Finley Wrestling Features Mix of Veterans and Newcomers

This year’s J. Taylor Finley Middle School wrestling team included a nice mix of newcomers to the sport and returning veterans. There was enough individual and team success to send everyone home happy at the end of the season.

Finley closed out the campaign with about 30 seventh and eighth graders on the wrestling roster. It’s a challenging sport and it’s not necessarily for everyone, but those who lasted through the two month season have embraced it.

Finley’s coaching staff featured Dr. Jonathan Oliveri and Jose Alfaro. The team was captained by eighth graders Blake Bender, Jack Larson and Steven Contreras.

The team was led by seventh graders Chris Granito, Charlie Cirlincione, Nicholas Bartasi Kingsley Evans and Rasiere Blizzard and eighth graders Eduardo Reyes Flores, Edgar Castro Anariba and Steven Contreras. Reyes Flores led the team in wins and pins. Castro Anariba lost his first match and was never defeated again. Granito suffered only one loss.

“The kids worked hard all season and they improved each and every day,” Oliveri said. “A lot of kids wrestled out of school.”

The Finley wrestlers saw some highs along with a few lows. Losing is never fun, but it makes winning all the more exhilarating. “Kids who were brand new to the sport developed quickly,” Oliveri said. “They were a hardworking group with great personalities and camaraderie.”

The roster included seventh graders Jencarlo Alfaro Cuadra, Nicholas Bartasi, Wilmer Benitez Flores, Rasiere Blizzard, Benjamin Burke, Charlie Cirlincione, Cormac Driscoll, Kingsley Evans, Dante Francis, Christopher Granito, Artturi Landau, Grady Mindich, Jory Morgan-Page, James Moy, Constantine Panagacos, Jose Walter, Sha’Quan Wilson, Brett Wilson and Griffin Zarcone.

The squad also featured eighth graders Blake Bender, Edgar Castro Anariba, Joseph Conklin, Steven Contreras, Nicolas Cuadra, Braedan Kline, Jack Larson, Caleb Lee, Jose Quintanilla, Jeremy Ramirez Herrera, Eduardo Reyes-Flores and Justin Feliciano.

The goals for the off-season and next year? “To continue to build on the skills we developed this season and to increase the team’s roster size as well as to develop more interest throughout the school community in order to build a strong feeder program for the high school,” Oliveri said.