Redhawks Wrestling placed three athletes at the annual Coyote Classic on Saturday, with senior William Randolph taking second and sophomore Dani Banks and junior Gabriel Quieros both finishing in fourth.
The teams might have not received the outcome they were hoping for, but head coach Justin Koons believes that it gives them things to work with before the District 8 Championships on Jan. 31.
“I think we underperformed and it’s better to do it now than next week when we have districts when it really matters,” Koons said. “We have some stuff to clean up this week on paper and we’ll clean them up physically in practice later on in the week. The one thing I tell my athletes is we need to wrestle to the third period because I think the anxiety of the mass and the stress of the match festers in the first period and starts to dissipate as the match goes on and we get a bit more focused. If you can get through the first period whether you’re winning or losing, then you can get to the second and get a greater opportunity to win. It’s minimalizing mistakes, and our focus is staying solid.”
With the Redhawks’ season drawing to a close, freshman Angel Machiri believes their score reflects the teams’ fatigue.
“I know we can wrestle better than how we did,” Machiri said. “I feel like our team was mostly afraid and kind of nervous during the tournament because we weren’t really competing at our best since it’s later in the year and we’re tired. I think the score reflects that.”
