A 12th Place Finish Over-Shadows Several Stellar Individual Efforts
Photo by Rebecca Holt
A tournament studded with state placers, returning state champs, and a team of Spartans brought out incredible efforts from some of TJ’s wrestlers, fielding a 1st place finish from Senior Cody DeLaBarre, a 3rd place finish from Senior Peter Taylor, and a 4th place finish from Junior Guillermo Estrada.
The Colt Classic really did not yield as many victories for the Spartan squad as expected, but the individual standards were certainly set quite high. “I think as a team, not doing well, is the result of not practicing long or hard enough,” Estrada said. “My individual performance was alright at best. I need to stop going to my back; that always leads to a pin. I need to start taking more points than I am giving out.”
The two seniors, DeLaBarre and Taylor, placed highly (Cody 1st and Peter 3rd) as that is the tone they set for their season. Both looking to head to the state tournament, Senior Alec Groditski, a previous state qualifier himself, commented on both performances. “As a team, I think we wrestled our best. We are still a very young and inexperienced team; pitting freshman wrestlers against seniors, there will always be initial amounts of difficulty. Cody, well what really needs to be said? He is one of the best wrestlers in state hands down. And his recent performance proves that, and more,” said Alec, who commented further on Peter’s performance. “Peter has improved incredibly, far beyond anything I expected of him. I watched him the entire tournament, and the way he wrestled, the passion, he has become much more of a respectable wrestler of late. I see him going far this season.”
Alec Groditski, a top wrestler on the team himself, watched intently from the sidelines, as he healed from a recent shoulder injury. Alec expects to be back on the mat sometime within the next week.
The next match-up pits the Spartan wrestling squad against Valor Christian’s Eagles. “If we come out to wrestle, Valor Christian does not stand a chance. With all of our wrestlers, we are far more fully loaded than anything Valor Christian can throw at us,” Groditski said. During a long hard season, defined by moments, our Spartan boys are thus far striving to capitalize on those moments.
