Brian Kelley, Director of Activities & Athletics, emceed the Recognition Assembly in the ASIJ theater filled with winter sports athletes and parents who had taken time off from work and other commitments to cheer on their children. After introducing award winners in basketball, cheer, field hockey, soccer, and swimming, he gave an extended introduction for wrestling. In his extemporaneous commentary on the wrestling team's success this year he said, "This is the best season in the eight years I've been here."
Award winners for the 2018-19 season are as follows: Most Valuable Player: Rin -- 22-0 varsity, 26-0 overall; Far East & Kanto Champ, 1st in Takedown & CAJ tournaments; never been pinned; most tech fall wins - 18, fewest points allowed - 0.7 per match; Far East & Kanto Most Outstanding Wrestler Most Improved: Kieran -- last year 7-10, this year 12-5 overall; last year was 6th at Far East, this year was Runner-Up at Kanto, CAJ, & Takedown tournaments + 6th at Far East despite injury forfeit in last three matches; team captain Sportsmanship: Ira -- can't show this with numbers, but goes without saying if you've ever been around him or seen him interacting with other wrestlers; top five in record 16-6, pins - 8, and takedowns - 43 Coach's Award: Zenon -- Coach Carlson: This is a combination of all three awards; 22-1 varsity, 31-1 overall (10-8 last year); 35-match winning streak; never been pinned; most takedowns - 60, top five pins - 7; Far East & Kanto Champ, 1st in Takedown & CAJ tournaments; team captain JV MVP: Shawn -- no prior experience; 7-3 JV, 7-5 overall; never been pinned; most pins - 5, top five takedowns - 11; sought out opportunities to wrestle [CAJ & Yokota], most matches [tie w/Luke] - 12 JV Most Improved: Reuben -- no prior experience; won wrestle-off and 2 subsequent varsity matches in addition to 2 JV wins; never been pinned; scored more back exposures than allowed JV Sportsmanship: Leila -- natural leader of the underclassmen; attended matches and tournaments to support team even when injured, sick, not wrestling; 6-3 JV, 6-5 overall; most takedowns [tie w/Josh] - 14, top five pins - 3; sought out opportunities to wrestle [CAJ & Zama], 2nd most matches [tie w/Josh] - 11
0 Comments
ASIJ competed against the Humphreys Blackhawks in the 3rd place match of the Division I dual meet tournament in front of a raucous crowd with many parents and supporters to round out the third and final day of the Far East Wrestling Tournament at Kinnick on Saturday.
ASIJ and Humphreys battled back and forth with ASIJ falling into an early 4-0 hole before pulling ahead 14-4. The Blackhawks clawed back to tie it at 14-14, the Mustangs scored 9 straight, then allowed 5 for a very close 23-19 lead, with a 5-point forfeit at heavyweight looming for the Korean team. The remaining three contested matches saw all the Mustangs end their seasons on a high note as ASIJ swept them to take the win 35-24. The awards ceremony highlighted the razor-thin margin between the top 3 teams in the individual tournament: Kubasaki, SMIS, and ASIJ. St. Mary's reversed the order for the dual meet tournament, but the top three remained the same: SMIS, Kubasaki, ASIJ. Edgren took the D-II individual and team crowns, as Yokota just missed out on a 4-peat. The quickest pin went to a kid from Kubasaki with an unbelievable 0:09. Steve Schrock was the Kadena coach for a long time. He started the wrestling program there, brought the team to respectability, and was well liked by all. The Team Sportsmanship award is named after him. The coaches from each school vote on the team they believe best exemplifies the principles espoused by the award's namesake. They voted for (drum roll, please)...The American School in Japan! That was not a surprise to anyone who knows the team, but it's nice to see all the other schools in the Far East recognize their individual grace in victory and defeat, their friendly and magnanimous interaction with fellow competitors, and their humble and grateful attitude towards other coaches and tournament staff. The good name these wrestlers give the school is in keeping with the values of the team and school's current leadership and the legacy left by their forebears. The most outstanding wrestler in the Far East didn't go to Kojiro VanHoose (3-time Far East Champion from Osan) or Marshall China (2-time Far East Champ from MC Perry), both of whom were in consideration over all the other excellent performances from several other Far East Champions who had also dominated their competition at the tournament and gone undefeated throughout the season. The most outstanding wrestler at this year's Far East, as voted on by the 14 head coaches, is from ASIJ: Rin Zoot! - 2 Champions and 3 runner-up Mustangs complimented by 3 taking 4th and 2 finishing 6th - 3rd place individual freestyle team - 3rd place D-1 dual meet team - Most Outstanding Wrestler: Rin Zoot - Steve Schrock Team Sportsmanship Award That's a lot of hardware! This is an amazing team!! The contributions from each wrestler (at each weight class - including JV - and coaches, managers, parents, and school officials) were invaluable in creating this tremendous success. - 10 Mustangs earned points for ASIJ by placing 6th or higher--10!!!
