By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
The Gilroy Mustangs are the team to beat in the Central Coast Section this year and their performance in their own Mid-Cal Tournament over the weekend did nothing to diminish that belief.
The Mustangs racked up 301 points to top second-place Oak Ridge by 81 points. Gilroy had eight placewinners, led by gold medalists Jesse Delgado, Martin Gonzalez and Hunter Collins.
Delgado bounced back from a disappointing performance at the Five-Counties meet the week before to decision Fabian Garcia 6-3 in the finals at 114 pounds. Ranked No. 1 in the state at 114 pounds, Delgado won his first two matches by pin and topped Aaron Ceballos of McNair in the semifinals 12-5. Delgado is 33-1 on the season.
Gonzales, meanwhile, built on last week’s upset win over South Hill’s Thomas Williams to win the 121-pound class on Saturday. Gonzales won his first three matches by pin and had a major division, 17-5, over Janik Santana of Prospect in the semifinals. Gonzalez then topped Al Quenga of Overfelt 8-5 in the finals.
Collins had a much easier time with his opponents during the tournament. He won four matches by pin and another by technical fall to win the 191-pound weight class. He pinned Hanna Malak of Junipero Serra at 1:04 in the first round.
Other placewinners for the Mustangs included Tim Ibanez, second at 127 pounds, Vincent Aboytes, 4th place at 142 pounds; Travis Sakamoto, 4th place at 147 pounds; Ethan Ogle, 8th place at 173 pounds and Jesse Rogers, sixth place at 217 pounds.
Among the better matches in the finals, Kyle West of Oak Ridge fended off Tim Navarette of Shasta for the second time in two weeks. Morgan edged the Wolf senior 8-4 in the finals after Navarette had upset No. 2 seed Randall Watts of El Diamante in the semifinals.
Matt Gibson of Jesse Bethel bounced back from an upset loss in the finals at last week’s Tim Brown Memorial to score a major decision over Drew Meulman of St. Francis, 9-0 at 217 pounds.
Poway, the state’s No. 1 ranked team, had an easy time at the Raul Huerta Tournament in Canyon Springs, scoring 275 points and placing 11 wrestlers. South Hills finished second with 195 points and nine placewinners.
Tim Boone won by tech fall in the 135-pound finals over Tony Cacanindin of Chaparral while Brad Robinson won the 145-pound class with a 7-1 victory over Clayton Schuelke of Beaumont.
Ian Roy and Ian Daube dominated at 160 and 171 pounds. Roy won his final against Colton’s Trevor Pack with a 10-1 major decision. Meanwhile Daube won the 171-pound class with a 20-7 victory over Josh Pearson of South Hills.
Chris Crosthwaite also won at 215 pounds, edging Calvary Chapel’s Tank Knowles 4-3.
Clovis West got wins from Zach Zimmer and Nick Fisher over a pair of Washington Union wrestlers to help win the California Invitational Tournament in Morro Bay.
Zimmer edged the state’s top-ranked 105-pounder Gilberto Camacho, 3-2 in the finals. The win for Zimmer possibly opens the door for Quincy’s Cody Pack, who was the Mid-Cal 105-pound champion last week, to move into the No. 1 spot. Camacho was ranked No. 1 by California Wrestler while Pack was No. 2 and Zimmer was No. 3. Zimmer was named the tournament’s Champion of Champions for his win.
Fisher continued his impressive run of late with a victory over Alberto Arreola of Washington Union in the 135-pound finals. Fisher also won his weight class at Five Counties last week.
Clovis West scored 211.5 points to top Los Gatos (174.5) and Bakersfield (168) for first place.
Defending state champion Vacaville had four champions to win the Puma Classic at Maria Carillo High School with 247 points. Sonoma finished second with 193.5 points.
Champions for the Bulldogs included Ben Holmes at 217 pounds, Michael Kent at 154, Taylor Hodel at 147, and Kody Klaus at 127 pounds.
Hesperia edged Cimmeron and Sultana in a tough three-way battle for first place at the Dick Comly Tournament in Victor Valley. Hesperia and Cimmeron each had 12 placewinners and Sultana had 11. Hesperia’s Daniel Gudino (125), Andrew Collins (130) and Eric Lopez (135) all won gold while Sultana’s Ryan Fillingame (119), Mike Ardito (140) and Cody Bollinger (145) were also victorious.
In the biggest dual meet of last week, Clovis edged crosstown rival Buchanan 31-22 in a battle of two of the top programs in the state.
Clovis, ranked No. 2 in the state by Californai Wrestler, won the first six matches of the night to build a big lead against the Bears, who are ranked No. 4.
Starting at 189 pounds, Clovis got three wins, including a pin by Jonathan Zamora at heavyweight, to stake a 12-0 lead. Zamora’s pin of Lucas Gingold put his season record at 26-0.
The Cougars won the next three matches, including a come-from-behind win by Jon Gay at 119 pounds to put Clovis up 22-0. Gay trailed by four points in the final round, but got three takedowns in the final period and forced overtime where he got another takedown for a 10-8 win.
The Bears were able to rebound with four straight wins that put them within striking distance. Among the wins was a 4-3 victory by Justin Arredondo, the state’s No. 1 ranked 130-pounder, over Stephen Weimer, the state’s No. 3 ranked wrestler.
Leading 22-16, the Cougars got a pin from Scott Sakaguchi at 145 pounds to lengthen their lead to 28-16, but Andrew Balch and Steven West both won for Buchanan to make the score 28-22.
Tommy Burriel had the deciding win for Clovis, winning a 6-1 match over Nathan Poteete at 171 pounds to give the Cougars the 31-22 win.