Coyotes claim walk-off victory this time
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune Madera’s Rudy Paredes (top) tries to work Madera South’s Jaime Garcia into back points during Wednesday dual meet. Paredes picked up the win for a 37-31 dual meet victory to give Madera its ninth straight County/Metro Athletic Conference championship.
The last time the Madera and Madera South wrestling squads faced each other in Joe Flores Gym, the Stallions came away with a walk-off victory.
It was almost déjà vu for Madera coach Joe Romine when his team was tied with Madera South with two matches remaining.
However Madera senior Rudy Paredes made sure that didn’t happen during Senior Night on Wednesday. Paredes came away with an 8-5 decision to clinch a 37-31 victory to give the Coyotes their ninth straight County/Metro Athletic Conference championship.
“About the heavyweight match, I figured it was going to come down to the last three matches,” Paredes said. “ I knew I couldn’t be put on my back again. I did, but I kept fighting. I got put on my back in the first round. I stayed calm and I wrestled. I was trying to wrestle one move at a time. Ever since that loss, it’s been on my mind. It was cool getting a win on my senior night.”
“I think the experience he had a couple of years ago, he was not going to do that again,” Romine said. “That’s the same scenario, the same kid, the same last match. It was really special to see him get the win. He’s a special kid. I appreciate him and what he does for our program. To be on his shoulders for what he went through, I was pulling for him.
“It’s kind of crazy. I was thinking about how neat of an accomplishment it is (winning nine straight leauge titles) until you start looking at the cross country titles. It’s all perspective.”
The Coyotes came away with four victories and three forfeit wins in the match.
“We always want to think about the successes we do,” Romine said. “Sometimes you look at the slip ups and say ‘Oh boy.’ I’m just glad the slip ups didn’t hurt up because they can haunt kids down the road.”
Meanwhile, the Stallions overcame the three forfeits and recorded six wins with four pins.
“It’s a fantastic way to end the season,” Madera South head coach Ryan Philp said. “It was one of the best duals between Madera and Madera South. It’s great to be competing with these guys. They have a program that I want to be at one day. They have eight seniors that have made it four years. It’s pretty impressive. I want to be there one day. Our kids battled tough today. We have young kids and they fought a good senior-heavy team. I’m proud of our guys. I’m not mad at all.”
David Diaz got the Coyotes started on the right foot with a 5-2 decision over Ryan Yrigollen at 138 pounds. Diaz led 2-1 after the second period and got an escape and takedown to open the third before he was called for stalling.
At 145 pounds, Madera’s Oscar Ruiz was dominant over Madera South’s Arturo Perez. Ruiz jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the third period and recorded a pin 26 seconds into the third.
Madera South 152-pounder Gio Ortiz was just as dominant against Madera’s Jose Guzman. He led 2-0 after the first and 8-0 after the second. Ortiz worked Guzman into a pin with 7.6 seconds left in the third period.
Madera South’s Victor Wren and Madera’s Isaac Lopez had a high scoring match at 160 pounds. Wren led 2-1 at the end of the first and 5-3 at the end of the second. Wren took an 8-3 lead before Lopez got a reversal. Wren escaped for a 9-5 lead, but Lopez got a takedown with five seconds left in a 9-7 loss.
Madera South freshman Tayte Grantham had a relative easy time against Madera’s Adam Madrigal. Grantham led 9-1 after the first and 14-2 after the second. He got a takedown 30 seconds into the third and pinned Madrigal two secnds later.
Angel Reyes gave Madera South its fourth straight win with a decision against Madera’s Alex Carillo at 184 pounds. Reyes led 5-0 at the end of the second and recorded a 10-0 major decision.
Alex Vaca, at 195 pounds, Hulisa Santiago, at 220 pounds, and John Cook, at 285 pounds, each got a forfeit victory for Madera.
Madera South freshman Jonathan Spraggins had an easy time at 106 pounds. He shut out Madera’s Maddie Avila throughout the match. He led 8-0 before recording a third period pin with 1:22 left.
Gio Madrigal piled on the points for Madera at 113 pounds over Madera South’s Ricardo Martinez. Madrigal led 8-0 after the first period and 10-1 after the second period. He added a takedown and a reversal in the third period to record a 14-3 major decision.
At 120 pounds, Madera’s Cristian Solorio and Madera South’s Diego Solorio had the closest battle of the evening. Solorio led 4-0 after the first period. Jaimes recorded a near fall to open the second period, but Solorio got a reversal. Jaimes got a reversal with nine seconds left in the period.
Solorio extended his lead to 8-5 after a near fall to open the third period. However, Jaimes got a reversal and then pinned Solorio nine seconds later to tie the team dual at 31.
At 126 pounds, Madera’s Jonathan Solorio opened a 4-0 lead at the end of the second period after a pair of takedowns over Madera South’s Vincente Moreno.
Solorio opened the lead to 7-0 before Moreno got an escape. Solorio recorded another takedown with 52 seconds left to get into major decision range and add four more points to the team total. However, Moreno got a key point with an escape with 15 seconds left while Solorio recorded a 9-2 decision for a 34-31 lead.
In the final match of the night, Madera South’s Jaime Garcia got Paredes on his back from the start and picked up a 4-0 lead a minute into the match.
“I knew they were going to fire off and try to get a pin, again,” Paredes said.
Paredes rebounded and got a reversal and a near fall to tie the score at the end of the first period. He got a takedown 22 seconds into the second period for a 6-4 lead.
Paredes recorded a reversal 27 seconds into the third period to open an 8-4 lead. he held tough until Garcia got an escape with 10 seconds left in the match. Paredes held on for an 8-5 decision and give the Coyotes a 37-31 victory.
