A pair of local scholastic wrestling teams showed improvement as the season went along.
La Jolla High under new head coach Ryan Lennard finished its dual meet record at 2-4, with wins coming over San Diego High School and Mission Bay.
The Vikings placed six in the City Conference Tournament, including one finalist, senior David Medrano. La Jolla was scheduled to take a lineup of nine wrestlers to CIFs.
“Late-season injuries as well as a few other issues have cost us a full lineup,” Lennard said. “Our first-year kids are doing a great job so far, and our seniors have stepped it up in the last couple of weeks.”
At University City (UC) High, head coach Jeret Needham and the Centurions finished the Western League in second place with a 4-1 record. UC also was slated to send competitors to the CIF’s.
UC ended regular-season action last week with a win over Saints. Freshmen standouts Wade Geissel and James Madden had huge wins, while junior Alex Scarlett secured the victory for UC.
The UC junior varsity team ended up a strong season in second place after winning the league crown the last nine seasons.
In other highlights, Casey Nakamura took first place at the City Championship at 189 pounds. Mansoor Pahgmani placed fifth and freshman James Madden placed sixth.
“I’m really looking forward to next season already,” Needham said. “This is an exciting team with the potential to be a championship team.”
UC’s Kids Club took first place at the recent AAU championship, beating Vista, La Costa Canyon and Scripps Ranch for the team title.
Gold medalists were Zachery Barnhill, Adrian Ortiz and Toby Brown. UC had silver medals from Lake Needham, Nick Beresh and Staphon Smith. Bronze medalists were Jacob Goddard and Tasi Therrien.