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| Four Tigers place at wrestling tournament |
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| Written by Marc Aceves / Patterson Irrigator | |
| Wednesday, 16 January 2008 | |
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ESCALON — Despite being hampered by illness and injury, the Patterson wrestling team fared well at the Lloyd C. Engel Tournament at Escalon High School on Saturday. Four of the Tigers’ 11 participating grapplers returned home with medals, much to the delight of Patterson coach Lee Scoles. “Overall, our performance was excellent,” Scoles said. “From a quality standpoint and from a numbers standpoint, this was a great tournament to be a part of, with everyone getting a chance to compete.” Patterson 135-pounder Michael Linez earned the first of the Tigers’ medals, finishing third with a win over Downey’s Eli Ramirez. The Patterson wrestler made a comeback after he was initially outmaneuvered and ripped down to the mats for a 2-0 deficit. Despite struggling to gain momentum, Linez eventually positioned himself on top of his opponent with his back on Ramirez’s chest, as he leaned back and squeezed out a pin. “There’s a move that wrestlers use on me all of the time, and I was looking to do it here,” Linez explained. Tigers freshman Ricky Howard drew a tough R.J. Wynn of Sonora for his final match of the competition. He did not prevail, but he was in the match every step of the way, matching his opponent’s energy and intensity, move for move. Eventually, though, the exhausted Howard ran out of steam. Scoles praised his wrestler by accentuating the positive. “Ricky battled hard for a freshman and is pretty mature in terms of his mentality,” Scoles said. Next up for the Tigers was 171-pounder George Miranda. The Patterson sophomore, known by his teammates for his laid-back demeanor, was anything but in his third-place match. Like Linez, Miranda faced an early disadvantage. While grappling for a starting point, he gave up control of his footing to his Downey opponent. The Knights wrestler seized Miranda by the ankle and refused to let go, looking to score a takedown. Miranda somehow remained standing, balancing on one leg and hopping in circles around the mats, trying to prevent himself from taking the fall. He eventually freed his limb from his opponent’s grasp and reversed the tide by shooting into position for a surprise takedown of his own. Miranda led after the first round by a score of 4-0 and finished with a win by pin to secure the victory. “I just tried to pick up on what my teammates, some of the upperclassmen, have been telling me,” Miranda said. “I need to get more aggressive, because everyone says that I’m too much of a nice guy. I need to wrestle smarter, like Coach (Scoles) says, and I’ll keep getting better every time.” Patterson’s Adrian Ramirez also had a strong tournament showing, finishing with a fourth-place medal. Scoles said the tournament was important for his young wrestlers. “All of our kids, from the freshmen on up, got an opportunity to find out about themselves, and make improvements based on what they’ve done,” he said. To reach reporter Marc Aceves at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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