“They out-conditioned us, out-attacked us, and out-wrestled us,” reflected Coach Yabui after losing to the Titan’s long time rival, Kinnick Red Devils, 29-26 in front of their huge home crowd that came to witness what was most likely the league championship determining match. It was a triumphant evening for the Devils as they bonded with immense team spirit to dethrone the 2-time defending Kanto league champion. It was a rare occasion to see Titans wrestlers being out-conditioned by any team. Conditioning has always been the strength of St. Mary’s, but on Wednesday it was not the case. Coach Yabui was not surprised: “Our wrestlers miss practices, what do you expect? Kinnick had all the reasons to win and they ‘expected’ to beat us but we had all the excuses to lose and we ‘assumed’ we would win; there’s a huge difference.”
Perhaps Titans wrestlers assume that they would be successful again because they have been for the last 4 seasons and think that it is ok to miss a few practices here and there. That is certainly not the way the last 4 teams earned what they won – and what past teams have accomplished is irrelevant to the success of the current team. Especially when most of the wrestlers on previous teams have already graduated. Titans did give up a forfeit at heavyweight and out of the 12 weight classes contested, they won 6. A team score margin of 3 points in a dual meet is the difference between a wrestler not giving up that last take down for a technical fall and maintaining a loss by decision (a loss by technical fall gives the opposing team 4 points whereas a decision only gives up 3 points) or staying off their back for 5 more seconds to not give up the pin (as a pin [or fall] gives up 5 points to the team).
The team’s theme 先手必勝 (sente hissho) “one who attacks first will always win” was well proved by Kinnick as they almost always took the first shot and constantly pushed the Titans in the matches they won. “They did everything that I teach my guys to do; we have to learn from them and get them at Far East,” commented Coach Yabui. When asked again the chances of winning Far East, he replied “if we can wrestle that bad and lazy and still come as close as we did, I’m very confident we are ‘capable’ but there has to be a dramatic shift in the mentality of all 29 wrestlers we have – showing up to practices every day would be a good start.”
Titans will host the Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) Knights on December 5 at home starting at 6:30pm and then off to their first tournament on December 9 at CAJ. Can St. Mary’s make a come back and rewrite history? Or will the Devils keep the lead and outrun the Titans in the Far East race?
November 22, 2017
Regular season Kanto League dual meet – CLICK HERE FOR HIGHLIGHT VIDEO
KINNICK 29 – ST. MARY’S 26
Varsity Results
101lb Jong Pyeong Lee df. John Lanzilotta (KIN) by technical fall
108lg Eiji Kasahara df. Jobari Hazelwood (KIN) by technical fall
115lb Harold Mancia df. Jefre Arceo (KIN) by technical fall
122lb Tatsuhito Matsumoto df . Jordan Smith (KIN) by pin
129lb Lucas With (KIN) df. Rio Lemkuil by decision
135lb Devoney Stanley (KIN) df. Dai Matsumoto by technical fall
141b Mason Smith (KIN) df. Nishant Chanda by technical fall
148lb Jacob Castro (KIN) df. Jihoon Seo by technical fall
158lb Darius Swenson (KIN) df. Ryo Sawa by technical fall
168lb Austin Koslow df. Kameron Leon Guerrero (KIN) by technical fall
180lb Alex Patton df. Tyler Reyer (KIN) by pin
215lb Chris Mason (KIN) df. Nilay Hingarh by pin
275lb Cameron Joley (KIN) win by forfeit
Exhibition Matches
Dylan Boulch (KIN) df. Jasjot Bedi 7-2
Teppei Ono df. Ada Moreira (KIN) by pin
William Krcelic df. Terrence Berg (KIN) 10 – 0
Zachery Kornegay (KIN) df. Kai Atobe 6 – 6
Otto Paul (KIN) df. Anish Navaneetha Krishnan by pin
Abir Singh df. Ryuta Elmoutawakei (KIN) 11 – 1
Samin Hoque df. Patrick Kelly (KIN) 8 – 8
Ethan Hamilton (KIN) df. Konstantin Myer zu Brickwedde 6 – 5
Super Cauthen (KIN) df. Jonathan Goff 10 – 0
Mark Morgan (KIN) df. Lev Titov 10 – 4
Alex Lovell (KIN) df. Leon Yoshizue 4 – 0
Aubrey St. John (KIN) df. Gio Cannegieter by pin
Cole Lawlor df. Cee Jae Dabu (KIN) by pin