STOCKTON – While victories were few and far between for East Union on Saturday in a 51-24 opening-round loss to Vista del Lago of Folsom in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division III Team Duals Wrestling Championships, with just four seniors on the Lancers squad a return trip to Lincoln High next year may be in the cards.
“I plan on trying to get back here next year,” Lancers coach A.J. Riendel said. “And hopefully do a little bit better. We are young and I am losing four seniors which is going to hurt, but I will bring back a lot of these kids next year.
“Bear Creek and American River wrestled on the other side of the bracket and I would have liked to have wrestled one of those two, but with Oakdale on that side we couldn’t be there too. And Vista Del Lago is tough. They lost to Oakdale by a point last year in the finals.”
East Union’s Levi Huffman (170 pounds) had one of the gutsiest performances of the contest. Down 9-2 the Lancers sophomore came back to win by pin Jonathan Reyes.
“I knew I was much stronger than he was,” Huffman said. “And I also knew I had to show how my integrity was and how I am supposed to portray myself on the mat.
“I don’t want to be a loser, I want to be a winner so I pushed myself to the end.”
As with the rest of East Union, this was the first trip to the championship duals for Jaysen Reindel (285). He didn’t take long to relish the experience, notching a pin in just 73 seconds over Yosoph Aboulwafa.
“This is my first time here,” Jaysen Reindel said. “I never wrestled that kid before.
“But it feels great to go out there and be able to help the team.”
Jason Betlej (132) got the other win for East Union with a first-round pin over Devin Duncan.