LATHROP — East Union notched four pins Wednesday on the way to a 40-18 win over host Lathrop to open the Valley Oak League wrestling campaign.
“They have some tough kids,” Lancers coach A.J. Reindel said. “Steven Widmer is a first-year coach and he has done a good job with those kids to have them prepared to wrestle this well this early in the season.
“We have some work to do. We lost four matches, but a couple of those could have gone either way. We came in here and did what we needed to do.”
Joe Patton (126 pounds), Connor Galloway (152), Alex Alexander (170) and Niles Lacanglacang (182) all had pins for East Union.
East Union’s Joe Luna (138) posted a 17-4 major decision over Mysson Harrell.
“They switched their guy to go against me,” Luna said. “I just wrestled my best, wrestled hard the whole match and took everything serious.”
The Lancers’ Tyler Diaz (120) used more technique than strength to defeat Mysson Harrell 10-3.
“The kid looked like he was a lot stronger than me,” Diaz said. “So I had to use more technique and took the outside angles.”
Christian Garduno (132) added a decision for East Union.
Sebastian Iniguez (195) and Mario Rengosa (220) tallied pins for the Spartans.
“It was a hard, tough match,” Iniguez said. “Toward the end I battled it out and fought through it.
“During the match I saw my mom and dad in the stands and that helped me give it all I had at the end.”
Jerald Asican (145) and Keonnee Linnell (160) each had a decision for the Spartans.
“East Union got second in the VOL last year so we knew they had a good team with a solid lineup,” Widmer said. “We were going to try to come in try to match up.
“We did well, and a couple of matches could have gone either way.”
Manteca 56,
Weston Ranch 18
Manteca 48,
Central Catholic 20
The host Buffaloes swept their VOL-opening double dual at Winter Gymnasium. Central Catholic settled for a split, beating Weston Ranch, 36-12.
Dominic Day (138) was one of Manteca’s top performers, coming through with a pair of second-round pins. Safi Sumtal (132) had a 55-second pin against Weston Ranch, which was done in by six losses via forfeiture.
Other Buffaloes scoring wins against Central Catholic were Diego Rodriguez (113, 3:32 pin), Joseph Farrell (145, 3:09 pin), Jacob Welch (182, 3:30 pin) and Jacob Sanchez (195, 5:08 pin). Nikko Ramos (182, 195) had two pinfall victories for Weston Ranch.
Manteca won the two JV matches — 18-6 over Weston Ranch and 12-3 over Central. Dylan Gase (138) contributed with a second-round pin.
