The wrestling team competed at the annual Green and Gold Invitational at San Marin High School on Saturday, December 8. Against stiff opposition, nearly all wrestlers from LAHS secured wins throughout the day’s matches.

In the double elimination tournament format, junior James Sobrino, sophomores Carter Lee and Phil Randall, and freshman Javier Contreras all finished the day with win-loss ratios of 1-2. In addition, Sophomores Briham Gonzalez and Sean Lanoza managed to achieve records of 2-2. The Eagles top finisher was sophomore Juan Cervantes who went 3-2. Phil, Carter and Javier secured pins throughout the day.

Senior Paul Hernandez, who is ranked number five in CCS for his weight group, is the Eagles’ highest ranked wrestler but did not wrestle due to nagging shoulder issues.

Originally placed in the tournament’s out-brackets, Sophomores Carter Lee and Sean Lanoza won their respective out-bracket matches in order to secure spots in the actual tournament brackets.

Sean, who finished 2-2, had an up and down day; winning his out bracket match, losing to the bracket’s second seeded wrestler, winning his next match, and then losing his final match by a narrow margin of one point.

“I thought I was winning, but sometimes in this sport you never know,” Sean said.

This year has become a rebuilding year of sorts for the Eagles squad due to the loss of many key seniors. The team had to adapt to the loss of former head coach Marty Matthews, who the team generally considered a master technician. While casual onlookers may view wrestling as an animalistic collision of brute force, technique plays a key role in creating successful wrestlers. New coaches have stepped into the void left by Matthew’s absence, and the team has since adapted stylistically.

“Their technique is a bit different,” Briham said. “So we have to adjust to it.”

The team has also begun to place less emphasis on stamina and and has begun to focus on developing explosive yet technical wrestlers.

While no one placed at the tournament, the Green and Gold marked clear improvement from the team’s previous outing the week before. Overall, the team is very young, composed mostly of sophomores with a sprinkling of veteran wrestlers. However, the expectations of the coaching staff have not lowered significantly.

“We were definitely better than [we were] last week,” Briham said. “But we won’t lower our expectations just because we are a young team. We want to make it clear we can be a force to be reckoned with.”