Warriors pin Rams

Three San Pasqual wrestlers had a perfect 5-0 performance on Friday night

The San Pasqual and Antelope wrestling teams continued to make progress as they approach midseason Friday night at the SRG Duals at Antelope High School. The Warriors finished the game 4-1, which included an opening match win over the Rams, who finished 2-3. Antelope had to work through the meet without athletic director and coach Rocky Jaime, who suffered a heart attack two days ago.

Jaime remains in the hospital, but his condition is stable.

“He’s doing okay. He’s still cracking his usual jokes. He’s still being Rocky,” Jaime’s son and assistant coach Brandon Jaime said. Without coach Jaime there to direct traffic, former wrestling coach Rick St. Clair stepped in and helped the team for the day.

San Pasqual and Antelope were joined by five other schools, and each team ended the day with five dual matches.

The Rams and Warriors started the afternoon against each other and San Pasqual won 42-21. In non-voided matches San Pasqual went 5-2, with wins coming from Mary Jane Barley (113), Luke Porter (145), Xavier Madrid (152), Nicholas Steele (170) and Michael Phillips (285).

Antelope had a nice late win from Alex Soto (220).

After beating Antelope, the Warriors went on to beat Phoenix Christian (4818), Yuma High JV (42-36) and Calipatria (41-36). The lone loss came to the Odyssey Institute (60-14).

Steele, Madrid and Jacob Roosevelt (195) each went 5-0 for their team. Steele, who won a state championship for the Warriors last season, is now even better as a sophomore. He is only in his fourth year as a wrestler, but this past summer he finished seventh in freestyle at the 2017 Cadet/ Junior National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota.

Warriors’ coach Mark Surdyka said that he’s like a sponge with how fast he learns new moves.

Steele says a big part of his progression had to do with his background by being around his brother, Lewis Steele, who was a state runner-up at San Pasqual and his other cousins.

“Me, my brother and my two cousins would wrestle all the time,” he said. “We wouldn’t always wrestle, but we’d do jutsu with just us. We didn’t know what we were doing, but we would just have fun. We didn’t know the moves, but we were just physical.”

So far this season he

hasn’t lost, while last season he went 52-1.

“I was always the type to never give up,” Steele said. “I always liked the drive. I hate to lose. When I am losing I get mad, so I push myself even harder.”

After the loss to San Pasqual, Antelope went on to beat Calipatria (40-33) and Phoenix Christian (4818) and fall to Yuma High JV (48-27) and Odyssey (6012).

They were led by Kristopher Reyes (106) at 4-0, Soto at 4-0 with three pins and Elijah Rogers (138), who was 3-1.

Buy these photos at YumaSun.com PHOTOS BY RANDY HOEFT/YUMA SUN SAN PASQUAL’S NICHOLAS STEELE works at pinning Antelope’s Zack Fowler in their 160-pound match Friday during the opening round of the Sid Grande Duals at Antelope High School. Steele got the job done, pinning Fowler with 35 seconds remaining in the first period.

SAN PASQUAL’S LUKE PORTER finds himself on his head early during his 145-pound match with Antelope’s Jack Leach during Friday’s opening round of the Sid Grande Duals at Antelope High School. Porter would recover and go on to win by a pin with eight seconds remaining in the first period.