By Mark Seraydarian
Though they could not win league, the varsity wrestlers qualified an unprecedented eight individuals to CIF. The tournament will take place this Friday and Saturday. The team finished third, but if the league championship was a tournament format as opposed to the duals format that it is, the team would have easily taken first, Robert Barry â08 said.
âHead to head, we beat every team in league,â Head Coach Gary Bairos said. âIn league championships, we couldnât beat Crespi and Alemany because we had to forfeit too many weight classes.â
One must place top three in league to go to CIF. Barry, Matt Katz â07, Daniel Meer â08, Gavin Ross â09,
Alex Shahery â07, Evan Rappel â09, Evan Ryan â09, Richard Leuchter â08 and Justin Levine â09 are the eight wrestlers and one alternate going to CIF.
âIn CIF, we should do well, since itâs a tournament format, and weâve had tougher tournaments during
the season,â Barry said.
Top five finishers in CIF go on to masters, and then the top finishers progress to state.
âAt CIF, people might be a little nervous because this is the most important tournament of the year besides masters, but weâre used to this since itâs the same length and format as the other varsity tournaments weâve been in, thereâs just more riding on this one,â Leuchter said.
âIn my opinion, Harvard-Westlake has far and away the best wrestlers, we just donât have enough of them,â Bairos said. Weâre a young and exciting team, and I think in a few years, we can have enough wrestlers to win league.â
