Terra Nova Varsity Beats South City

Terra Nova’s wrestlers traveled to South San Francisco High School last Thursday to take on the Warriors.

In the boys’ varsity competition, Danny Borrego, 108 pounds, defeated Joshua Guiman by pin in the first period. Justin Pesino, wrestling at 120 pounds, defeated Justin Del Castillo by pin at 3:41. At 134 pounds, Michael Pitts lost to Abishek Sandhi 3-5 in a match that was decided entirely on technical violations, including having his shoe laces loose. Pitts actually outscored his opponent 2-1 on pure wrestling, having the only take down of the match. At 154 pounds, Rodrigo Huazano lost to his more experienced South City opponent, Andrew Dabit 9-1. At 184 pounds, Leo Grabowski pinned Brandon Peterson with 5 seconds remaining in the first period after scoring 5 take downs and a 3 point near fall. Jared Abellera (140 pounds), Ryan McGannon (147 pounds), and Jeremy Watts (197 pounds) won by forfeit to earn points for the Tigers. South City gained team points on forfeits at 220 and 285. The final team score for varsity was Terra Nova 48, South City 19. The Tigers are 3-1 in league dual meet competition.

Between the boys’ and girls’ competitions, South City coach, Steve Matteucci took a few moments to announce his retirement and pay homage to Terra Nova’s former Athletic Director, Bill Gray, whom he acknowledged as his role model and mentor for coaching in the sport of wrestling. Most people think of Coach Gray as a football coach, but he led the Oceana wrestlers to multiple CCS team titles, served as a National freestyle coach, and served as the Commissioner of Wrestling for CCS for several years. Matteuccci recounted how his own son had been injured right before the PAL championships that he had been heavily favored to win. The morning of PALs, he taped his son up – badly – and he was still limping. Coach Gray called the boy over and redid the taping job so that he could wrestle, despite the fact that his first round opponent would be a Terra Nova wrestler. Matteucci went on to add that Coach Gray taped his son up at both CCS and State because he had respect for the integrity of the sport, the incredible dedication of its athletes, and a belief that all of the athletes deserved a chance to do their very best.

Then the meet continued. Normally, dual meets begin with the girls’ competition, followed by JV, and ending with varsity, which is the highlight of the evening. Not this one. South City and Terra Nova both have excellent girls’ competitors, and when the girls’ meet began , the gym came alive with excitement and deafening cheers. The first match pitted the Tigers’ Yvonne Yip against Kristin Cantor. Yip and Cantor traded shot for shot until Yip was hurt and forced to injury default. Next up was Lady Tiger, Lucy Ramos at 143 pounds against Lourdes Gan. Ramos was leading the scoring 4-0, but in the closing moments of the second period, she was reversed and pinned with 8 seconds remaining in the period. The final match of the night at 101 pounds featured Terra Nova’s Victoria Borrego against Hiba Salem – a senior favored to win the CCS title. Borrego lost 8-1 in her only defeat of the dual meet season thus far. Despite losing all contested rounds, the Tigers would beat South City on team points. For every match that goes uncontested, the team that has an athlete gets 6 points. Terra Nova’s girls have won all of their dual meets this season on points in contested matches, except for this one. Terra Nova’s varsity has had the opposite problem this year with open weight classes costing them 24 team points every meet. The Tigers face Half Moon Bay  on the road this Thursday.