/Sun Tribune Warden’s Nathan Mendez holds down Jonathan Rohas-Aguilar of Quincy, who tries to break loose on Thursday night in Warden.
Casey McCarthy/Sun Tribune Quincy’s Oswaldo Perez is locked in with Warden’s Edgar Hernandez in the two’s bout at 145 on Thursday night at Warden High School.
Casey McCarthy/Sun Tribune Quincy’s Migeul Martinez fights to hold up Warden’s Eduardo Suarez on top of him in the matchup at 285 at Thursday’s wrestling dual at Warden High School.
Casey McCarthy/Sun Tribune Quincy’s Israel Perez fights for position against Isreal Hernandez in the matchup at 132 pounds at Warden High School on Thursday.
WARDEN — Warden boys wrestling defeated Quincy in a home dual to kick off the season by a score of 47-30. The Jacks forfeited five matches in the dual, while the Cougars forfeited one.
“Quincy is definitely a quality program and I always like being up against them every year at the beginning to see how we fit,” head coach Brent Cox said.
Warden picked up a win in the first match of the evening, with Cael Cox taking down Quincy’s Brody Wallace 51 seconds into the second round in the 120-pound matchup. Quincy picked up the a victory in the 132-bout with Israel Perez taking down Isreal Hernandez by decision, with a score of 6-3.
In the matchup at 152, the Jacks took their second win in a row as senior Oswaldo Perez took down Edgar Hernandez 52 seconds into the second round of the bout. Holden Haworth grabbed the second win on the mat for the Cougars, pulling off the win with just over 12 seconds to go in the first round against Quincy’s Kian Fox.
At 170, Warden’s Nathan Mendez defeated Jonathan Rohas-Aguilar just over a minute into the third round. Quincy would pick up the first of three-straight wins to end the dual as Caleb Etue defeated Julian Egia 32 seconds into the third round of the matchup at 195.
Quincy’s Ruben Vargas would take down Zeke Guerra 1:38 into the first round of the bout at 220. In a tightly contested match to end the dual, Miguel Martinez found a way to score two points as the horn sounded in overtime to defeat Eduardo Suarez, 4-2.
Coming in with a young group, Brent Cox said it’s always good to get the first one out of the way. With just ten returners coming back, he said the dual gave him and the other coaches a chance to evaluate what they had with the rest of their group.
The Cougars coach said his upperclassmen have done a good job of providing leadership to the younger guys coming up in the program.
“We’re sophomore-heavy and a lot of freshmen,” Brent Cox said. “It’s always good to have those veteran guys to set the tone in the room.”
In the South Central Athletic Conference East this year, Brent Cox said he knows that Connell and Royal will always be there to compete with near the top of the league.
“We’ll just see how it goes,” he said. “We’re kind of excited for this season and we’ll see how we stack up as we see them throughout the year.”
Moving into the season, Brent Cox said he’ll look to improve on his players’ conditioning so they can go full-force for the entire six minutes in addition to trying to land more takedowns.
First-year Quincy head coach Breck Webley said he felt his team’s technique was off on the night, with plenty of room left to improve.
“Something we are trying to build our program on is the principle of being relentless,” Webley said. “We didn’t have a lot of great technique, but we were able to finish some matches, pull out a couple of pins when we really weren’t expecting to.”
Taking away the forfeits, the Jacks would have held the lead 24-17 in the matches that took place, something Webley said he talked with his players about in the locker room after the dual on Thursday.
“That’s something to really be proud of and that’s something I drove home to them in the locker room,” Webley said. “Being relentless will get you a long way in life.”