The UW Oshkosh wrestling team participated in back-to-back meets this weekend. Against Lakeland College, the team as a whole took first place, while individual scores were recorded in the six-team UW-Stevens Point Open.

Ethan Altabet finished in fourth place in the 125 pound weight class at the UWSP open, while teammate Nate Arquinego finished sixth in the 149 pound weight class, respectively.

Altabet said he isn’t satisfied with finishing fourth at the open and he feels like there’s room for improvement.

“Every tournament the goal is to finish 1st,” Altabet said.

Altabet pinned his opponent Alemayehu Lehman from Lakeland in 29 seconds, but said he would prefer winning by points.

“I think it’s more realistic to win by points because good kids aren’t going to give up pins,” Altabet said.

According to Arquinego, his slow feet were the main reason he ended up with a sixth place finish.

“Because of that I had to do a lot more work to defend myself,” Arquinego said.

Arquinego said to keep focused he writes in a journal so his objectives are laid out in front of him.

“I write down my goals everyday,” Arquinego said. “I keep a diet journal too, so I write down everything I’m eating. You come in, you work hard and have a good practice partner.”

Arquinego said he thought he wrestled poorly, even though the results indicate otherwise.

“The matches I lost were close matches that I definitely could have won and should have won,” Arquinego said. “So, you know, when you have something like that happen it kind of takes away from [coming in 6th].”

Coach Efrain Ayala said with the new season, his expectations for the team were unclear.

“We got a lot of young guys coming in so we didn’t know what to expect right away,” Ayala said. “But they wrestled well, they performed well, they did everything they needed to as far as the preseason went so they were well prepared I think and they stepped up to the challenge.”

Ayala said there is a big difference preparing for a one-on-one team match versus an open tournament, yet they prepare for both.

“[One-on-one matches] make them weigh in for the first time, then have to wrestle one hour after,” Ayala said. “So [in] opens, you weigh in and you get two hours until you wrestle…your body has to be mentally prepared and physically prepared for that match right away cause you’re going to get up and wrestle right away.”

Ayala said his team is very young, but they are still very talented.

“Expectations are still high,” Ayala said. “I think we have a lot of great kids who are going to do great things this year.”