Facing the biggest challenge of the season, the ASIJ wrestling team (5-2, 1-1 KPASS) suffered our first dual meet loss on the year, falling 24-34 to the St. Mary’s Titans (7-0, 2-0 KPASS) Tuesday night.
The Titans won six of the first seven to build a 29-5 lead that withstood a furious comeback as the Mustangs took four of the last five matches. With three dual meets to go for each team, ASIJ will need to be perfect the rest of the season, and hope St. Mary's stumbles, to regain the lead in the conference standings. The meet started with a Rocky-Drago-like affair as ASIJ’s Kyle, formerly undefeated in conference, fell to St. Mary tough guy Mikhail at 101 by pin. Katsumi took a forfeit at 108 to even the score at 5-5, but that would be the last time ASIJ would score team points for the next five matches. Returning Far East champion Eiji from SMIS surrendered two takedowns to freshman Take but secured a pin with just 4 seconds left in the match at 115. The Mustang's returning pin leader, Ira, was upset at 122 giving up a second period pin after staking out an 8-0 lead. In his first ever varsity match, ASIJ’s Ricky was pinned by St. Mary’s returning Far East runner-up, Harold, at 129. Egan came out energetic at 135 for the Mustangs before eventually succumbing to William 11-1. Josh was looking good at 141 until he got caught out of position, thrown, and pinned by SMIS’ Konstantin. ASIJ's returning Far East runner up, Rin, reversed the flow in a big way for ASIJ at 148 with a technical pin of Nishant; the 21-2 score looks like two matches added together, but ASIJ was going for the extra team point that comes with a pin and allowed the match to run the full six minutes instead of stopping when ahead by 10. Kieran tried to keep the momentum going at 148, but a shot at the edge of the out-of-bounds line went bad and the Titan's Warren was awarded the pin. Zenon kept up ASIJ's domination at the upper weight classes by pinning "Drago's" brother Lev in the second period; Zenon is now on a team-leading 11 match win streak dating back to last season. Kole performed a textbook takedown-half-pin combination for the Mustangs over Luke to add max team points at 180. Masa took a forfeit for five more at 215 to close out ASIJ's scoring, but the last-half pummeling of St. Mary's was not enough to overcome the early deficit. The JV team went 4-6 in matches against St. Mary's and Zama, who was visiting for the first half of St. Mary's double header dual meets. Marin had a nice first period pin, and Reuben nearly tech-ed his opponent in a 10-3 decision. Several matches pitted varsity wrestlers from Zama against JV Mustangs to get some extra match time in for both sides, with Katsumi and Dani both dominating their opponents and getting pins for ASIJ. With their next action coming in a league dual meet at Zama on January 17, the Mustangs will have a long time to work on the conditioning and technique that will be needed in the near-weekly tournaments and remaining conference dual meets next year.
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ASIJ won big in the first dual meet of the season beating the Christian Academy of Japan (CAJ) 52-5 at home on December 5, 2018, and taking an early 1-0 lead in the conference standings.
The Mustangs had wrestlers at every weight class except HWT, allowing the team to take forfeit victories at five weight classes against the short-handed Knights. In matches against actual opponents, ASIJ wrestlers showed great promise by winning six out of seven by pin or technical pin. The necessity to win almost every match by pin in order to win a dual meet, which was prevalent last year, is gone because of the great contributions from all the wrestlers who are new to the HS team. They have filled in several weight class holes and have proven to be a huge boost to the team in many areas. CAJ provided many opportunities for the JV Mustangs to hone their skills, too. Out of nine JV matches, ASIJ wrestlers won seven. Everyone on the team who has wrestled now has at least one victory in varsity or junior varsity matches. The double-header dual meet with Yokota scheduled for tonight was postponed to a later date because DODEA schools were given the day off today to mourn President Bush's passing. Next week's dual meet against St. Mary's will be a tough challenge but also a good measuring stick for the team, with the victor having the inside track on the regular season conference championship. ASIJ kicked off the 2018-19 season in style, placing an unofficial second out of six teams at the takedown Jamboree held at Saint Mary's International School December 1st, 2018.
All schools in the conference participated, including ASIJ, CAJ, Kinnick, St Mary's, Yokota, and Zama. The format was unusual in that each match was 3 minutes long, with the first wrestler to score two takedowns being declared the winner. Wrestlers were grouped in two groups by closest weight and competed in a round-robin format, with the top wrestlers from each group competing for first place. ASIJ had two champions. One of the finals was an all-ASIJ affair with both ASIJ wrestlers winning their groups. Rin and Kieran placed 1st and 2nd in the same weight class, and Zenon won his weight class. The overall record for all ASIJ matches was 34-39, which included many pitting ASIJ against other ASIJ wrestlers. A total of 23 wrestlers got their first action, first points, and first wins of the year. Wrestlers got a feel for where they are at currently, and where the other teams in the conference are at as well. The tournament ended around lunch time and the coaches had a Parent/Team Lunch Meeting afterwards. They gave the parents and team a presentation at the Parent/Team Meeting. It was a good opportunity to meet the coaches, the team, and fellow parents! |
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March 2019
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