- ASIJ placed 3rd/14 teams; was neck and neck with #1 Kubasaki and #2 St. Mary's throughout the day; a whisker away from winning it all - Dual meet tournament: -- beat Kadena like a drum -- almost beat St. Mary's twice in one season - Firsts of the season: -- Michiru and Rin took their first forfeit victory (Take, Egan, and Kieran have yet to win by walkover) -- Zenon took his first loss (2-2 decision) after an otherworldly streak of 35 straight wins, going back to last season -- Take beat his St. Mary's nemesis (and newly crowned Far East champ) for the first time in six meetings - Fastest pins so far (wish we could've wrestled against Yokota in a dual meet...): 0:22 - Michiru over Yokota 0:25 - Dani over Yokota 0:28 - Egan over Kadena Nine, I repeat NINE(!) ASIJ wrestlers made it to the semi-finals today including (in opposite weight order): Dani, Zenon, Kieran, Rin, Egan, Michiru, Ira, Take, and Katsumi.
Ricky pinned his first foe from Seoul American before falling by tech and 14-9 decision to St. Marys and Kadena, respectively. Masa was on the short end of a tech against Edgren and got upset by Zama in the consolation bracket. Kyle didn't make the semifinals but weaved his way through the consolation bracket to survive until Day 2 where he'll join Dani, Michiru, and Katsumi in the running for 3rd. Kieran beat a favorite in his weight class from St. Mary's with a huge, huge takedown to win the 6-6 match via criteria but was injured in the semifinal match against Edgren and is out for the rest of the tournament. Going for Far East Champ tomorrow are Zenon, Rin, Egan, Ira, and Take. Head of School Jim Hardin and High School Principal Jon Herzenberg oversaw the ASIJ Mustangs wrestling at the Kanto Finals On Tuesday. The tournament, representing the culmination of conference play, was rescheduled from Saturday and saw full participation from all six KPASS league teams (Zama had a scheduling error that would have prevented them from wrestling on Saturday).
