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.
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