Battling post-finals departures, the
Grand Canyon University Club Wrestling Men's and Women's teams took three of four matches at the GCU Dual Meet, with the Lopes' Men's team sweeping both the University of Arizona and Ottawa University, and the women doubling up the U of A, 24-12, while losing to OUAZ. The meet capped off the fall semester for the Lopes at Phoenix Christian High School.
Despite four of their eight wrestlers not competing, the Lopes' Women still showed a penchant for ending matches early throughout the day. Lopes' All-American returner
Marisol Pena put on a clinic in her first match, pinning Arizona's Abigail Arnold in just 27 seconds, and doing it in front of Wildcats' coaches who normally coach the Cienega High School alum when she's home for the summer in Tucson. Pena's other match of the day didn't last the duration, either, as she pinned Ottawa's Angelina Berume-Walker. Pena's decisions were half of the four pins that Lopes' female wrestlers posted on the day, with GCU graduate
Samantha Tuttle flexing her muscle in pinning the Spirit's Julia Cox, and Lopes' freshman
Olivia Roffe coming from behind midway through the 2
nd period to pin UA's Isabella Huey.
"Our women's side is mostly a young team, but the girls went out and put together decent wrestling matches-win or lose," said
Lopes' Head Austen Moore. "We saw a lot of highlights. With the effort and heart they showed, it gives us a lot of hope and encouragement for their individual successes this year."
The men's side was much more populated, which helped the Lopes win their two matches by a combined 68 points. Lopes' grad student
Noah Valenzuela – who along with Tuttle (who he's married to) graduated two years ago, helped Moore coach last year, then both decided to begin earning their Master's degrees from GCU and got back on the mat – showed little rust from the year off Saturday. Valenzuela went 2-0 on the day, going to extras after a last-second takedown by OUAZ's Emanuel Palacios sent the match to overtime, but dominating the extra session to win, 12-5. Valenzuela then controlled the match against Arizona's Christopher Gonzalez before ending it with a pin at two minutes, 40 seconds.
"That's some of the best wrestling I've seen him do," said Moore. "Noah's been known in the past as being very defensive, but he's become very offensive-minded. He was one match away from being an All-American in the past, but this year, I could easily see him getting there."
Valenzuela had plenty of help in dominating the Wildcats, 55-6, as both
Tyler Scott (165 pounds) and
Anthony Kearney (197 pounds) earned major decisions in their matches. Meanwhile, Lopes' freshman
Che Ramirez showed what he's learned in just a few months' time, "tilting" (putting the opponent on his back without intending to pin him) the Wildcats' Drew Aguilar four different times in earning a 15-point margin and a technical fall. In GCU's 37-18 victory over Ottawa, Lopes' junior
Lorenzo Duran dominated in an impressive 11-2 win over Zander Winslett, who only avoided getting shut out with a last-second reversal.
"This year, we've been focusing on wrestling concepts, and every single wrestler was gaining success from those moves," said Moore. "This team is full of heart, and even if they lost, they made progress. They've worked hard, listened to the coaches, and it's showing on the mat."
The Lopes will only have a month off before heading to Glendale to commence the spring schedule with a meet against Arizona Christian University on Saturday, January 16.
