For anyone in attendance at last Saturday’s South Bay Invitational tournament at Otay Ranch High School, it wasn’t too difficult to pick out the wrestlers to watch at Saturday’s Metro Conference championship tournament at Mater Dei Catholic High School.
Five Otay Ranch mat men advanced to the championship round at the South Bay Invitational, as did three wrestlers from Hilltop and another each from Chula Vista, Bonita Vista and Sweetwater.
The tournament host Mustangs — braced by four weight class champions — recorded a third-place team finish behind team champion Poway and runner-up Ramona.
“They have picked it up since our first dual match against Eastlake,” ORHS head coach Gabriel Ruz explained. “Our boys have improved each week. I think our boys are ready for the big tournaments coming up.”
If Ruz was feeling particularly giddy during the tournament, he had good reason. He had found out the day before he had been selected for induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
“I would call that an honor,” the two-time former Olympic wrestler noted in an understatement.
Induction ceremonies will take place May 21 in Laguna Hills.
Parade of champions
Mustang senior Brandon McCurdy defeated Chula Vista junior Anthony Ortiz by a 12-4 major decision to win the 122-pound championship at last weekend’s SBI tournament. Otay Ranch sophomore Axel Perez followed with a 5:30 pin at 140 pounds against San Pasqual’s Paul Pham.
The Mustangs’ parade of individual weight class champions continued when Sithara Diunugala captured the 154-pound title with a gritty 3-2 come-from-behind decision against Hilltop’s Domonic Esparza.
Mustafa Farha, ranked fourth in the San Diego Section, edged Poway’s Nicholas Klekas by an 11-3 major decision to win the 222-pound title. Farha, last year’s 222-pound Metro champion, recorded an impressive second-place finish at the prestigious Canyon Springs tournament on Jan. 22-23.
“My goals are to make it to state, place at state,” he said. “I’ve been working hard with my coaches, and my dad (former state medalist Mohammed Farha of Hoover). I think I can reach them.”
Overall, six Metro mat men walked off the mat with individual gold medals.
Hilltop senior Alberto Garcia defeated Poway’s Jonathan Dain by a 19-7 major decision to capture the 128-pound championship while Bonita Vista’s George Harlan dominated his opponent, Poway’s Jack Baldewein, with a 16-1 technical fall to claim the heavyweight title.
Garcia (28-3) entered the tournament ranked fourth in the section in his weight class. He placed sixth at the Canyon Springs tournament after opening the calendar year with a first-place finish at the Hilltop duals.
Garcia placed second at 134 pounds at last year’s Metro finals but is looking to emerge with a championship medal at this weekend’s tournament. He was dominant on the mat at the SBI with three pins and a major decision.
“I want to take league,” the Hilltop wrestler said in enumerating his post-season goals. “At CIF, I want to make it to the finals against Poway and have a good match there, and hopefully make it to state.”
McCurdy, who also placed sixth at the Canyon Springs tournament, improved to 26-6 on the season.
“A lot of hard work is paying off,” he said.
McCurdy finished 30-0 as a sophomore on the Mustangs junior varsity team and captured last year’s 115-pound Metro varsity title en route to a third-place finish at the Division I finals and an eighth-place showing at the San Diego Masters state-qualifying tournament.
“I took him down in the beginning, (but) when I realized he was pretty good on bottom, my coaches told me to ride him out,” McCurdy explained of his finals win.
Diunugala, a fourth-place finisher at Canyon Springs, persevered to win in dramatic fashion in his first tournament final.
“I’ve worked really hard in the off-season, making it to the finals, especially against one of my good friends, was exhilarating,” he said.
“The first period was scoreless, then he switched me in the second period — he was up 2-0,” Diunugala said. “I tied the match up with a switch. In the third period, I won on an escape point.”
Harlan (17-6) finished the SBI tournament with two technical falls and one pin. He lost in overtime in the quarterfinal round to Eastlake’s Jake Suggett at December’s El Cajon Invitational tournament. Suggett, last year’s Metro heavyweight champion, went on to place second in the weight class at the ECI following a 2-1 loss to Northview’s Jackson Serna, currently ranked sixth in the state.
“I’m doing very well, I put a lot of work in the off-season and it’s showing off,” Harlan said.
Wrestlers to watch
Otay Ranch junior Jonathan Wu finished second in his 162-pound weight class following a loss by a 2:37 pin to Poway’s David Scrivnor.
Sweetwater’s Manny Nieves placed second at 197 pounds at the SBI following a 7-5 loss to Poway’s Josh Pursley in the finals.
