Coyote wrestling routs Edison on Senior Night
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Madera’s Gaige Bonderer tries to work his 182-pound Edison opponent into a position for near fall points. Bonderer, a senior, picked up a win Wednesday on Senior Night.
The Madera Coyotes wrestling team cruised to a 68-6 win against Edison on Senior Night in Joe Flores Gym.
The Coyotes recorded three wins by fall on their way to the victory.
One of those wins came in the 126-pound division when Jojo Nicolas defeated Edison’s Ricardo Juarez. Dominic Gutierrez also won by fall in the 145-pound division, defeating Jose Rivas. In the 160-pound division, Adan Madrigal defeated Edison’s Uday Patel to win by fall.
Madera head coach Joe Romine said he was impressed by the wrestlers’ performance after coming back from the winter break.
“It’s the first few days back to school for these kids, so I was worried about how tired they would look, but they wrestled pretty strong today,” Romine said. “I was proud of them.”
The Coyotes picked up another victory at 106-pounds as Nathan Galicia defeated Messiah Beccera by technical decision. In the 138-pound match, David Diaz took down Edison’s Xavier Prado in three rounds.
Romine said he was especially impressed by the veterans on his team.
“It was nice to see our seniors get wins tonight,” he said. “I wouldn’t single out any of them. I would just say all seven seniors getting a win was pretty special. That was nice.
With the win against Edison, Romine said it was a sign of where the team is going at the moment.
“We’re making big strides,” he said. “We’re happy with the work. We’ve had two, three good weeks of practice.”
Alex Carrillo (195), Gaige Bonderer (182) and Hulise Santiago (200) also picked up wins for the Coyotes. Madera won the rest of the matches by forfeit.
The Coyotes’ next test will come at the CIT Wrestling Tournament in Morro Bay on Saturday.
“We’re going to the beach this weekend, so we’ll see how that turns out,” Romine said.
Moving forward, Romine wants to see his team pressing more.
“Pressing the shots, pressing the tempo,” he said. “We’re a little bit more reacting. We have to set that tempo a little better.”
