ASIJ competed in the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) Invitational held Saturday, January 19. Varsity and JV wrestlers from all six KPASS conference schools competed. Eight Mustangs placed in the top 3 in their weight class, and ASIJ finished third out of the six teams in front of a big crowd of ASIJ parents and supporters.
The eight placewinners was double the number ASIJ posted at the same tournament a year ago. The Mustangs' 46 team points were good for a close third behind 2nd place Kinnick and left no doubt about the cream of the crop in the conference; it would have taken the combined scores of the fourth through sixth place teams - Yokota, Zama, and host CAJ - to slightly surpass ASIJ's point haul for the day. At 101 Kyle was in a round-robin style bracket where every wrestler goes against each other to determine the place order. He placed 3rd by defeating his opponent from Yokota and then having the favor returned by St. Mary's and Kinnick. During the tournament the first year wrestler picked up his first technical fall and first finish on the winners podium, portending plenty of potential for the Mustangs. After facing off against the #1 and #2 wrestlers from Yokota and CAJ at 108, possibly the top two in the entire Far East, Katsumi bowed out of the tournament to finish fourth due to injury. Had the order of matches been different, it's very possible we would have seen him finish with a 3rd place medal. Continuing the fast start to his freshman year, Take took third at 115 by first pinning CAJ and then withdrawing to nurse an injury, preventing a shot at any higher place. His current stats place him in the team's top five in both record and number of pins. At 122 Ira placed third, starting the day with a tech fall over Yokota to move into the winners bracket. That was followed by giving up a pin against SMIS, despite looking pretty good for several minutes. With his multiple takedowns today, Ira moves into sole possession of 3rd place on the team top fives. Mich, an exemplar in this fabulous freshman class, fell to the eventual champion from Kinnick in his first match by pin. Going for third, he was up against a lanky opponent from SMIS. He took advantage of the long legs available to him for several takedowns, but the downside was that the long arms could get ankle picks and the like. After staking out a hardfought 10-8 lead, he allowed a 4-point throw to end the Mustangs' hope of another place winner at 129. His two league wins (record) and his takedowns from today put him in the current top five on the team in both categories. In his first match at 135, a weight class with a completely full bracket, Ricky wrestled strong and got a takedown against St. Mary's, but the exposure points he gave up when he got taken down led to a tech fall loss. In the consolation bracket, he faced the same Zama opponent from the league dual meet on Thursday, starting by trading takedowns before allowing enough points to lose by technical fall. Wrestling in another full weight bracket at 141, Egan placed second after mowing down his first, second, and third opponents to reach the finals. He pinned a JV wrestler from Kinnick in the first round, and did the same in the quarterfinals to his Zama challenger, albeit the 1:04 it took was about twice the time as the dual meet Thursday. To change things up a bit, he won by tech fall in the semifinals against SMIS. In the finals, Egan got a takedown to pull within 5-2 but couldn't get anything else, ending in a 6-2 decision and ASIJ's highest finish to that point. Kieran continued to control his challengers at 148, coming out of the first round by racking up six takedowns on the way to a near tech fall 12-4 decision over Kinnick. He pinned his semifinal foe from CAJ in under a minute to go 2-0 against him on the season and advance to the finals. Going for the gold against St. Mary's, Kieran wrestled to a near-draw at 4-2 before giving up seven straight to lose 11-2, putting him in as the second in a row to place 2nd for the tournament. Taking a first round bye at 158, one above his normal weight, Rin started the quarterfinal round against Kinnick, making quick work out of it in a 10-0 tech fall victory. He repeated that score in the next round against St. Mary's, piling on takedowns and exposures to advance to the finals. There he met a St. Mary's tough guy, getting thrown for an early scare before finishing in dominating fashion to end up with a tech fall and become the first ASIJ champion of the day. At 168, Zenon had a round robin bracket, going against four opponents. He started by pinning the eventual 3rd place finisher from Kinnick. The next round was essentially the championship match against SMIS; he started out with a mini scare, giving up his first points of the entire season. Leading 4-3, he then scored 10 straight points and secured the tech fall victory. Extending his win streak to 20, Zenon switched up the order against the two JV entries from Kinnick and St. Mary's, winning by tech fall and pin, respectively, to secure a second straight 1st place finish for ASIJ. Masa started out his first match against Kinnick at 180 by staking out an 8-0 lead, nearly getting the pin, only to succumb to a throw and get pinned himself with about 30 seconds left to wrestle. In the consolation bracket, he wrestled the last match before the tournament awards ceremony for 5th place, getting the pin in an amazing 22 seconds against St. Mary's. Also in a round robin style bracket at 215, the lean Dani started out against the ample returning Far East champion from Kinnick, who only lost to a Mustang last year. He got taken down but didn't give up exposure points and stood his ground admirably until getting caught in a throw for a pin with about 15 seconds to go in the first period. In his match for 2nd, Dani got thrown for 4 before a nice 4-point takedown to even the score; his SMIS opponent eventually got the pin, however, putting Dani at 3rd for the final winners podium representative from ASIJ. Isak, Leila, Luke, Josh, and Shawn wrestled from the JV team today. Marin, Keibun, and Liam, not wrestling for various reasons, showed their support for their teammates as well and made themselves useful by filming and performing other various tasks. Going against the top varsity wrestlers in their weight classes did not deter them from giving their all and producing some highlights along the way. Isak got a massive 4-point takedown on, and some major respect from, Jasjot from St. Mary's. Leila and Shawn continue to set the pace for the JV wrestlers in wins, pins, and takedowns. Josh was ahead 14-5 in his first match against Yokota before getting taken down and pinned, sending him to the 5th place match in an all-ASIJ affair against Luke. Luke started out aggressive going up 7-0, highlighted by a huge throw. Josh kicked it in gear, getting a reversal and pin off a West Point to ensure order in the senior-freshman hierarchy. The CAJ Invitational provided a kind of foreshadowing of what we might expect at the Kanto Finals in three weeks. The wrestlers now prepare for the Beast of the East on January 26 at Kinnick on the Yokosuka Naval Base. The results of the Beast have typically tracked closely with the results of the end-of-season Far East tournament.
