Alejandro Sachinas Lopez has set a goal of wanting to advance to the state wrestling tournament this season, and he feels like he has the tools to reach that goal.
“I feel a combination of speed, technique and strength is what has taken me to the stage of where I am right now,” the Seymour wrestler said. “You have to fight your opponent any position he’s in, just keep calm under pressure and work your way up.
“I feel it’s made me into a tougher person. It’s made me someone that knows what work ethic is, and how to work hard and some people say wrestling is extremely hard, I say that just means that you’re weak. It takes very strong-minded people to go out there and wrestle another guy for six minutes.”
Last season he was a sectional champion at 182-pounds and finished runner up in the regional to advance to the Evansville Semistate.
“It’s basically just one-on-one confrontation with another person,” Sachinas said. “Whoever has the mental skill to stay on top and keep fighting to the last point, fight for every point, fight on bottom, fight on top.
“There’s no greater feeling than wrestling hard and coming out the winner.”
Sachinas said he started wrestling in eighth-grade by the encouragement of his father.
He wrestled at 182 his first three years in high school, then moved up to 195 this season, but plans on going back down to 182 for the sectional.
He wrestled junior varsity his first two years before moving into the varsity lineup last winter where he became a sectional champion, then finished second in the regional to advance to the semi state at Evansville where he lost in the first round.
He said he has to watch his diet and eat smart.
“I try to get in as much food in as that allows me to keep on weight, but I always watch how much I’m over, how much I’m under,” Sachinas said.
Sachinas said when he starts a match, “I have to tap, tap go, or look for my shot in and just keep working the guy because he is going to get tired, I’m going to get tired and it’s all a mental game from there.
“It’s very important to get that takedown. It could determine the rest of the match. It could break your opponent sometimes. Getting that first takedown and riding him for a minute or two it could mean a lot for you in the next couple of minutes.
“I feel like I can ride my opponent quite some time.”
He said he enjoys wrestling in the up position at the start of a match, and at the start of the second period he defers if he is ahead on the scoreboard.
“I like down if I feel like I can get away. I feel pretty confident in my escapes,” Sachinas said. “It’s the first man that moves. If I move before him then I have him, but sometimes the opponent moves faster than you and you just can’t keep up with him. So the first one that moves has the upper hand.”
Sachinas said he enjoys the home matches, and if you lose you have to rethink what you did wrong that match and fix it.
“I think a very important part of wrestling is learning from your mistakes, and advancing past those mistakes,” he said.
He said he enjoys the tournaments where he might wrestle four or five times in one day. He placed first with a 4-0 record in the 195-pound class in the Jeffersonville Classic Dec. 15.
“Some people may not like them, because you’re there for five or six hours, but when you’re the wrestler and you’re there to compete you have to get your game face on and just go at them,” Sachinas said.
Sachinas said he has enjoyed filling the roll of team captain.
“They (coaches) put a big role on me, but I’m prepared to take it on,” he said. “Sometimes if the team is down and we don’t have such a good practice, I try to uplift my teammates and just try to get the best practices I can that day.”
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Name: Alejandro Sachinas Lopez
High school: Seymour
Parents: Juan Sachinas Ruiz, Veronica Lopez
Siblings: David, Isaac
Sports: wrestling 4 years
Athletic highlights: 2017 sectional champ, regional runner up, semi-state qualifier; ISWA cadet Greco Roman runner-up; ISWA freestyle state 3rd place
Organizations: JAC, 4H, Calvary Baptist youth group
Plans after high school: college, military
Favorite food: pizza
Favorite movie: Vision Quest
Favorite athletic team: Penn State
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