Torres places second at state tournament
Senior Guillermo Torres was able to battle his way to second place in the wrestling 5A state tournament on Feb 16 and 17. He won 6-4 in the round of 16, pounded his way through the quarterfinals in a 16-3 win, pinned his opponent in 5 minutes, 44 seconds in the semifinals, but would then fall to Tyress Wade 14-6 for the state title. Despite coming up short in the finals, Torres is still proud of his achievement.
“It’s definitely a pretty cool accomplishment to have under my name. I wish it was first, but second it is,” Torres said.
The second place was the last time Torres will go to the mat as a high school student. He’s been putting in work in wrestling since his early middle school years. Torres thanks his longtime coach and mentor, Eric Miller, for motivating him to reach his goals in the sport.
“Eric Miller [helped me a lot]. He’s always believed in me. He’s been my coach since 8th grade year, and he was trying to get me to wrestle fifth, sixth and seventh [grade]. He’s definitely always the one texting me and motivating me. He’s always said ‘you’re going to be a state champion’ ever since freshman year when I was nowhere near that competition. He’s always been there and done a lot of stuff for me,” Torres said.
Torres didn’t become the second best wrestler in the 5A division without any roadblocks along the way. He recalls his strengths being from the neutral and bottom positions, but was having struggles this season from the top position.
“I was pretty solid at neutral and bottom, but I was not great at top. So my coach is wanting me to practice and be tough on top. I was getting really mad because I wouldn’t be able to score from the top, and it was the same thing over and over again. I did lose at regionals to a kid that I knew was going to be up there. Other than that it was pretty good [season],” Torres said.
Practices were most important for Torres to work on his wrestling skills. His coaches were the ones that helped him the most through the long months of practices.
“Definitely the coaching staff [helped me during practice]. They always made sure that I was getting in good practices, good workouts and we would sometimes go for extra practices. They made sure we weren’t goofing around,” Torres said.
