Redwood Wrestling Takes Home First Place at Redwood Invitational

The 64th Redwood Wrestling Invitational took place on January 9th and 10th, with the Rangers taking an overall 1st place win.

By: Jake Villarreal and Fabian Anguiano

Jonathan Jasso, ‘26, wrestled in his first Redwood invitational as a Ranger after transferring from Tulare Union.

Jasso and the team prepared for the invitational by “a lot of practice with Coach Wright, who put us through a lot of drills and everything. Just making sure everything was perfect,” said Jasso.

Before matches, Jasso says, “I don’t really get nervous about tournaments and everything, so mentally, I talk to people, keep myself moving, trying to keep my mind off of, actually wrestling,” said Jasso. “Until it actually comes up onto the mat. So just kind of socializing with people.”

The match that most stood out to Jasso was his first one, where he gave up a takedown, which would be the only takedown he would give up the whole tournament.

For Jasso, “Whether it’s a top 10 guy in the state, worst guy in the state, probably just going in more prepared than going in easy and giving up like that,” is something he could work on.

The things he did best at the invitational were staying on his attacks and getting a lot of takedowns.

Jasso’s goal for the rest of the season is “definitely the place, stay top 14 guys. Really hoping to get there and then just finish the season strong. It’s my senior year. You know, just get ready to compete.”

Luke Villarreal, ’26, says that before the match, the team “did a very extensive repair by focusing on the first couple of weeks of the winter break, going over different moves that had happened over the previous tournaments.”

Villarreal prepared himself mentally for the invitational by “going over my previous matches I had the past couple of tournaments because this was a very big tournament for me, as it’s going to be my last Redwood Invitational.”

“I feel like I performed very well. I was able to show progress in the goals that I set myself for the previous weeks,” said Villarreal.

He believes his best technique was finishing his shots when getting to them.

One thing that Villarreal had to work on was his “endurance and keeping [his] pace up throughout the entire match, and always looking to be aggressive.”

“My third-place match stood out to me because I lost to the same guy earlier in the season, very badly, and this time I was able to come out on top. That was better than the last time we faced.”

With Villarreal being a four-year member on the wrestling team, and this being his last invitational, the one thing Villarreal says he will miss about the invitational is “just being with everybody.”

“Because the whole team helps, and seeing all your teammates there really helps you perform better,” said Villarreal.

Enrique Segura, ‘26, took first place at the invitational. Through lots of training and dedications, Segura said, “We just kind of did what we’ve been doing the whole season. You know, just working really hard in the wrestling room. Also in the weight room, we got our morning lifts going, we always got to go hard and prepare for the day.”

“I just kind of went in with the right attitude. I feel like that’s the biggest thing for wrestling, is just enjoying the moment, enjoying the process. 
You can’t really let all the hard work get to you, because at the end of the day, it is really hard. But you just gotta have the right attitude, and that’s what led me to go wrestle my best.”

Segura’s favorite part of the whole tournament was “the whole day. It was my senior year.”

For Segura, he said, “It’s the last home tournament that I’ll ever wrestle, so I was just enjoying it the whole time, taking every match, one by one, and it was just really fun.”

The match that stood out the most to Segura was his “semifinal match. I really did not want to wrestle.
I don’t know why. I just woke up, and I just reminded myself that I need to have the right attitude, and I went out there and won the match.”

“So it was just really fun. It was just kind of a moment right there, too, that made me realize how important my attitude is in this sport,” said Segura.

Segura is currently ranked 9th in the state in the 285 weight class.

His goal at the end of the season is to “Win the state championship. It’s very open right now. I really think I have a shot. I just gotta take every tournament, one by one, every match, one by one, but I really see me winning at the end of the year.”

Brody Preisendorf, ‘26, took home first place at the invitational.

He and the team prepared themselves not only physically, but also mentally.

“It was a very mental standpoint, especially from the night before losing to Frontier. We wanted to get back on our horse,” said Preisendorf. “We knew that was a bad look from Frontier, and we knew that they were a beatable team. We got it in our heads, so we all mentally reset and we went out there to do our best.”

Preisendorf says he prepared by looking “at myself and thinking to myself, what am I doing? I’m a returning state qualifier. I carry a bunch of awards with me. I carry a bunch of patches with me. 
I’m better than most of these guys I’ve wrestled, Better than a lot of the guys I’ve lost to. So I really said, it’s mid-season, it’s my senior year. I got to get back on my horse.”

What Preisendorf did best during the invitational was focusing “on the little things I really did. I would focus on every little shot, every little detail, make sure I do things right. [To] focus on not looking at who my competition is, but looking at what my goal is.”

The match that stood out most to Preisendorf was, “My finals match, I was going against the number 3-ranked guy in Illinois, and I beat him. Mentally going into it, everyone was, ‘Oh, he’s number three’, Oh, he’s really good’. 
Even convinced myself a little bit that this kid’s good, but I went out there wrestling for a goal or focusing on a goal and not focusing on who I’m wrestling.”

Camilo Yepez, ‘26, took third overall at the invitational. Camilo and the team prepared for the invitational by doing a lot of practice. They also prepared themselves mentally, as it is something that they look up to.

Yepez prepared himself mentally by saying, “I just think of the good things that are gonna come out from all the work I’ve done because I’ve worked really hard for this, and I know I can do good things because I’ve seen it before.”

What Yepez did best at the invitational was taking people down and simply doing well on bottom.

The match that stood out most to Yepez was, “one of my matches on the 1st day is this kid that just wrestles really dirty, and it was tough to wrestle.”

Coach Michael Wright says his personal preparedness comes from the abnormal schedule the team has had over the last month, “Breaks are weird, it’s really just maintaining what you’ve already done.  We came back from Nevada the following weekend, and then had to setup for an entire tournament for over 50 schools.”   

He adds the best attribute of his wrestlers is their ability to be open-minded to improvements. “This group is really talented, we have a weird mix of experience and inexperience. I think everybody’s doing a good job of understanding where they are at.”

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