With their heads in the game, the wrestlers stepped on the mat ready to face Excel Academy on January 8th. The room filled with the sound of sneakers squeaking, as they began to warm up for their matches ahead.
The meet started off 2-0 with Excel Academy in the lead. Malden was struggling to find their rhythm, as small mistakes made it difficult for them to regain control during their matches.
“I feel like I did good, but not good enough, as I got pinned in the 2nd period. In the future, I want to work on getting out when I get put on my back,” Senior Cristofer Hernandez Romero explained. “I need to practice even harder and improve my skills. It’s only my second year of wrestling, so I’m trying to get better each day.”
The first win by Malden was by Junior Hassan Aljiboury, who admitted that despite him winning, “wrestling someone that felt weaker and smaller than me just didn’t feel like it was a fair match up.”
“That day before my match I thought about the techniques and strategies my coaches had taught me to fix my mistakes from my previous matches,” Aljiboury added. “I’m happy with how I did, but maybe in the future I can work on hand placements and get the pin faster.”
The match continued with three more wins for Malden, the last win being from Senior Ismail Elbahlawan, which caused the game to end in 21-60.
Elbahlawan reflected on his performance. “I’m proud of how I did. I really wanted to finish this meet strong. Unfortunately, we lost, but we’ve been working hard, and we’ll continue to improve as a team.”
“I plan to practice more and harder, as well as show more support to my teammates and put more time out of practice into making my skills better,” Aljiboury emphasized.
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