Looking at Aliso’s winter sports, boys and girls wrestling, is one of many that plenty of students are involved in. 

The boys started their pre-season earlier this year, training to become stronger for the season. Their preseason practices began in the summer. 

The boys wrestling team has three divisions of teams. This includes the freshman and sophomore team, junior varsity, and varsity.

The head coach of the boys wrestling team is Coach Greg Colwell. 

Colwell is also the girls cross country coach and boys freshman football assistant coach here at Aliso. He has been involved in wrestling for many years as his coaching career started with high school wrestling. 

The captain of the boys wrestling team is Nathan Nichols (12).

Some tournaments so far for the boys wrestling team have been the Norco Rodeo Tournament, Rim Tournament, Kat Tournament, Rim of the World, Trabuco 10 way, San Clemente 4 way, the Capo 4 way and Beresford Invitational.  

Some duals that the boys wrestling team have completed are the Tesoro Duals, Trabuco Hills Duals, and the El Toro Duals.

Some highlights so far of the boys wrestling season are Nathan Nichols (12) winning MVP at the Rim of the World Tournament. Also taking place at the Rim Tournament, Vincenzo, Luciano Benenati (12) and Nichols all took first place. 

At the Norco Rodeo tournament, Nichols took first place, Luciano Benenati (12) placed fourth, Frederic Francis Grant III took fifth,Vincenzo Benenati took fourth, Khaisen Chen took sixth, Enoch Kim took sixth, and Chris Carreno also took sixth place.

An athlete to keep an eye on this season would be Nathan Nichols (12). He made it to state last year as a junior and is hoping to exceed his accomplishments of the previous year, making his senior year memorable. 

Based on how the season is going so far, Colwell states that “we have a strong team this year, and I hope that we will be able to continue towards CIF and send more of the team there this year.”

The girls wrestling team is a smaller team compared to the boys and consists of a variety of grades from freshman to seniors. 

The head coach of the girls wrestling team is Coach Rich Trevino.

The captains of the girls wrestling team are Roslyn Martinez (12) and Nayely Morales (12).

At the San Clemente Duals, the girls took home four medals. Priya Harrington took third, Nayley Morales took third place, and Roslyn Martinez both finished in first place.