The Malden High School wrestling team had a match on Saturday, December 9th in Gloucester.
Senior Captain Seth Jones had said it was “a good match, [the team] performed well”. Jones said that a match works by having one person from each team in the same weight class. They would shake hands and begin to wrestle for two to three minutes to try and pin each other down. The match had took about half an hour for each one. Jones thoughts on the match were that “everyone who wrestled that day performed very well and [they] looked strong, both varsity and JV both had winning records.” It was a really good match to start off the season.
Sophomore Ved Gray had said that “[he] really enjoyed [his] experience on Saturday.” He adds that “It felt really good to get back into the swing of things after being gone for so long.” Since wrestling is a winter sport, it had been awhile since he had done it. Gray said that a match consists of three periods in which wrestlers have a chance to pin down the other opponent. He said that if they are able to pin the other opponent they will the match. If they don't then the one with the most points by the end wins the match. They had arrived there around 7:00 am and it had ended around noon. He said that the “matches on saturday was a really good way for [the team] to “warm up” and prepare [themselves] for the rest of the season.” Gray continued to say that “[he] felt like [the team] l did pretty good in [their] matches.” He also said that the newcomers got some really good experience in what to expect in their future matches. Since this match was their first match, he believes that “the first match will be what [the team compares their] future matches so [they] have something to base [their] growth off of.”
Senior Captain Carlos Parada Araujo also said that the match on Wednesday in Salem against Salem/Peabody went pretty well. He said that “[even though the match] ended in a draw, [the team] showed a lot of potential for future matches.” He added that “[the team has] a couple of new [members] who have great energy and are eager to learn [about wrestling]”.
The early wrestling matches had set a reminder for the wrestling team members on how much better they will be and how far they had will go in future matches.
