On Oct. 26, Delta’s wrestling team competed against Sierra College in a dual meet at home.
The results of the meet came out to Sierra College taking the win over Delta with a total score of 38-18.
“I knew it was gonna be a tough match going in,” said head coach Mike Sandler. “They’re very talented and always tough and always top 3 in the conference. But, we’re banged up. So, we should’ve had seven guys on the mat and we only had five people. So, it was gonna be tough to beat them.”
Although there were some forfeits from both teams in the beginning of the meet due to injuries, it still featured three regular matches and one exhibition match as well.
Jason Betlej (149), freshman wrestler that competed in one of the matches at the meet, said that the shoulder injury he encountered recently was the disadvantage he had during the match he lost.
“I was just pretty much hurt and I was just trying to basically make it through my match,” said Betlej. “I gotta deal with a shoulder injury right now. I could’ve definitely wrestled way better than I did, but it just happens sometimes.”
Although Delta had some losses in the meet against Sierra, one wrestler who came out victorious from Delta is freshman wrestler Felipe De Matos (285), who is an honorable mention for the entire state rankings in wrestling.
“You always gotta try your hardest in any match,” said De Matos. “If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t really feeling it. I wasn’t really in the usual mood that I am for a tournament or stuff like that. But, I just gotta go out there and do what I gotta do.”
As for the losses, the wrestlers’ were overwhelmed from their performance, but these matches helped them learn more on what they did wrong in their match as well.
“I need to probably do a better job of my offense,” said freshman wrestler Gabriel Ortega who also competed. “I wasn’t shooting as much as I know I could’ve, but other than that, I could be a little tougher as well.”
Alex Olivia (157), freshman wrestler that also competed in the meet, said that one thing he needs to work on from his match is to revamp on different stances when it comes to the opponents he’s facing against.
“I would say definitely adapt to different stances because when I was wrestling my opponent, he had a way different stance than I used to wrestling and I think that’s what caught me up,” said Olivia.
Even though Delta’s wrestling team came out with a loss, the team still has goals for when it comes to the future meets.
“For the future meets, I definitely wanna start amping up my wrestling and start shooting more and I’ve taken kind of the first shot and just winning in the end,” said freshman wrestler Gabriel Ortega (197), who was the only wrestler that competed in the exhibition match. “If not winning, then learning from the loss and hopefully making it to state.”
De Matos said that after his impressive win against his opponent from Sierra College, he still needs to work on getting into the right mindset and motivating himself more as well.
“Some goals that I have are work a lot harder, commit myself more and push myself to get into the right mindset that I need to go out and try to win my match because I’ve been noticing in myself that I’ve been off my game a little bit, but I have faith in myself that I can push through,” said De Matos.
The Mustangs will wrestle against East LA College on Saturday, Nov. 19 at Los Angeles.