The James Logan Courier

By Andrew Alcazar, Courier Sports Writer

The James Logan Wrestling team will take the the Mission Valley Athletic League championship, assuming they beat Washington next week, after posting a 41-17 victory over Newark Memorial.

Logan and Newark, the MVAL rivals, both undefeated, and tops in the North Coast Section squared off Wednesday night at Newark memorial High School. The night started off with Newark winning three of the first four matches after Robert Fernandez, the Logan 171 lbs., won his match 11-2. At 171 lbs, Matt Haney had one of the controversial matches of the night, when he was taking down, what looked to be out of bounds. He ended up losing the match 6-4, which raised a lot of boos.

At the heavy weight division, junior Toni Pole, got a needed victory for Logan, to stop the losing streak and start up the winning streak, as Logan would win six straight and 8 of 9. Lawrence Blanco, the reigning NCS Champ, had the quickest match of the night, as he pinned his opponent in 26-seconds. At the 125-pound weight class, junior Danny Mai had one of the biggest matches of the night, as he faced off against one of the top wrestlers in NCS. Mai would end up winning the close match, 5-3. “ I went out and wrestled hard. I knew he was tough because I wrestled him before, but I’ve grown and learned by my past mistakes”, Danny Mai said. Logan would come out on top in the end and claim their 4th straight MVAL title.

“It is great! In all my four years at Logan, I’ve won the MVAL title”, said senior Lawrence Blanco. Logan has one more dual meet against Washington, which would end their MVAL title season.