The Santa Rosa Junior College men’s wrestling team dominated in a quad meet with San Joaquin Delta, Skyline and East Los Angeles colleges Sept.14 at Haehl Pavilion, going 3-0 to begin the 2024 season.
SRJC opened the day with a resounding defeat over the San Joaquin Delta Mustangs, winning 46-8, before defeating the Skyline College Trojans 44-6 and finally defeating the East Los Angeles College Huskies 48-12.
The Bear Cubs were led by Derek Ruffin, Ali Hamzia, Vicente Rodarte, Zack Morgan and Rayhan Jaleel, all of whom went 3-0 in their matches. Additionally Joe Ellis, who went 2-0, pulled off a 5-second pin in his match against the Huskies, to set an SRJC record.
The Bear Cubs head coach Fred Duerr spoke about the team’s strong performances from top to bottom that contributed to the successful meet.
“It was just a collaboration of a bunch of performances,” Duerr said. “It wasn’t just one individual. And the final score showed, you know, it was pretty lopsided.”
Rodarte, the team captain, echoed Duerr’s words about the contributions from the entire roster, both on and off the mat.
“It was an awesome experience,” Rodarte said. “All of our guys did their part and got the job done. Even all the guys that didn’t wrestle today cheered us on and it really helped the energy. It was electric.”
Freshman Amrit Cheema came through with a big performance on the mat against Skyline, coming back from down 2-10 to defeat the stronger opponent with a last second high crotch takedown to take the 14-12 win with his fellow Bear Cubs rallying behind him all the way.
“I was so tired, I was gassed out,” Cheema said. “I probably looked more gassed than the other guy. But I saw all of my team standing there, cheering. I shot that hi-c, picked him up, walked around and I got the take down. Honestly it was not even me at that point. The only thing encouraging me at that point was my team cheering for me.”
Throughout the meet, the SRJC sideline exhibited far more noise and energy than any of the other three schools.
“The energy is contagious,” Duerr said. “The guys love watching each other wrestle, supporting each other. They’re one big cohesive unit. They want to be out there just as much to help their team and that’s their way of helping the individual guy that’s out there.”
The team will look to maintain the energy on Saturday, Sept. 21 when they travel to Sacramento for the Sac City invitational tournament.
