Rinesa Kabashi staff writer
The varsity wrestling team lost against SAMO on Tuesday, Jan. 31; however, the loss did not deter any of the athletes. Instead, each player plans on building off the areas that went well and improving in the fields necessary to prepare for their next match.
Senior Cameron Ifekwunigwe, who won all of his matches, took the loss as something to motivate the team for future matches and tournaments.
“This was a tough team and each wrestler had a close match,” Ifekwunigwe said. “It was a hard fight on both sides. I believe that SAMO was aggressive and set on winning the dual meet, but in the end, our team will be motivated by this loss.”
Wrestling against their rival gave the squad more of a mentality to “not be beaten.” Sophomore Max Vasquez noticed this mentality affected the intensity some of the younger players brought to the dual.
“We really wanted to get a team win, but a lot of younger players stepped up. We are going to show them [SAMO] that we are the better team, but the mentality today is what we try to bring into every match,” Vasquez said.
Although Vasquez and the team did not win, there is always something to take from every meet.
“[I am going to] learn from my mistakes and try to wrestle better than I ever have [next match]. We have to put the loss behind us.”
Daniel Heller and Sebastian Fanucci declined to comment.