Reporter
Senior night for CSU Bakersfield was capped off with a 22-15 win over the University of Northern Colorado on Friday, Feb. 3 in the Icardo Center. The dual began with redshirt-senior Everett Pratt falling short in his matchup against Northern Colorado Ben Polkowske in the 149-pound weight class.
The Roadrunners earned their first points on the board in the second match. CSUB Jacob Thalin claimed the first win over UNC Jimmy Fate at 157, displaying explosiveness that led to multiple takedowns throughout the match.
The level of competition was quickly intensified in the third matchup between Lorenzo De La Riva, and Keilan Torres of Northern Colorado. De La Riva was trailing 6-0 early in the match. With time winding down in the second period, De La Riva scored a takedown and took his first lead against Torres. De La Riva and Torres were all tied up at 10, but with less than five seconds, Rivas made a match-winning escape to win, 11-10.
“I just trust in my training,” said De La Riva. “We work extremely hard each day, so I trust that the other kid isn’t putting in as much work as me.”
De La Rivas’s performance gave the Roadrunners their first lead of the night with a score of 6-4.
However, this lead did not hold for long, and would not be found again until the seventh match of the night.
CSUB redshirt-senior Alex Encarnarcion-Strand won with a strong performance as he beat Northern Colorado redshirt-senior Jack Kuck 16-0 at heavyweight. Encarnarcion-Strand scored multiple pins by the end of the first round, leading 14-0. He then went on to win by a technical-fall in the second round, in just five seconds.
“If I stay relaxed and composed then I know my brain is working at a capacity that I can function for the seven minutes straight, while tiring the other guy out,” said Encarnarcion-Strand
The Roadrunners have duals in Tempe, Arizona against Arizona State University on Feb. 9, and in Corvallis, Oregon against Oregon State University on Feb. 12. When asked about the style of preparation utilized in the waning weeks of the regular season.
“The season is long, the season is hard, they get warn down and at this point of the year we are just trying to keep them fresh and feeling good,” said CSUB coach Manny Rivera.
