In their first league meeting, the Eagles fell to the Spartans on senior night in a series of unfortunate injuries and players being out sick. From the minute the starting whistle whirring out across the gym, the Los Altos High School varsity wrestling team was fighting an uphill battle.

The first match of the day saw freshman Sebastian Mogan take on Mountain View High School freshman Landon Aikin. To make the weight cut, Sebastian had to sweat out five pounds before the match and wasn’t at his best as a result. That didn’t stop him from coming out swinging and he quickly took control of the match. Unfortunately, after some back and forth where neither could get control, Landon pinned Sebastain, giving Mountain View the early lead of 6–0, as a pin is worth six points.

“I should have played it safe,” Sebastian said. “I was winning, too.”

After an Eagles’ forfeit and two matches that ended with a Spartan pin, the score quickly became 24–0. The pressure was on for sophomore Daniel Khasanov to turn the tide of the game and shift the momentum to Los Altos. Daniel faced off against MVHS junior Brandon Lien and Daniel took immediate control, eventually pinning down to the ground while the crowd of Los Altos parents went wild. Los Altos felt they could now make a push with the score being 24–6. With three quick pins in a row, Los Altos could have tied this game up.

Looking to continue the Eagles’ newfound momentum, senior Jimin Park faced off against MVHS junior Zach Sadovsky in a match that came down to the wire. After a crazy, last-second sequence with the crowd on its feet and the wrestlers on their backs fighting for control, it appeared that Jimin had lost to Zach. However, after further review, the call was overturned and Jimin claimed victory, earning three points.

Unfortunately, the Eagles’ saw their momentum fall short in the next match as MVHS junior Nathanial Wilson quickly pinned senior Ani Aggarwal to the mat, increasing the Spartans score by six.

In order to come back, Los Altos would now need to pin every opponent. But in the last seconds of his match, Mountain View sophomore Andrew Croft took control of senior Greg Schumann to earn three points for the match. Mountain View went up 33–9.

Senior Ethan Peng suffered a bloody nose, throwing him off and landing him a quick loss, and junior Leopold Goebel was bested quickly by his MVHS senior Gavin Scaffidi, bringing the score to 51–9.

Next came sophomore Richard Wang facing off against sophomore Alex Bocchieri. Early on, Richard was able to take down Alex for long enough, gaining match points, and by the end, Richard took Alex down multiple times for a total of six points. As Richard was ahead in match points as time ended, he would gain three points for the team making the score 57–12.

Los Altos again had to forfeit a match as they didn’t have a player due to injuries making the score 63–12.

The last game on Senior Night put senior Devon Harper against MVHS senior Chase Bandy. Devon maintains control from the start and takes down Chase. Devon is then able to flip over Chase and pinning him making the final score of the game 69–12. Devon was able to give Los Altos some momentum moving forward into Tuesday’s match.

Reflection on the loss, the team knows exactly what it needs to work on. “Getting to our moves,” assistant coach Ameer Al-Gharib said. “A lot of the guys were hesitant in actually getting to their attacks.”