After a swift and competitive win against the Santa Clara Bruins, the Lynbrook Vikings wrestling team is in strong standing in the SCVAL-El Camino Division as the regular season draws to a close.
Although the Bruins were able to round up five individual wins on the night, the Vikings were able to record three on-mat victories and cash in on three byes to take the victory.
Key efforts throughout the night were turned in by Vikings Huy Bui, who won his match against Danny Chavez in less than a minute; and Jared Jacoby who bested Justin Chen with a pin at 1:51. For the Bruins, stalwarts were David Johnson and Esaiah Verdosco, who were able to pin both of their opponents.
For the Vikings (4-1 following this match), the win against Santa Clara was important, with CCS approaching.
"Santa Clara's always tough and it really bodes well for us in the future," Lynbrook coach Alan Vinciguerra said. "The only reason we lost last week were injuries and sickness. Otherwise, we would have been able to win last week. We have a tough opponent next week at Homestead and we'll see how that unfolds as well."
In addition to having a young team, there's generally just a lot to work on for the Vikings.
"We're doing well, but we can definitely do better," junior Jared Jacoby said. "There's a lot of room for improvement because we have a lot of younger kids. We can definitely get a lot better."
Jacoby, who has been wrestling for six years has a 28-7 record this season, has high hopes.
“I want to try to make state, which (means finishing among the top three in CCS)," he said.
As for James Otani, one of the two seniors of the team, the need to provide proper leadership for the younger wrestlers takes a strong precedence.
"Especially in practice and especially in these dual meets, you just have to set the pace and set the example and also teach them a lot of [techniques] because a lot of them are fresh so you have to teach them about the stuff that works for you and what you like,” says Otani. “Everybody has their own style; coaches have their own styles, and they teach it to us, but sometimes it doesn't adapt to everybody so we kinda help mesh everything together."
With similar goals as Jacoby, Otani has his eyes set on nothing but the near future.
Peering ahead, Vinciguerra has high hopes for the young team.
"We've signed them up for wrestling preps and it's free wrestling and we hope to get them there during the summer and during the whole off-season. That's what's improved our two juniors, who have been going there for the last couple of years and it has improved their wrestling tremendously,” Vinciguerra said. “If we can get the freshmen to come back next year and have the sophomores come back, we should be pretty strong."
