2023-2024 AAA Section Wrestling Champions
Abraham Lincoln High School’s wrestling team heads into the state finals after finishing a historic league 23-24 season. For the first time in school history the team accomplished four new feats
1. An undefeated 7-0 dual season
2. Won the dual city championship
3. Won the San Francisco AAA sectional championship tournament
4. Qualified a new team record of 4 city champions and four state qualifiers
On Feb 10, 2024, Washington High School hosted the AAA section tournament and going into the 14 finals matches; it was a wild race for a team title. Lincoln had a 5 point lead over
Galileo who was one point ahead of Lowell. Lowell had 7 finalists and eventually finished with 5 champions, Galileo 5 finalists eventually with 2 Champs, and Lincoln with 6 Finalists and finished with 4 champs. The team score and lead kept changing almost every round as each team crowned league champions. Lincoln seemed to have secured a the lead after their three middle weights all won by pin. With four matches left, Lowell returned on top by getting two pins, including a pin against a returning section champion, to take the lead by one point. Lincoln’s heavyweight won by a dramatic first-round pin in the finals to secure the title for the Mustangs.
Final Standings
- Lincoln 180
- Lowell 175
- Galileo 161
- Washington 118
- Balboa 92
- Burton 42
- Mission 16
- Wallenberg 13
Out of the fourteen weight classes, Lincoln had 12 placers, 9 medalists, 6 finalists, and 4 champions.
Champions
126 lbs Brian Li – Pinned all of his opponents
138 lbs Kai Villegas – Pinned all of his opponents
150 lbs Syd Villegas – Pinned all of his opponents
HWT Mauricio Rodriguez – Pinned all of his opponents
Silver Medalists
106 lbs Ilyas Abdolcader
157 lbs Angel Luna
Bronze Medalists
132 lbs Christopher Flores
190 lbs Josiah Patton
215 lbs Kaden Woo
Fourth Placers
113 lbs Mason Tran
120 lbs Jordan Baylor
175 lbs Roni Rozenfeld
Lincoln has perpetually been a team that finishes at the bottom of the league standings and rarely had qualifiers for the State Championships. The team did have a close run and a controversial loss in the 2017-2018 season but returned to the bottom of the league right after. In the 2019-2020 season former Archbishop Riordan wrestling coach, Vic Anastasio, took over the program and hired Mike Frias as his assistant. Frias had never coached before but was his Riordan team captain and a 1991 WCAL champion. In their first year, they took second place and tied a school record with two state qualifiers. They were poised to compete for a title the next year as most of their wrestlers were returning, but COVID-19 canceled the season. The following season, the AAA was decimated from the shutdown, and the team had only seven wrestlers, but 6 were finalists, and a new school record three champions qualified for state.
At the start of the 2022-23 season Coach Anastasio was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and had to step down from coaching at the last minute. Anastasio’s assistants who wrestled at Riordan for him took over with Mike Frias as the head coach and Jose Cardoza as the assistant coach. Anastasio remained involved as an advisor. The new staff did an excellent job recruiting new wrestlers and finished near the top of the league with a mix of young and veteran wrestlers.
For the 2023-2024 Season, both head coach Frias and assistant Cardoza did an excellent job of continuing to recruite new wrestlers, keeping the team engaged, going to school at lunchtime to interact with the wrestlers and review film, and running a solid system of wrestling that helped all the wrestlers quickly develop. With only 4 seniors on this squad they hope to keep contending for more titles in the future.
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