ASIJ had Mustangs wrestling for 3rd or 1st in all 12 weight classes competed (no heavyweight), and came away with 3 champions, 4 silvers, 3 consolation bracket champions (3rds), and the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler award. The plethora of placewinners led to a close 2nd place finish in the team standings, a whisker away from the team championship, too. Without going through the record books, this has to be the first time ASIJ has had this many competing for and reaching the winners podium since 1994. By virtue of his #1 seed in the 122 weight class, Ira had a bye his first round. His semifinal opponent from Zama withdrew as an injury forfeit (or maybe just didn't want to go against Ira again, having been pinned and tech'ed in his two previous bouts against the ASIJ star), putting Ira in the finals without lifting a finger. Yokota made it to the finals on the other side of the bracket. History nearly repeated itself as Ira, who had tech'ed Yokota in two prior meetings, went up 10-2 before pinning him in the first period to be the first Kanto Champion from ASIJ. Not to be outdone, Rin, wrestling up a weight at 158, took down and turned his Kinnick semifinal foe twice before throwing him for 4 more points to advance to the finals after a first round bye. Going against St. Mary's for first, Rin completely dominated the otherwise fearsome opponent, taking him down and turning him multiple times for an 11-0 win. Rin was also recognized by the conference coaches as the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament, the first ASIJ has produced in recent memory. Like the two juniors, senior Zenon was the #1 seed, having gone undefeated in the conference regular season. In the semifinals, he had a rematch against last week's Kinnick opponent. It was like watching a cat play with a mouse before eating him alive as Zenon took him down 4 times before finishing him off with another big move ending in a pin. The finals pitted him against St. Mary's. The fifth time was definitely not the charm for the challenger as Zenon traded takedowns and then scored 10 straight for the technical fall to become the third ASIJ Kanto Plain champion at 168. At 115 Take faced the #3 seed from CAJ in the semifinals after his first round bye. He got a nice throw and followed that up with multiple takedowns, the third leading to a pin and advancement to the finals. He met his nemesis from St. Mary's for the fourth time this season (winners keep meeting each other as they advance in tournaments). He wasn't able to solve him this time, either, as he got as close as 4-2 and 8-5 before getting taken down and turned multiple times to place second. One indicator that Egan is growing old is that he's slower than he used to be. As evidence, he took almost 3% longer to pin his first round opponent from Zama than in the regular season dual meet against him (36 seconds then...37 seconds this time) to move on to the semifinals. There he was in for a re-re-match against Kinnick. The first two had been decisions, but Egan took the rubber match in dominating fashion with an 11-0 tech fall that put him in the finals. Against another nemesis from St. Mary's he needed just a little more as he fell 11-8 for the second silver for ASIJ at 141. Also taking a first round bye was Kieran at 148. His semifinal opponent was another rematch from the Kinnick dual meet. Kieran got a really nice, big takedown for 4 points to start the scoring. He gave up a pushout for 1 and a takedown for 2, but nothing further to squeeze out the 4-3 victory to move to the finals. There he wrestled tough against a St. Mary's foe but he fell into a cow catcher that wrenched him over for a pin and the third 2nd for ASIJ. At 215 Dani also took a bye the first round and met Yokota in the semifinals. He made it look far easier than it's supposed to be, getting a takedown and pin in less than 20 seconds. In the finals it was yet another rematch against Kinnick. This time the foe would only allow one takedown as he reversed the regular season result for a pin, with the good guys placing 2nd for the fourth time in the tournament. Kyle started with a bye at 101 and then went against his nemesis from St. Mary's in the semifinals. It looked good for a while, but ended with a tech fall and ASIJ moving to the consolation bracket. The other 101 wrestlers (who he would have likely beaten anyway) turned into byes, giving Kyle the easy path to ASIJ's first 3rd place finish. Katsumi took a bye only to face last year's Far East champ from Yokota in the semifinals. He scored multiple times but eventually got caught in a pin move that sent him to the consolation bracket. Going against Kinnick for the consolation championship, he took a nice shot that led to a