By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
The seedings took a beating at the Five Counties Tournament at Fountain Valley High School on Saturday with only five No. 1 seeds taking home gold medals from the state's most prestigious regular season tournament.
Only six No. 1 seeds reached the finals and two top seeds did not even place in the 93-tournament that featured 24 of the top 27 ranked teams in the state by California Wrestler. Among the surprises were Central Catholic's Steven Vasquez and Dominic Galas, who, along with Louis Bland, gave the Raiders three champions and helped Central Catholic finish second with 133.5 points.
Poway easily captured the tournament, racking up 198 points and finishing with seven placewinners. The Titans did not have a single champion, however, and placed only two wrestlers in the finals.
Vasquez upset No. 1 seed Stephen West of Buchanan 7-6 in the semifinals and then edged Morgan McIntosh of Calvary Chapel 4-2 in the finals. Vasquez was the fourth seed entering the tournament.
Like Vasquez, Galas was a No. 4 seed, but he pinned No. 1 seed Kasey Cowan of Vista 50 seconds into the first round of their semifinal match. He then pinned No. 2 seed Eduardo Marquez of Temecula Valley 53 seconds into the first round of the finals. Galas was the heavyweight MVP of the tournament and finished with four pins, including one in 11 seconds.
Bland, meanwhile, appears to be back on top of his game after taking most of the first month of the season off for football commitments. Bland won his first match 23-8 and then won three straight matches by pin to reach the finals. In a battle against the No. 2 ranked 189-pounder in the state, Hunter Collins of Gilroy, Bland held on for the 10-8 victory.
Other placewinners for the Raiders included Andrew Perez, sixth at 103 pounds, and TJ Belton, 7th at 152 pounds.
Poway overcame some disappointing losses to capture first place by 55 points. Third-seeded Mike Hernandez finished fifth at 119 pounds while second-seeded Henry Yorba finished fourth at 130 pounds.
Top-seeded Tim Boone was upset by Nick Fisher of Clovis West in the 135-pound semifinals, 5-3, but came back to finish third. Fisher went on to beat Vinny Pisani of El Modena 4-3 in the finals. Second-seeded Ian Daube lost in the 171-pound final to top-seeded Jake Meredith of Temecula Valley.
Three other Titans wrestled better than expected. Chris Crosthwaite reached the finals of the 215-pound weight class, but lost to upstart Drew Meulman of Saint Francis 3-1. A sixth seed, Meulman was the lowest seeded wrestler to win a championship. He stunned Schurr's Julian Zuniga 15-0 in the semifinals.
Crosthwaite, meanwhile, knocked off No. 1 seed Robert Atwood of Cimarron, 6-2 in the other semifinal match.
Matt Herman finished fourth for Poway after receiving a sixth seed for the tournament. Titan heavyweight Sam Cervantes, the fifth seed, finished third with a win over San Diego Section rival Cowan in the third-place match.
Several other No. 1 seeds suffered disappointing losses. At 103 pounds, top-seeded Zach Zimmer of Clovis West lost 5-3 to Bryan Grubbs of La Costa Canyon, the No. 2 seed, in the finals.
At 112 pounds, Jesse Delgado of Gilroy, the No. 1 seed and the top-ranked wrestler in the state, lost by pin to Mark Robles of Camarillo in the second round. When Robles lost his next match, Delgado was eliminated from the tournament because the wrestler he lost to did not reach the quarterfinals.
Delgado's loss opened the door for Randy Tinoco of Centenial to reach the finals. The No. 12 seed, Tinoco upset Estevan Cabanas of Canyon Springs, Steven Salinas of Northview, and Alfonso Osuna of Brawley before finally falling to Britain Longmire of Cimarron Memorial 4-1.
At 119 pounds, No. 1 seed Thomas Williams of South Hills fell to Gilroy's Martin Gonzalez 4-2 in the semifinals. Gonzalez then fell to Marcus Orona of Santa Fe, 1-0, in the finals. Orona was named the tournament's lightweight MVP.
Justin Arredondo of Buchanan earned the No. 1 seed for the 130-pound bracket, but he lost in the second round to Frank Martinez of Northview, 4-3, and defaulted the rest of his matches in the tournament.
Sophomore Kevin Maelfeyt of Trinity took advantage of Arredondo's absence to reach the finals, but he lost a barnburner to Irvine's Scott Chene, 12-11.
Top-seeded David Watts of El Diamante also had a rough tournament, falling to Nikko Cataline of Roosevelt 7-3 in the quarterfinals and eventually finishing fifth after a loss to Trevor Machado Ching of Oakdale and a win in a rematch with Cataline. Fourth-seeded Cody Bollinger of Sultana topped Dane Stevens of Scotts Valley 9-7 for the gold.
The only No. 1 seeds to win gold were Bland, Meredith, Kody Klaus of Vacaville (125 pounds), Travis Rasmussen of Bakersfield (145) and Anthony Meza of Vista (152).
Only four weight classes pitted a No. 1 seed against a No. 2 seed in the finals. Grubbs pulled off the upset at 103 pounds while Klaus defeated Foothill's Caleb Vallotton 8-4. Rasmussen defeated Archie Tovar of Selma 10-3 and Bland edged Collins.
Clovis West finished in third place with 131 points, edging Temecula Valley by one point (130). Slema was fifth with 124.5 points, followed by Vacaville with 118, Bakersfield with 104.5 and Buchanan with 100.5.
In the other major tournament in the state last weekend, Clovis easily captured the Tim Brown Memorial Tournament in Sacramento, scoring 278 points to finish 130 points ahead of second-place Red Bluff (148). Clovis' point total broke the old tournament record by 30 points. Oak Ridge was third with 141.5, followed by Folsom with 131, Turlock with 124.5, Bella Vista with 124, Madera with 118.5 and Ponderosa with 116.
The Cougars put six wrestlers in the finals and finished with three champions. Jonathan Zamora remained undefeated with a pin of Elk Grove's Lawrence Alai in the 285-pound finals. Meanwhile Scott Sakaguchi won the 145-pound class and Steve Weimer won the 130-pound division.
Madison Gambrell lost in the 103-pound finals to Bryden Lazaro of Bella Vista while Tommy Burriel finished second to Granite Bay's Ryan Loder at 175 pounds. Josh Esparza lost to Jason Welch of Las Lomas, the top-ranked wrestler in the country, 25-8.
Dominic DeMarco of Ponderosa had the upset of the tournament with a 5-4 victory over Bethel's Matt Gibson. DeMarco was unranked in the state rankings by California Wrestler while Gibson was No. 2 at 215 pounds.
In other tournaments, San Jacinto won the San Bernardino County championships at AB Miller with 241 points to Alta Loma's 184. Chad Thornock had four pins at 125 pounds to lead the Tigers. He was one of four champions for San Jacinto.
Atascadero won the San Clemente Tournament with 218 points while LaMirada finished first at Arroyo with 153 points. In the Bay Area, East Bakersfield won the Jim Root Classic, edging Del Oro 168.5 to 165.
