John Raffel
Sports Scene
Jeremy Quezada is having a very strong start to the season for Montabella’s wrestling team.
He’s a senior in his fourth year of varsity wrestling. His sophomore year, he placed eighth in heavyweight at the state finals. Last year, at 215 pounds, he broke his right hand the week of individual districts.
“That was a bad time,” he said. “At district and regionals, I placed. I made it to state, but I didn’t place. The injury didn’t help.”
Quezada was 1-2 at the state finals and 50-7 overall.
“I was doing pretty good until I broke my hand,” he said.
Quezada said his hand is feeling better.
For the 2011-12 season, the coach scheduled “a hard team for the first meet. That way he can see how we progressed for the season,” Quezada said. “I wrestled at 189 and had a kid from Chippewa Hills ranked second in Division 3. I ended up pinning him.”
Quezada started out the season at 6-0 and is now 11-2.
“I’d like to go to state and hopefully do pretty good,” he said. “I probably have the same amount of strength as everyone else. I set a goal to go out there and win with nothing else on my mind.”
Quezada is strong in the upper body. “I’ve been working on my shots, trying to do takedowns,” he said.
As a team, “we only have two seniors, three juniors, and the rest are sophomores and freshmen,” he said. “But we have the most potential I think Montabella has seen from a wrestling team. We’ll have quite a few kids go to state.
“Right now [I’m wrestling] good,” Quezada said. “But it doesn’t count. I could be undefeated. It really starts in February [with the districts.] That’s the only time that matters.”