massive takedown that led to a pin, all within 18 seconds to secure 3rd for the Mustangs at 108. Another first round bye at 129 pitted Michiru against his nemesis from Kinnick in the semifinals. He couldn't pull any rabbits out of any hats and was sent to the consolation bracket via pin. He dominated the left-hand side of the bracket; in his first match against Zama, he took him down, and pinned him without argument to advance. In his last match against CAJ, he repeated his Zama performance with slight variation - one more takedown, faster pin - for the second ASIJ 3rd place finish and a personal best tournament placement for the freshman. The first match for the Mustangs at 135 pitted #2 Kinnick vs #3 Ricky. The seeds played out true to form as Ricky fell by tech fall in the semifinals. He went against CAJ in the consolation bracket, advancing to the 3rd place match by way of a first period pin. In the consolation champ match, he faced another nemesis, Riki from Zama, but couldn't get much going in a tech fall loss for 4th place. Masa started his bracket at 180 against the eventual runner-up from Yokota with a major takedown for 4 points. When the foe regained his bearings, he took the Mustang down and sent him to the consolation bracket via pin. On his way to the 3rd place match, Masa faced Kinnick and dispatched him with a powerful, 30 second takedown-pin combo. Going for 3rd, he faced a Zama foe he'd beaten easily twice before. The third time was not the charm, however, as he got caught in a throw and couldn't get out of the pin to take 4th. The tournament was planned to be the culmination of the season's worth of practice and improvement for the JV team, but they were unfortunately unable to wrestle against the JV teams of all the other schools in the conference due to a bureaucratic snafu. At the end of the successful tournament, Dr. Herzenberg said regarding the Mustang wrestlers, "I'm super proud of how they competed and showed sportsmanship. I'm proud to be their principal with the way they support each other. They are amazing." Added Mr. Hardin, "Tremendous character and hard work - I'm incredibly impressed with how they competed and how they represented the school today. I'm so proud to be the Head of School for these really, really tremendous students." The JV season is now complete. The varsity wrestlers will kick it into high gear in practice as they prepare to go against the best of the Far East at the end of season tournament running February 21-23 at Kinnick High School in the Yokosuka Navy Base. Instead of a report on tomorrow's snowed out Kanto Finals, here are a few fun facts to think about while making snow angels, snow forts, snowmen, yellow snow*, and so forth (stats as of 5 Feb 2019):
2 - dual meet wins over St. Mary's and Kinnick Infinity - years since ASIJ has beaten those two teams in consecutive dual meets 3 - wins that ASIJ would have lost without freshmen and first year wrestlers 6 - number of Mustangs who have a better record in varsity than JV 7 - different ways to score (not including penalty points awarded); Michiru is the only Mustang who has scored on opponents in every way possible 11.2 - Rin averages more than the 10 points required for a tech fall every time he steps on the mat 0.9 - Rin allows less than a point per match (secret recipe for victory revealed: score an insane amount and don't let them score) 8 - number of different Mustangs who have placed at tournaments (there are only 13 weight classes, and ASIJ fields wrestlers in 12) 10 - most points scored per JV match--Ricky 0.0 - least points allowed per JV match--Ricky, Rin, Zenon (that's right, ZERO average...recipe works in JV, too; they're a combined 14-0) 21 - number of ASIJ wrestlers who have pinned at least one opponent 24 - Zenon has the most overall matches 24 - Zenon has the most overall wins (for the mathematically impaired, that's a 100% winning percentage) 170 - more team points ASIJ has scored than allowed in conference dual meets (238-68, next closest differential was 30 points less)--ASIJ is more dominant in victory than any other team in the conference. Sky - the limit for this team if they double down on their conditioning, technique, and grit in practice and wrestle near their max potential through the end of the season *#yellowsnow is a joke - don't actually make it. However, if you grew up snow-less, ask a snow-knowing friend about the ins and outs of doing it. It's pretty fun and easy to make, and it might be trending in Tokyo if you read this on Saturday. The electricity pulsing through the crowd in the gym was palpable. The music blaring from the loudspeakers seemed to portend the outcome of the pending battle between conference heavyweights, as well as provide a poetic commentary