Thursday, October 1, 2026
It is often said that it’s not how you start, but how you finish. This phrase could prove to be especially true for the Baldwin wrestling team this winter, as the squad will be closing its matches out with four talented heavyweights, all who carry big potential.
“Our back end of the lineup is going to be real good,” Bruins coach Jim Murphy said. “Our last four wrestlers are real studs.”
Baldwin hopes that Armando Roman, John Debique, Dan Ponce and Marc Anthony Castel all will be able to come up large for the team this season, and find a way to rack up victories in their late match heavyweight battles. So far Murphy is excited by what he has seen from the wrestlers.
“They’re all big and they’re all athletic,” he said. “They’ve managed to be a little more aggressive and little more athletic than their opponents so far this year.”
The four wrestlers are just part of a young, but balanced Bruins roster, which Murphy hopes can eventually go on to achieve big things this season.
“We’ve got an inexperienced group, but I really like the way they’re coming along,” he said. “They’re working hard. They’re not yet competing at the level I think they can, but we’re going to try and get there.”
One of the wrestlers Baldwin will be expecting big things from is 160-pound Dennis Feeney. The senior has gotten off to an impressive start this season, and his coach hopes the rest of the team can match his quality of play. “He’s been competing at an All-County level, which is where we need our kids to be,” Murphy said.
The Bruins also expect returning senior Ronaldo Escobar and emerging sophomore Dave Mitchell to be impact wrestlers for the club. Murphy was hoping to have senior Jack Thibault also be a key contributor this season, but lost him for the year after he suffered a broken radius bone in his arm over the summer.
With Thibault absent, the team will likely need some of its underclassman to step up in order to meet its coach’s goal for the campaign. “I want us to be a top ten team in the county tournament,” Murphy said. “I think that by the end of the year we’ll be where we need to be in order to get there.”
The Bruins have enjoyed some success in early season action, with four place-winners at both the MacArthur and the Sprig Gardner tournaments. Ponce was runner-up at MacArthur and third in the Sprig, while Juan Ventura was fourth in both.
Baldwin will be tested early in 2016, when they host rival Oceanside this Friday. In last year’s matchup, they fell 55-23 to the Sailors, although injuries forced the team to forfeit several matches during the contest. This time around the Bruins will be looking for a better result, hoping to get the New Year off on the right foot.
“We have a pretty good in-conference rivalry with Oceanside, so we’ll be looking forward to that one,” Murphy said. “We’re gonna make sure we show up this time.”
