GJHS Junior Louis Guillen grabs a close win

Steven Adams

The scoreboard was counting down, now less than 20 seconds left in the match. The crowd was on their feet, screaming for Grand Junction High School’s Louis Guillen to pin his opponent. Central High School’s Dusty Sanchez was on his back, struggling to keep his shoulders off the mat, and in just a few swift seconds he was pinned. The crowd erupted in cheers as Guillen’s arm was raised in victory.

This was the championship match for the 138-pound weight class, which was probably the most exciting match of the night. Guillen recalled that, with about a minute left, “There was some pushing and shoving in the back” and he and Sanchez were in each other’s faces when the whistle was blown.  Guillen said that the anger that he felt definitely helped him win the match.

While he had two good matches that night, the rest of the team “Didn’t do so hot,” said Guillen. “They need to pin the guys when they’re on their back.” There were several situations when a Tiger wrestler was in a good position and couldn’t keep their opponent down. “It’s hard to wrestle kids that don’t want to get pinned or beat by a lot of points, so they wrestle defensively,” GJHS Sophomore Jacob Trujillo told the Daily Sentinel. “It makes it a challenge when they wrestle not to lose.”

Grand Junction High School finished fourth at the Jackpot Duels with 141.5 points, trailing Central’s 147, Palisade’s 154 and Fruita’s 175. GJHS had four champions, more than both Central and Palisade with two and one, respectively.  Fruita walked away from the tournament with five individual champions.

While this wasn’t the best match for the Tiger wrestling team, Junction’s top wrestelers truly rose to the occasion. While they may not have won the jackpot, Trujillo walked away with the champion’s trophy and Guillen improved his record to 14-3.

By Josh Murdock

From the NFL, to the NBA and MLB, professional athletes are simply overpaid. I feel as if people who dropped out of college or skipped college to play a sport should not be paid more than more than say a person who spent immense time and money going to med school, or graduating from law school. 

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The 2012 GJHS Coaches for this fall!