on the season: Tonight We are young So let’s set the world on fire We can burn brighter than the sun The evening was more Apollo than Icarus as the Mustangs thundered their way to a 42-20 victory over the Kinnick Red Devils. With the first dual meet win over Kinnick in forever, ASIJ finished the conference regular season in second place. The 4–1 record represents an exact opposite of the team’s 1–4 (5th) record two years ago, and an improvement over last year‘s “return to respectability“ season and it’s overachieving 3–2 (3rd) record. A ceremony for the seniors provided a moment to reflect on their contributions to the team, the school, and the sport as well as their growth, both on and off the mat, as they enter the final stretch of their high school wrestling journey. Including the Kinnick seniors was a nice touch of sportsmanship and camaraderie. Saloni, Masa, Kieran, Josh, Egan, Liona, and Zenon received a single, elegant rose and a Mustangs T-shirt with a quote from the most successful wrestler in modern history, Dan Gable: once you’ve wrestled, everything else in life is easy. Like the Beatles opening for Brenda Lee (top-charting female female vocalist of the 1960's, for the young'uns), the JV Mustangs set the mood for the main event against JV wrestlers from Kinnick, winning three of five matches. Isak was within striking distance, trailing 4-2 before getting caught in a big takedown followed by a couple exposures for a loss. Josh wrestled, and wrestled, and wrestled, and wrestled some more. With the score tied 8-8, he gave up 2 takedowns and looked like he was fading but – maybe it was the rose…or the Dan Gable quote…or the partisan crowd cheering him on – he scored the last eight points of the match to pull out an 18-14 victory. Shawn got taken down in short order, but he didn’t go over as he then took a shot and eventually turned a tough spot into a pin of the Red Devil. Liam was all business as he took down and pinned his Kinnick foe in 28 seconds in a dominating performance. Yo rounded out the JV wrestling in a 5-3 loss that, like Isak‘s match, showed lots of good ingredients that just need a little more mixing on their way to becoming a cake in a five-star restaurant. In the main event against the reigning Far East champions, ASIJ was in a quick hole with an injury forfeit at 101. However, Katsumi road roughshod over his opponent at 108 for his first varsity pin to pull the Mustangs even at 5-5. Take’s 15-second pin at 115 was almost as fast as Ira’s forfeit at 122 that put ASIJ up 15-5. Michiru keeps wrestling beyond his years; he wrestled tough and smart against a powerful Red Devil, going up 2-1, 4-3, and 6-5, but he needed one more angel on his side as the Mustang eventually got corralled and pinned in the second period. Kai H stepped up to the varsity plate to fill an injury hole in the lineup at 135. His nice looking takedown was almost textbook, but it somehow ended in a Kinnick takedown and pin to even the score at 15 a piece. Wrestling at 141 for the first time this season, Rin ensured ASIJ got max points by doubling his pin total for the season against a clearly overmatched opponent. Egan, going at a personal high 148, went against a Red Devil who led him along the path to loss earlier in the season. Once he got a big 4-point takedown, however, he knew he could overcome the temptation to play it safe this time and wrestled possibly the best match of his career, giving a firm “get thee hence” to the Red Devil en route to a near-tech 14-5 win and an ASIJ 23-15 lead. Kieran continued the contest against another kid from Kinnick who is used to winning at 158. After keeping it close with big moves while allowing 2-point takedowns and 1-point push outs, Kieran got a takedown, kept Kinnick’s legs crossed, and rolled him for exposure after exposure after exposure (x6) to secure a tech fall victory. Zenon followed that up with an alpha male performance at 168, asserting his dominance with a 4-point takedown-to-pin combo that pushed ASIJ’s lead to 32-15 With only 3 weight classes left, The Mustang victory was assured; anything Masa and Dani provided at 180 and 215 would be icing on the cake. Masa donned a bakers hat and iced that cake, scoring at will to go up 9-0 before twisting his foe into the most unorthodox pretzel shape you’ve ever seen until the ref slapped the mat. Not to be outdone, Dani added a big dollop on top in an exciting come-from-behind-to-pin victory that, after a forfeit to Kinnick at heavyweight, made the final score 42-20.
With the conference regular season now complete, the Mustangs look to finish even higher (i.e. 1st) at the end of season conference tournament on Saturday at St. Mary’s. It will be the last time to see the JV wrestlers as Mustangs this season.
