The Kanto League Dual matches wrapped up with an easy Titan victory at ASIJ but the early season dual loss to rival Kinnick cost the team the league title and an unprecedented 3-Peat! The season dual record for the Titans ended up at 4-1. Champion Kinnick went undefeated. The Titans ended up 42-11 in individual dual matches with 15 of those wins by Fall and 14 by Tech Fall. Amazingly, 11 wins came by walkover and only 2
Against ASIJ, the Titan grapplers got walkover wins at 101, 108, 115, 122, 135 and 158.
First match of the Dual was William Krcelic wrestling at 129 while Co-Captain Rio Lemkuil rested a sore leg in preparation for the upcoming Kanto League Championship. Wrestling a weight class above his normal 122 for the second time this season, William came out strong and made quick work of his opponent winning by Tech Fall. He finished his season a perfect 5-0 in varsity matches.
Next up was Jihonn Seo at 141. Jihoon managed to show the same mistakes that cost him gold at Beast and it cost him again against ASIJ as he went down losing by Tech Fall. “When Jihoon keeps a good stance and keeps moving, he can win but he came up too much and it cost him tonight.” commented Coach Moshe.
At 148, Nishant Chandra came out strong, stalled a little, and then won by Fall as he has done 9 times this season. In fact, Nishant leads the team in wins by Fall this season with most of them coming as a result of a cradle. This is another Titan wrestler who is in a great position going into the weekend’s Kanto Championship. Of the 10 wins this season, Nishant has won 9 by Fall and 1 by walkover.
Austin Koslow followed at 168 in what was arguably the most physical match of the night. Austin won by Tech Fall (as he has 58% of the time this season) and maintained his undefeated season. With just the Kanto Championship left before Far East, Austin is well positioned to end his Junior campaign undefeated before moving on to the Far East Championship in February.
At 180, Alex Patton added another win to his 1 loss senior season beating his Mustang opponent by Fall (he’s won 57% of his matches by Fall this season). Alex missed The Beast by has a first place finish from the CAJ Invitational earlier this season to serve as a gauge for what we might see from him at the Kanto Championship this weekend. He’s in a position to finish the Kanto season strong and help the team try and wrestle back the Kanto Championship from rival Kinnick.
The last match of the night had Nilay Hingarh at 215. Nilay wrestled a good first round against his ASIJ opponent and then a series of misteps and missed shots took their toll and he went down by Tech Fall. “Nilay needs to take chances and keep the other guy moving back,” commented Coach Moshe. At 6-6, Nilay is having his best varsity season in a weight class where he’s now giving up about 10 lbs to some big kids from the bases. He has his work cut-out for him but also has the technique to make up for the lack of size.
“Now we are in the home stretch and it’s time for the wrestlers to rely on what they’ve learned, minimize mistakes and go hard at winning these last two big tournaments – Kanto and Far East,” said Coach Yabui. He further commented, “We can get at least 11 of these guys in the finals this weekend if they show up to wrestle, stay focused and do what they’ve been taught.”