Aaron Nelson didn't want to ask too much from his ailing right shoulder, and the caution paid off for Palo Alto High's 275-pound senior wrestler at the state tournament in Stockton this past weekend.
Nelson won five of eight matches, despite re-injuring his shoulder on Friday, and finished in sixth place. He finished the season with an 18-6 match record.
"To finish sixth in California I think is a great accomplishment considering this is only his third year of wrestling," said Palo Alto head coach Bruce Hori.
In Friday's preliminaries, Nelson pinned Madera's Albert Garett in 5:53 in the first round, but then re-injured his shoulder in the second round against Grace Davis' Billy Blunt (the eventual champion). Instead of continuing to wrestle, Nelson and Hori decided to default the match and prepare for the third match later in the day.
"It (the shoulder) bothered him enough that we decided to stop the match and save him for the consolations instead of trashing it and eliminating his chances," Hori said. Blunt was leading at the time, 9-2.
The strategy paid off. Nelson pinned Alhambra's Chris Oxford in his third match on Friday, then won his first three matches on Saturday. He lost his final two matches, however, an 8-3 decision to Hector Torres (Rosemead, Southern Section) and a pin in 2:55 by top-seeded Victor Leyva (Monache, Central Section).
"He wrestled very intelligently," Hori added. "He just wrestled to win, didn't try to overpower the other person. In a tournament like this, you only need to win. You don't need to pin your opponent to advance."
Baseball
Palo Alto's Jon Brandt drove in the winning run, a two-out hit to left-center field in the bottom of the eighth, in a 2-1 nonleague win over visiting Homestead on Saturday. He drove in Bryan Lin, who had tripled to deep left-center.
Brandt also earned the win for Paly (1-1), pitching the final four innings, allowing no hits, walking one and striking out five.
With Homestead leading by 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Paly tied it when Andy Sinton hit an RBI double down the right-field line.
Meanwhile, Gunn (0-2) mustered only three hits in a 2-0 loss to Leigh in the Piedmont Hills Pirate Classic. For Gunn, sophomore Patrick Marinaro had two doubles.
Boys tennis
In a surprisingly easy 7-0 nonleague win over St. Francis on Friday, Menlo (3-0) won all but one match in straight sets.
At No. 1 singles, Craig Giacomini remained unbeaten with a 6-2, 6-4 victory.
Softball
Monika Nagy allowed one hit and struck out nine batters as Gunn (2-0) swamped Sacred Heart Prep, 6-0, in the second round of the Menlo-Atherton Tournament on Friday. Dee Dee Jimison had two hits.
Elsewhere, Palo Alto opened up the season with a nine-inning, 0-0, tie at SCVAL De Anza Division power Wilcox. Sophomore pitcher Julia Hanks went the distance for Palo Alto. The game, postponed due to darkness, may be completed later in the season.
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