Max Quiroz uses long memory to fuel him to become DAC champion at 126 pounds with major decision over Crown Point’s Colin Strayer in title match
Max Quiroz on his way to defeating Crown Point's Colin Strayer in the DAC title match.
Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com
A long memory can go a long way for an athlete.
Chesterton junior wrestler Max Quiroz used an unpleasant memory to reach the top step of the podium at Portage, where the DAC Championships played out Saturday.
Quiroz extended his late-season roll by defeating Crown Point’s Colin Strayer by major decision, 11-2, in the 126-pound championship match, soothing an old sore spot for Chesterton’s best wrestler.
Quiroz and Strayer wrestled at the same club from a very young age.
“He used to whip my ass in the room,” Quiroz said. “He used to take me down and count how many times he would take me down, like right in my ear. I hated that, and I never wanted that to happen again, so I use that as motivation.”
Quiroz instantly took control of the match and even with a glitch late in the third period was able to quickly get back in control.
Strayer still has one thing Quiroz does not: experience wrestling at state. Strayer placed fifth at 113 pounds last season. Quiroz lost in the ticket round in sudden victory time at semi-state. Quiroz opened this season wrestling at 132 and recently dropped to 126. Wrestlers get a two-pound allowance but must weigh in at scratch weight at least once during the season. Quiroz got that formality out of the way Saturday.
He advanced to the semifinal round by forfeit and then handled Lake Central’s Luke Nied in 3:47 by technical fall, 18-0, setting up the final most expected.
Quiroz had an answer for everything the accomplished Strayer threw at him.
“I think I can put even more of a statement on him because I was kind of bloated,” Quiroz said. “I drank too much water.”
Quiroz forever makes wrestling a big part of his life, but even so, he said it becomes an even greater priority for him as the state series nears.
“Around this time is when it gets serious, time to get dialed in,” he said. “It’s all wrestling. Everything I do has to make me better.”