COSTA MESA -- Vanguard men's wrestling hosted a plethora of duals on Saturday morning and went 2-1 on the day, with wins over Simon Fraser and Simpson, though Westcliff took the middle tussle.
 
VU 35  SFU 14
The Lions got three pins in the opening meeting of the day, and Dominic Simon (125 pounds) stuck Ezekiel Ivri to the mat in the third period to nail the first fall.  The Red Leafs got three individual victories, with Arad Ahangi beating Isaiah Torres (133 pounds) 4-2, Hugh Wheeler pinning Joseph Davis (165 pounds), and Arashk Rasti beating Mason Hernandez 20-5 (174 pounds).  The Blue and Gold won the rest of the bouts though, with Robert Villegas beating Markus Lee 7-4 at 141 pounds, Hercules Windrath topping Khalin Radev at 149 pounds 18-1, Vince Partington pinning Gordon Gibson at 157 pounds, Marquize Brown taking a 19-7 major decision win at 184 pounds, Asa Goff rolling in another pin at 197 pounds against Tejvir Dhinsa, and David Baxter maxing out an 18-3 technical fall win over Tyler Harris (285 pounds).
 
WC 24  VU 23
The Lions came up just short against the Warriors, dropping the dual by one.  Sid Barron was pinned near the end of the first period of the 125-pound encounter by Christopher Calderon.  Gavin Mitchell then took the 133-pound bout against Torres via a bonus point for a 2-1 decision.  Santiago Pacheco topped Villegas 5-1 at 141 pounds, but VU got the next two battles to go its way.
 
Windrath bested Brian Geiger 4-1 at 149 pounds, and Partington threw Fernando Campos around for an 18-2 technical fall win.  The next two classes went to WC, with Thomas Venezia pinning Davis, and Landon Hernandez doing the same to Keagen Kroeger.  But the Lions almost hopped over the Warriors over the final three weights.  Brown pinned Juan Luquin at 184 pounds, and Goff stuck Marco Silva to the mat.  Down 24-20 in the dual, Baxter did his best to rack up points against Jose Martinez, but his 14-9 win was not big enough, as WC took the dual 24-23.
 
VU 31  Simpson 19
Simpson was open at 125 pounds, and Torres quickly amassed a 20-5 technical fall victory over Adian Palacios at 133 pounds.  Jay Everhart downed Chase Weber 12-8 to get Simpson on the board, and Tomas Jacobo upended Randy Lockwood 11-1 at 149 pounds.  But the Lions took four of the next six classes to secure the dual triumph.  Partington mashed Carlos Martinez at 157 pounds 21-6, SU was open at 174 pounds, Brown made a pin within a minute over Jaime Cavan at 184 pounds, and Baxter topped Benjamin Vega-Sanchez 8-4 at the heavyweight position.  SU had Benjamen Mitchell pin Davis, and David Rapp pinned Peter Fulgentes at 197 pounds.
 
What was Said?  "We went 2-1 on the day, and the guys wrestled hard.  We had a lot of new faces in the lineup, and there was a lot of learning and growing.  But we made progress, and we are excited to wrestle the Royals this week," relayed Head Coach Caleb Flores.
 
What's Next?
The Lions host Hope International on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.