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Thursday night the Mustangs travelled to Zama for a conference dual meet against the Trojans, a vastly improved team laying it all on the line, desperate for a win in their last league dual meet. The calm and collected wrestling of ASIJ truncated the Trojans 55-9.
Kyle and Katsumi kicked off the meet by picking up wins by forfeit at 101 and 108 for a quick 10-0 lead. At 115 Take toyed with Angel A., going up 8-0 before pinning him for a 15-0 ASIJ advantage. Ira broke out his signature quick-pin wrestling at 122, putting Kaito’s shoulders to the mat at 0:44, and putting ASIJ up 20-0. Not to be outdone by his fellow freshmen, Michiru also contributed max points at 129 by getting a pin called on Angel F. just as the buzzer ended the match (6:00 will certainly be hard to beat for “slowest pin” this year). Ricky, going at 135 on varsity for the first time, wrestled strong for the Mustangs, but inexperience prevented him from taking advantage of what the confusingly named Riki from Zama was giving him, falling 14-4 in the second period. Building on the 25-4 lead at 141, Egan went against the Trojan’s great hope Eligh, and pinned him in a remarkable 36 seconds. At 148 Zama’s Caden didn’t let his success desert deter him from giving it everything he had against the Mighty Rin, but the capability chasm between them that would dwarf the Grand Canyon produced highlight reel moments, after some Zama flail and whirl, as Rin ended his 405-day pin drought in a kind, merciful, dominating fashion. Kieran looked back in force-to-be-reckoned-with form, getting a nice, tight West Point that Haruki had no chance of escaping; his pin at 158 pushed the Mustang lead to 40-4. After lending his talents to Zama his last time out, Zenon extended his win streak the easy way as the 16-in-a-row winner took a forfeit for the good guys at 168. Masa had to dig down deep before coming up with a 2nd period pin against Zama’s much improved judo star, Cane. Dani remained undefeated on the season taking a forfeit at 215. Zama’s heavyweight went unopposed to close out the scoring at 55-9, the most the Mustangs have scored in a dual meet in a long, long time. Between Zama’s doubleheader meets, their opponents - Kinnick & ASIJ - wrestled several exhibition matches, with Mustangs winning 3 of 5. Wrestling up a weight at 108, Kyle got his first pin of the year against Anthony, resulting in a smile you could see from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo. Katsumi came out tentative against Alexi, and it cost him as he fell by fall (pin). At 141 Josh got a takedown against the ultra-strong Ethan before succumbing to a pin. Wrestling up a weight again, Shawn spent a full 2 minutes evaluating Keith, found a weakness, and exploited it, putting him on his back for a pin. Dani wrestled like a cranky bear woken up from a deep sleep, aggressively taking down and pinning the heavier Aurion in a super speedy 23 seconds. The commanding win against Zama allowed ASIJ to stay one game back of St. Mary’s in the regular season conference race, and a half game behind Kinnick, as both league rivals won their respective dual meets this week. There’s not much time for celebrating, though, as the CAJ invitational will be held Saturday, January 19. Because it’s an open tournament (JV will wrestle, too), we’re hoping for multiple ASIJ vs ASIJ finals - varsity wrestling like they should and JV Mustangs stretching to their max potential. If you thought that the great Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre playing for the Minnesota Vikings was funny, then you should've seen Zenon wrestling for the Zama Trojans today. A few ASIJ wrestlers participated in the dual meet tournament at Yokota attended by DoD schools MC Perry (Iwakuni), Kinnick (Yokosuka), host Yokota, Zama, and Edgren (Misawa), along with St. Mary's.
Extra wrestlers from each school were assigned to fill in gaps for schools without a full lineup. Zenon was assigned to Zama. Luke, Egan, and Shawn were unassigned, so they wrestled exhibition matches between the dual meets. Zenon continued to completely dominate his opponents, albeit on behalf of Zama today. This ran his win streak to 15 straight matches (including exhibition) dating back to last season. He pinned Edgren in 33 seconds, and tech pinned his SMIS, Kinnick, and MC Perry challengers, all 10-0. He still, incredibly, has not allowed a single point to be scored against him this season. Kicking off the exhibition matches, Luke fell victim to a questionable pin call after going up 4-0 on Kinnick. He went 1-1 against Edgren foes, pinning the first and getting pinned by the second. In between the two Edgren matches, he was up 4-2 against SMIS, but allowed a late takedown that proved to be the tiebreaker, so the victory slipped out of his hands. Egan, despite wrestling up a weight class, obliterated the competition in his exhibition matches. The refs mercifully stopped the match after his onslaught of scoring (tech pin, 10-0) against Kinnick. Saint Mary's then sent three different wrestlers to take on Egan, all leaving the match dejected, having been pinned and without scoring any points on Egan. He also bested his brother by 7 seconds for fastest pin at 0:26. Capping off the exhibition matches, Shawn, giving up 15 pounds in his first match against Kinnick, was down 11-5 after the first period, but he flipped the switch in the second period and secured his victory by pin with 29 seconds left in the match. Undeterred by his second Kinnick opponent's 20-pound weight advantage, Shawn swiftly dealt with him by pinning him in under a minute. The full squad will be in action again for a dual meet at Zama on Thursday, January 17, looking to secure an all important conference victory. 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. 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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