Wow, what a weekend! The ASIJ Mustangs beat the St. Mary's Titans for the first time in a decade and went to tiebreaker criteria to determine a barn burner vs the Edgren Eagles en route to a 3rd place finish at the Zama dual meet tournament on Saturday. The tournament featured two pools of four teams each in a round-robin series of dual meets against the other three teams in the pool. The top teams from each pool were then paired against each other for 1st, the 2nd place pool teams paired against each other for 3rd, 3rd place pool teams for 5th, and 4th place pool teams for 7th. ASIJ was in Pool B with Matthew C. Perry, who had marched up from the Marine Corps base in Iwakuni, the Robert D. Edgren Eagles, who soared down from Misawa Air Base, and the Christian Academy of Japan Knights, who jousted across town to join the fray. The Mustangs left MC Perry looking for a few good men, taking 10 out of 13 weight classes to kick off pool play. Kyle and Katsumi won max points without a fight and Take pinned his opponent in 1:23 without allowing a point. Ira went up 6-1 before the upset bug (aka loss of endurance) struck and he fell 17-6 for an ASIJ lead of 15-4 that was never relinquished. ASIJ went on another run of seven straight from 129 to 180 before giving up a pin at 215 and forfeit at heavyweight. Michiru and Egan pinned their opponents in the first period, Masa and Ricky took forfeits, and Rin, Kieran and Zenon racked up a combined 30-0 for three straight technical falls. Dani went up 5-0 before getting caught in a 4-point takedown that led to a pin. MC Perry's heavyweight got a forfeit to get them into respectable double digit territory in the 47-14 ASIJ win. CAJ skewered the Mustangs a couple years ago, but the tables have clearly turned as ASIJ gnashed the knights 54-5 in the second round of pool play. Besides freshman Katsumi's loss vs an experienced senior at 108 and an Michiru's finish-in-a-flash tech fall for 4 points at 129, the Mustangs muscled the max five team points at every weight class from 101 to 215, with HWT going uncontested. Despite taking just 1:13 for Ira to pin his opponent, that was still more than the combined time that Take and Ricky took to get their pins at 24 and 26 seconds, respectively. The third round against Edgren was filled with excitement as the dual meet featured several lead changes and ended in a tie at 30-30. The tiebreakers went against ASIJ for the first non-conference dual meet loss of the season. Kyle took a forfeit at 101 to stake ASIJ out to a 5-0 lead. Katsumi got thrown and pinned at 108 to even it out at 5-5. Take breezed to a 10-0 tech fall victory and Ira got the pin to put ASIJ up 14-5. Edgren got two pins in a row over Michiru and Ricky at 129 and 135 to claim a 15-14 advantage. Egan got an awesome pin at 141 for a crucial 5 points. Rin had a strange phantom point awarded to both him and his opponent on the way to a 11-1 win at 148 for 4 team points. Kieran had all he could handle at 158 but pulled out a gutsy and smart 8-2 decision for another 3 points. Zenon's opponent wouldn't go down easily, but he still beat him 10-0 to put ASIJ up 30-15. The upper three weights saw the Eagles claw their way back to a 30-30 tie. Masa went up early before getting put on his back for a pin with four seconds left in the period at 180. Dani's opponent looked like someone skewed the aspect ratio of his picture by stretching it out sidewise and, despite a valiant effort that included a score, the match ended in a pin. With ASIJ's forfeit at HWT, Edgren got another 5 to even the team score. In the end, ASIJ had taken 7 of 13 weight classes, but because Edgren had six pins or forfeits to three for the Mustangs, the win went to Edgren, putting ASIJ at #2 in Pool B. The silver lining is that St. Mary's ended as the #2 team in Pool A, so the Edgren dual meet loss actually provided the opportunity for a rematch of the league dual meet vs the Titans. This time the Mustangs would leave nothing to chance. After providing ASIJ with the max 15 team points in the first three dual meets, Kyle met his nemesis, going head to head for a while before succumbing via tech fall at 101. Katsumi quickly righted the ship by taking a forfeit at 108 to kick of a scoring spree by ASIJ. Take took down the Titan he faced at 115, and did it again on his way to a tech fall win. Ira picked up a forfeit at 122 (I wouldn't have wanted to go against