Yandel Morales’ international wrestling debut didn’t quite go the way he hoped, but his performance was good enough that it won’t be his last international competition.
Morales, who will be a sophomore at Andover High School this fall, represented Puerto Rico at the U17 Pan American Championships in Mexico City June 21-25 and claimed the Silver medal in the 51-kilogram (112 pounds) freestyle division. In the finals, Morales dropped a 12-11 decision to the United States representative, Czar Quintanilla of Spokane, Washington.
“I did all right,” Morales said. “I could have done better. I always want to win every tournament I enter. I just made a few little mistakes.”
With his second-place finish in Mexico, Morales earned the right to compete in the U17 world championships in Istanbul, Turkey from July 31-Aug. 6. Morales was eligible to represent Puerto Rico because his father, Andover High assistant coach Osvaldo Morales, was born in Puerto Rico.
“I have family living in Puerto Rico,” Morales said. “I always wanted to travel with Team Puerto Rico and their coach reached out to me. I went down there for the team trials and qualified.”
Last winter, Morales won the MIAA Div. 1 and All-State championships for Andover High at 106 pounds. He placed third in the New England championships; Morales felt he could have done better.
He made his varsity debut for the Golden Warriors as an 8th-grader, placing second in the MIAA Div. 1 state tournament at 106 and third in the All-State tournament. He is the program’s first All-State champion and second divisional state title winner. Morales joins his cousin Jonathan Davila as the Golden Warriors’’ only New England placewinners. Jonathan Davila also placed third.
“He has really good people around him,” Andover coach Mike Bolduc said. “He has a great family and support system. He’s almost like another coach. Sometimes I’ll have him demonstrate moves.”
In two years at Andover, Morales has 97 victories. Early in the 2023-2024 season, he is likely to pass the 100-win milestone. He is also on pace to set the school record for career victories, which is now 106 and held by one of his cousins, Kelvin Davila.
Freestyle, one of the two main types of wrestling contested internationally, is somewhat different from folkstyle, the kind of wrestling that is done in American high school and college competition.
“It’s more about takedowns and turning your opponent to his back,” said Zach Bridson, who coaches Morales in freestyle at the Prophecy Wrestling Club in Lawrence.”When you’re on the mat, called the par terre position, you have 15 seconds to turn your opponent or you get put back in neutral.”
Said Morales, “The mentality in folkstyle is go, go, go. In freestyle, you can take your time a little more. You push. You pull. Then you hit it hard.”
Morales splits his off-season training time between Prophecy and Smitty’s Barn in Kingston, New Hampshire, where he works on his folkstyle techniques. Both Bridson and Matt Smith, who runs Smitty’s, were standout wrestlers at Timberlane Regional in Plaistow, New Hampshire. Smith won four New England titles for Timberlane, while Bridson won two New England titles.
Morales has been around wrestling from a young age, when he tagged along with his father, who was coaching at Lawrence High at the time.
“When I was 5 or so, I started rolling around on the mats,” said Morales, who has a younger brother, Nathan, also a wrestler, in the 8th grade. “I started to take it seriously when I got older.”
Morales started wrestling in freestyle competition three years ago. He quickly learned that freestyle could help him in folkstyle as well.
“When he started he didn’t like it much,” Bridson said. “He just trusted my coaching and teaching and started to enjoy it.”
This winter, when Morales returns to Andover, he plans on moving up a weight class and winning some of the titles that eluded him last winter.
“I hope to win New Englands and Nationals,” Morales said.