The Paly wrestiling team ranked 6th out of 15 schools, with a total score of 104 points at the SCVAL meet this Saturday. Three Paly wrestlers clenched 1st place in their weight class, and three other wrestlers placed in the top ten for their respective weight groups.
Paly wrestlers Josh Deckelman (‘14), James Giaccia (‘15), and Seth Goyal (‘17), all won their matches throughout the weekend leading them to compete in the finals of the tournament.
Head Coach David Duran spoke highly of his wrestling team.
“If they all wrestle like they have been wrestling they’ll win,” Coach Duran said.
Throughout the tournament Giaccia won against Santa Clara, Fremont, and Gunn wrestlers to earn 26 team points, and 1st place in the 129 weight group. Like Giaccia, Deckelman earned 26 team points by winning all three of his matches in the tournament. Deckelman won his final match by a fall over Los Gatos wrestler in minute 1:29.
“The goal is to try to take him down and just pin him early,” Goyal said.
Goyal ended up winning his final match by decision over a Wilcox wrestler, meaning neither wrestler won by a fall or pin and it came down to who scored the most points. Along with the three who advanced to the finals, three other Paly wrestlers moved on to compete in the consolation matches.
Paly wrestler Eric Oshima (‘16) placed 6th in the 148 weight class and scored 7 team points. Oshima lost his match for 5th place due to an injury causing him to forfeit .Similar to Oshima, Kevin Schumacher (‘15) placed 5th in the 173 weight class and scored 13 team points. Schumacher won his final match by a fall over a Fremont wrestler in minute 1:19.
Chris Rodriguez (‘14), another Paly wrestler to advance to a consolation match, placed 7th in the 163 weight class, earning the team 7 points. Like Schumacher, Rodriguez won his match by a fall over a Kings Academy wrestler.
Unfortunately, despite solid performances by all the wrestlers only the three will advance to compete in CCS. Deckelman, Giaccia, and Goyal advanced to CCS competition which takes place Feb. 28th and March 1st at Independence High School.
