The Cerritos College wrestling team came out slightly on top against colleges outside California in the Simpson College dual. Competing against the following three teams:

• Southwest Oregon College
• Grays Harbor (WA) College
• Clackamas (OR) College

The Falcons went on to defeat Southwest and Grays Harbor but ended up losing to Clackamas.

Head coach Don Garriott expressed that not having Anthony Vargas on the sidelines due to an arm injury has really hurt the team winning duals by an extreme amount of points.

“If we had Anthony, our kid that got hurt in the Mt.SAC dual, we would’ve won that dual,” Garriott said.

Vargas suffered an arm injury two weeks ago. Vargas and the team hope to get back on the mat in about four______ (incomplete) just in time for CCCAA State Championship.

“This week he’ll get his sling off and he’ll be able to begin rehab and we’ll be able to know more at that time,” Garriott said.

One of the wrestlers who was able to get a pin that night was 149-pound freshmen Wyatt Gerl. The freshman got the team the pin in 1:30 round against Grays Harbor.

Gerl was satisfied with his victory, but noticed that his opponent was injured during the dual.

“It was a good match, I can tell the kid was injured a little bit. He was giving me a hard time at first, the further we got into it I started seeing him rubbing his shoulder, so I don’t think he was a peak health,” he said.

Gerl will be competing at the Fresno duels and feels comfortable walking into it with a massive challenge a head of him.

“I’m going to be wrestling No. 1 in kin (Is that right?) state, so going into it I’m obviously the underdog but, I’m comfortable. I’ve wrestled him twice and I know I can beat him, it’s just whether or not I’ll be able to do this week,” Gerl said.

The Fresno duals will take place on Sunday Nov.20 and among those who will be wrestling that day is the 144-pound sophomore Richard Pocock.

He had a victory in one of his matches against a Southwest Oregon college student. Pocock said that he didn’t feel that much stress walking in the match.

“It wasn’t that much stress honestly because they were out of state schools so none of the matches really matter so we were just focused on the wrestling, so it was easy and beat my guy. And the next match was a bit more tough but I ended up beating that guy too,” he said.

Garriott has expressed since that beginning of the season that the most he cared about was State Regionals, the Falcons now has a spot on the card.

They’ll be looking for to Dec. 3 for the beginning of state championships.