Ira either considering the outcome the last time they faced off). Michiru rounded out ASIJ's run of victories by wrestling the best match I've seen all season. A couple years ago Shota dug down deep to score for the win in a lionhearted match against a same-level opponent at the Yokota tournament that left both of them crumpled in heap from their efforts. Last year Zenon was fearless and disciplined in a 6-4 decision over the newly crowned Far East champion, who had won all three of their previous meetings that season. These are the type of matches that are etched into your mind forever as examples of the pinnacle of human effort and triumph in untenable circumstances. The 11-7 score and 3 team points for ASIJ don't come close to telling the story of the match that left both wrestlers an empty husk, their physical bodies collapsed on the ground after barely being able to shake hands and walk off the mat. It was truly something to behold. Unfortunately, that was followed by Ricky getting unceremoniously tech'ed at 135 and Egan getting pinned at 141 to pull St. Mary's within 17-13. Rin gave the Mustangs some breathing room with a now-standard Rin-style tech at 148. The Titans returned the favor at 158 but, knowing they needed the extra point the team gets from a pin for a chance at the win, kept the match going. Kieran did not allow a pin and instead scored on his opponent as the time wound down to zero to keep the Mustangs ahead 21-17. Zenon's opponent put up his best match of the season but still couldn't manage a victory against the undefeated senior captain, losing 4-3 and putting ASIJ up 24-17. Masa and Dani slammed the door on any hope of a comeback with a pin over an improving opponent and a forfeit, respectively, to lead to a final 34-17 score and 3rd place at the tournament. ASIJ wrestlers went 6-4 in exhibition matches with some nice wrestling throughout the day. Leila continues to set the pace for the JV wrestlers as she secured two takedowns on the way to a pin of MC Perry before getting pinned by Kinnick. Kai H split his two matches, losing by pin after a huge takedown of Edgren followed by a 13-0 tech fall win over CAJ, featuring two more 4-point takedowns to put him within striking distance of Leila for the most JV takedowns. As the biggest freshman on the team, Shawn won his lone match by pin against Kinnick to keep atop the JV leaderboard with Leila. Several part or full-time varsity wrestlers got some exhibition matches in as well. Josh kept it close at 6-4 before losing steam and falling 14-4 to Kinnick. Reuben went up 2-0 before giving up a big move and the pin to SMIS. Liam had an "I'm back!" performance with a 10-0 dismantling of Kinnick. Zenon provided an opportunity for his SMIS opponent to go against the best but didn't allow him to do anything in his 10-0 win. Dani got the pin in under a minute against Yokota; he'll be a monster on varsity when he transfers his JV success (3-0) to the big leagues. It's hard to tell when a trend has started. Is the housing market taking off, or are this month's numbers just a blip due to a one-time factor? Is there a major shift in the electorate, or is the latest election an anomaly that is counter to the basic fundamentals, which remain unchanged? You hear experts debate those types of questions all the time. Here's one to think about: Are the Mustangs for real? Is ASIJ becoming the team to beat in the Kanto Plain conference...and in the entire Far East? Consider the following indicators: The first Mustangs win over St. Mary's in probably a decade. ASIJ winning a majority of the weight classes in all four dual meets against respectable and heretofore dominant opponents. Memorable individual efforts that combine heart with brains. These form an unmistakable trend that - if the team continues to improve - can ensconce ASIJ as the King of the Hill.
The next chance for the Mustangs to solidify the trend towards paramountcy comes in a dual meet against Kinnick, who's sailing up from the Navy base at Yokosuka on Tuesday. The winner will be 4-1 in the regular season and secure 2nd place in the Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools standings for the 2018-19 season. That would be a major turnaround from the 1-4, 5th place finish two years ago. It will also be seniors night, and the last chance to see the Mustangs at ASIJ this season. |
AuthorPhil Archives
March 2019
Categories |