The Titans opened their Kanto League season by playing host to the Zama Trojans and ASIJ Mustangs on December 11th.  The St. Mary’s grapplers showed a lot of heart throughout the two matches and made up for being a bit under conditioned this early in the season as well as a bit rusty on setting up and executing clean shots.

“We’ll get them in shape over the winter practices,” commented Coach Yabui.  Coach Moshe added, “They wrestled hard and showed they want to win, now they just have to work on getting their skills up.”

With a full conditioning schedule and Nick Spatola’s annual skills clinic set to begin on December 18th, the Titan Grapplers should be tough to beat when wrestling resumes on January 5, 2019.

ZAMA DUAL MEET RESULTS

The Titan Grapplers made easy work of an already depleted Trojan Army taking 4 of the 5 matches.

101 – Mikhail Titov started his high school career with a pin, taking down his Zama opponent in quick order.

108 – Uncontested as neither school had a wrestler in this weight class

115 – Returning Far East Champion, Eiji Kasahara, started his 2019 campaign right were he left off last season and pinned his Zama opponent to put the Titans up 10-0.

122 – Last year’s 101 pounder looked as if the 3 weight class jump may have slowed him down a bit from last season, but made up for that quickly and recorded another pin for the Titans putting St. Mary’s up 15-0.

129 – Harold Marcia gets a win by walkover.  SMIS 20 – ZAMA 0

135 – William Krcelic gets a win by walkover.  SMIS 25 – ZAMA 0

141 – Konstantin Meyer zu Brickewedde wins by decision.  SMIS 28 – ZAMA 0

148 – Nishant Chanda wins by walkover SMIS 33 – ZAMA 0

158 – Freshman Warren Koslow’s first high school win comes via walkover.  SMIS 38 – ZAMA 0

168 – Lev Titov wins by walkover.  SMIS 43 – ZAMA 0

180 – Luke Robottom put in his best effort but came up short after giving away about 20 lbs to his ZAMA opponent.

215 – Uncontested

HWT – Uncontested

FINAL:  TITANS 43 – TROJANS 5

 

ASIJ DUAL MEET RESULTS

On paper, it was ASIJ’s dual to win.  The Mustangs had filled all weight classes except 275lb, led by seasoned wrestlers at 122lb, 135lb, 148lb, 158lb, and 168lb. The Titans on the other hand had 3 open weight classes and filled 3 weight classes with rookies. “You don’t expect to win a dual meet with 3 open weights; that’s like trying to win a soccer match with 6 people or a basketball game with 3 people,” commented Coach Yabui on the fact that an open weight class automatically means the team is down by 5 points (in this case, 10 points or 2 weights worth as St. Mary’s had 3 open weights but ASIJ had 1 open weight as well).

Good thing the Titans managed to keep their mistakes to a minimum and capitalized on Mustang missteps to unleash a flurry of pins.  We proved that what’s on “paper” can always be trumped by strong heart and will. “Now, we just need to polish up our technique; which we are very good at doing,” reflected Coach Yabui on the unusual performance of the Titans who are usually more technical than heart.

101 – Mikhail started the Titans off with a win by fall. SMIS 5 – ASIJ 0

108 – Titans forfeit. SMIS 5 – ASIJ 5

115 – Eiji didn’t look to be in his best shape this early in the season but he did manage to dig down deep, keep focused and win by fall.  SMIS 10 – ASIJ 5

122 – Jasjot spoiled what ASIJ coaches had hoped would be a win in their column.  The match was touch and go for a while as Jasjot is finding things a bit different from the 101 lb. class he wrestled in last year, but he stuck to the basics and capitalized on his opponent’s mistakes to win by fall.  SMIS 15 – ASIJ 5

129 – Harold looked to be in great shape and confident as he continued his winning ways and added to the Titans point total with another win by fall.  SMIS 20 – ASIJ 5

135 – William came out strong and after settling into his style of wrestling rather than trying to force a pin, he wrapped things up in the second period winning by tech fall.  SMIS 24 – ASIJ 5

141 – Konstantin’s match looked as if it could go either way for a short time and then he managed to execute a move that surprised even himself and won by fall.  SMIS 29 – ASIJ 5

148 – Nishant’s worst opponent seems to be himself in these early dual meets and his ASIJ opponent took advantage quickly getting a win by tech fall.  However, the ASIJ coaches waved their wrestler on to try and go for a pin giving Nishant the chance to spoil that idea.  After picking up some points, Nishant again allowed a number of single leg take downs to rack up against him and lost by tech fall in the end.  SMIS 29 – ASIJ 9

158 – Warren notched his second HS win and made a statement doing it as he defeated his ASIJ opponent by fall.  SMIS 34 – ASIJ 9

168 – Lev struggled in this one and got himself in trouble one too many times giving his opponent the win by fall.  SMIS 34 – ASIJ 14

180 – Luke gutted out another tough match to a much bigger opponent but went down by fall.  SMIS 34 – ASIJ 19

215 – ASIJ wins by walkover.  SMIS 34 – ASIJ 24

HWT – Uncontested

FINAL:  SMIS 34 – ASIJ 24