Hilltop’s Marc Nunez placed second at 108 pounds following a loss by a 41-second pin to Ramona freshman Jeffrey Ramsthaler. With the victory, Ramsthaler remained undefeated (28-0) on the season.
Fourth-place finishers included Bonita Vista’s Jordan Bendorf (108 pounds), Hilltop’s Nate Lara (115 pounds), Otay Ranch’s Benjamin Kim (128 pounds), Chula Vista’s Esteban Canizales (140 pounds) and Juan-Pedro Sablan (154 pounds), Hilltop’s Elvis Coronado (172 pounds) and Christopher Gomez-Dominguez (197 pounds), and Eastlake’s Emilio Gomez (287 pounds).
Fifth-place finishers included Eastlake’s Antonio Collazo (108 pounds), Hilltop’s Cesar Santana (162 pounds) and Sweetwater’s Jose Nieto (172 pounds).
Sixth-place finishers included Otay Ranch’s Andre Rodriguez (128 pounds), Sweetwater’s Martin Sesma (134 pounds) and Chula Vista’s Raymond Ortiz (162 pounds)>
Poway finished with 235 points to top the 18-team field, followed by Ramona with 189.5 points and Otay Ranch with 135 points.
Hilltop finished fourth in the team standings with 131.5 points, followed by Oceanside (fifth, 115 points), Point Loma (sixth, 101 points), Escondido (seventh, 82 points), Serra (eighth, 68 points), Chula Vista (ninth, 63 points) and Sweetwater (10th, 54 points).
Bonita Vista finished 11th with 52.5 points, followed by University City (12th, 49 points), San Pasqual (13th, 39.5 points), Eastlake (14th, 38 points), Rock Academy (15th, 37 points), Mountain Empire (16th, 31 points), San Diego (17th, 29 points) and Torrey Pines (18th, 25 points).
Mat attack
Hilltop’s Gianny Barbosa (18-7) finished eighth in his 145-pound weight class at the Canyon Springs tournament.
Mira Mesa edged Hilltop by one point to win the championship title of this year’s Hilltop dual tournament.
Otay Ranch entered the final week of regular season competition 2-2 in Mesa League duals, 7-4 overall.
Three South County mat squads tabbed for CIF dual meet finals
Poway High School remains the San Diego Section’s wrestling beast with four state championship titles and six runner-up place-finishes to its credit. It’s a proud honor roll for Titan head coach Wayne Branstetter, who is in his 39th season coaching at Poway and 44th overall.
But what constitutes a state or even section championship? Branstetter noted there are about 300 schools annually represented at the state championship tournament, but that about 250 schools are represented by just one wrestler.
Toward that end, section dual meet championships have been established that involve full teams, not just one wrestler.
This is the second year for the current format. Branstetter hopes it eventually evolves to the state level where a true dual meet team champion can be crowned.
“With a one-and-a-half hour dual meet, you get the whole community out to watch,” he said. “It makes it exciting because fans get to cheer for the whole team, and all the wrestlers on the team participate.”
Fans will get a chance to cheer on their favorite team on Saturday, Feb. 13, when the section’s four divisional dual meet championships take place.
Mira Mesa High School will host the Division I and Division III tournaments while Rancho Bernardo High School will host the Division II and Division IV tournaments.
The top eight ranked teams in each division will compete. Teams will wrestle three rounds — quarterfinals, semifinals and championship finals.
A third-place match will be held this year for the semifinal losers.
Each tournament is slated to start at 10 a.m, followed by semifinals at 1 p.m. and finals at 2:30 p.m.
Eastlake is seeded fourth in the Division I tournament while San Ysidro is seeded eighth in the Division II tournament. Montgomery is seeded seventh in the Division III tournament.
Eastlake will open against fifth-seeded Mira Mesa while San Ysidro will go up against top-seeded Poway and Montgomery will take on second-seeded Ramona in opening-round duals.
San Marcos is the defending Division I champion after defeating Rancho Buena Vista, 58-25, last year.
Poway defeated Rancho Bernardo, 58-9, to win last year’s Division II dual meet championship while Brawley defeated Ramona, 55-21, to win the Division III dual meet title and Holtville squashed Madison, 70-12, to emerge as the Division IV dual meet champion.
San Marcos (Division I), Poway (Division II), Brawley (Division III) and Valley Center (Division IV) are this year’s top-seeded teams. RBV (Division I), Rancho Bernardo (Division II), