California Wrestling wins three medals at Tri-County Conference Tournament

Junior Alexis Anguiano (left) and senior DJ Schneider (right) won third place medals at the Tri-County Conference Tournament on Saturday. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
Junior Alexis Anguiano (left) and senior DJ Schneider (right) won third place medals at the Tri-County Conference Tournament on Saturday. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)

The California Lady Pintos and Pintos wrestling teams competed Friday in the Tri-County Conference Tournament at Eldon High School.

Two days earlier at the Fatima quad-dual, the California boys wrestling beat Tipton 42-32, but lost two close matches to Fatima (48-33) and St. James (45-30). The girls wrestling team had a 2-1 record in the quad-dual, winning 24-12 against Fatima and 24-18 against St. James while losing 18-15 to Tipton.

The conference tournament did not start off well for California, as the Pintos struggled to get wins and find any traction. However, as the day went on, California began to put together some strong showing and wins, concluding the tournament in eighth place with a total of 37 points.

California had three wrestlers medal in the tournament: sophomore Ivy Scroggins (155 pounds), junior Alexis Anguiano (215 pounds) and senior David "DJ" Schneider (285 pounds). Each finished in third place in their weight classes with a record of 2-1.

Head coach John Heimann knew coming into the tournament the competition was going to be both fierce and unrelenting, noting what his team experienced first-hand was how to keep wrestling under pressure during tournament play.

"It was a rough start to the day. Most of the schools here in our conference are Class 2 and we're Class 1, so that makes things a little bit tougher for us. That's still no excuse to not go out and wrestle hard and I felt like we did that," Heimann said. "We're a little banged up right now, but were wrestled our tails off and we finished the day with a couple of wins that were good for us."

Heimann said although California didn't get as many medals as they wanted, his wrestlers showed a lot of grit and heart by fighting through injuries and facing difficult competition.

"Kwynnon has been dealing with a shoulder issue since football season. Hopefully he's alright and he'll be back on the mat on Monday. Patrick wrestled tough today and it was hard for him because there's a lot of tough competition in his weight class. So it's good for him to get those matches in now because they're all going to be like that for him," Heimann said. "Our girls today, Sonya and Ivy both wrestled against high-quality opponents, but Ivy came back and won third, she did well today. Alexis and DJ, our other medal winners, they wrestled well and they had a couple of tough matches today, but they are moving along well. It was good for them to medal today."

California will wrestle Saturday at the Chillicothe Tournament.

  photo  Junior Alexis Anguiano wins his first match of the day at the Tri-County Conference Tournament in Eldon. Anguiano took home third place in the 215lb weight class division. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Senior DJ Schneider won two of his three matches on Saturday by pinning down his opponents. Schneider won the bronze medal in the 285lb weight class division. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Sophomore Patrick Morrow went 2-2 on Saturday and finished fourth place in the 120 weight class division. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Sophomore Patrick Morrow (top) squeezes down his opponents from Eldon in his third match of the Tri-County Conference Tournament. Morrow won the match by decision. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Junior Kwynnon Duvall battled through a shoulder injury and took fifth place in the 165lb weight class division with a record of 1-2. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Freshman Jackson Barnard wrestles against Southern Boone in his first match of the Tri-County Conference Tournament. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Freshman Tristan Balsley lifts his opponent from Eldon by his legs. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Junior Austin Suen crawls forward in an attempt to earn a point for California against Versailles at the Tri-County Conference Tournament in Eldon. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Freshman Jose Martinez stares down his opponent. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Sophomore Ivy Scroggins wrestles to break free from her opponent from Blair Oaks. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  Sophomore Sonya Grotjan fights to break free from her opponent from Boonville. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
 
 
  photo  California's Coaching Staff watches in tournament from a ring-side seat. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)