Tiger wrestling may have the tools again to win another West Yosemite League title in 2018

A year ago, Lemoore’s vaunted wrestling team had six individual WYL champions and a total of nine who earned spots in the finals as the Tigers quickly outdistanced their league rivals to win yet another league title, cementing their Valley reputation as winners.

This year Lemoore will be gunning for yet another championship, and they just may have the tools to do it.

“I think we can win it again,” said Tiger Coach Marcio Botelho, himself a California state wrestling champ during his heyday in Lemoore. He went on to earn All-America status at Fresno State University in that era before the Bulldogs dropped the sport. “I think we have a good group of young guys. We have some returning athletes, and they’re looking good,” he said. “We definitely have the tools to repeat.”

Lemoore kicks off its pre-season with the annual Lemoore Duals in the school’s Event Center on Dec. 2. The varsity girls kick off their season on Friday, Dec. 1 with its tourney: Last Girl Standing. The ladies will begin wrestling at 1 p.m. while the boys hit the mats at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

The Tigers have a few athletes yearning for another league championship, including 220-pound Jacob Gonsalves, a senior this year who qualified for the state championships last season. Another WYL winner was Joe Romero, a senior who took eighth overall in the California State Championships in Bakersfield.

One of the big winners, of course, was Gary Joint, a senior last year who won the state championship and redshirts at Fresno State, along with Angel Solis, another league winner.

Talent must run in the Joint family. His brother Wayne Joint, a freshman, wrestles at 113 pounds, and Botelho said he could be as good as his older sibling. “He’s really tough,” said the Tiger coach. “I think he can be right there to win a league title, and right there at the state level. He’s a really good freshman.”

Rounding out the returnees are John Panduro, a league finalist as a junior and Jesse Gayton, a junior wrestling at 126. Sophomore Will Kloster wrestles at 160, while another league contender is Mario Nieto, a 170-pound senior.

Traeton Stinger, at 132 this year, also returns to the fold in 2017.

Up from the junior varsity is Hector Durant, a JV league champion, and Jayden Avina, a sophomore who Botelho expects to do well this season. Hector Durant, at 195, rounds out the JV upstarts.

The Lemoore varsity girls will be a force to be reckoned with this season as Unique Barnes, won a WYL title and was second in the Valley, returns. She has big shoes to fill as last year’s state qualifiers, Angelita Sanchez and Gracie Clark earned wrestling scholarships after superb careers with the Tigers. “We should be right there to win,” said Botelho. “Everybody’s coming back besides our only seniors last year.”

Leading the Tigers again this year are seniors Kayla Rodrigues and Liz Gonzalez, both league champions.  “We’re looking for some great things from them this year,” said Botelho.