Cathedral’s varsity wrestling team concluded its season with two wrestlers placing in CIFs and continuing on to the Master’s Tournament. On February 19th, the team of ten players competed in the Division III sector tournament at Ramona High School.
There, sophomore Cameron Chavez and senior Allen Chae placed in their weight divisions.Chae, weighing 171, won 6th in his division, while Chavez, at 125 pounds, placed 2nd. The two continued on to compete at the Master’s Tournament at Canyon Crest on February 26th. Unfortunately, neither of the wrestlers placed in the tournament.
“The competition was rough. The winners of every division were there, so it was like the best of the best,” said Allen Chae.
Despite not moving onto the State CIFs, Chae enjoyed the experience. He said, “It was real fun, but also a challenge. Every time you win, you get a great feeling of glory, like, ‘I did it, and no one helped me.’”
According to junior wrestler Clayton Jaksha, the team performed extremely well this season considering the smaller team size, and different division placement. As stated by Jaksha, the team was the runner-up of Division IV last year, yet this year, the team moved to Division III, which offered more intense competition.
With CIFs marking the end of the season, the varsity wrestlers celebrated by going to Denny’s at eleven o’clock that night. After persevering through strict dieting, and three-hour practices in which players could lose three pounds of water weight a session, the team happily gorged itself
“It was really the first time we’ve all had a truly huge meal since November,” said Jaksha.