Gandara brings home the gold
Aaron Gandara brings home two medals as he looks to the future
For many of the athletes in the area the summer means that it is time to kick back a bit, but that isn’t the case for Cibola wrestler Aaron Gandara, who is just kicking his season into gear.
Gandara, who will be a junior this fall, really doesn’t stop wrestling during the off season. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have an off season, but that time on the mat is paying off.
“It’s just pure heart and working hard in the room,” he said. “It might be a close match in the last minute and I’ll be dead tired, and I just remember everything that I’ve done in the room and all of the hard work that I’ve put in. “
He is fresh off of his trip to Guatemala as a part of the Pan American Cadet Championships, where he was a part of Team USA. Gandara won a gold medal in freestyle and a silver in the Greco-Roman competition.
“They wrestle a lot different than guys in the U.S.,” Gandara said. “In the US it’s more about speed and strength. Over there they were more relaxed and when they hit you, they go hard.”
There was a dispute at the end of the Greco-Roman finals where Gandara believes that he should have won, but he had to lick his wounds and get ready to keep wrestling.
“They were saying that I used my leg to throw the kid, but I just posted it to toss him,” he said. “I didn’t trip him or anything.”
He was able to leave with one gold medal (two total) and that served as a learning experience for him looking forward. Gandara already has his sights set on making the world team next summer and competing at the international level again. Putting on the red, white and blue gave him an added set of pressure as he was representing his country, instead of a school or himself.
“I wasn’t really doing a lot, but when I made the Pan-Am team it put on a different kind of pressure,” Gandara said. “You’re representing the United States. There were a lot of kids that I beat out to be there, so I wanted to do well. That alone made me better.”
When Gandara comes back to school next year he’ll be looking to defend his state championship. As a sophomore he won a title and as a freshman he finished second. He also plans on repeating, but winning three times isn’t the most important thing on his mind.
He’s still mad that he won’t be able to become a four-time state champion.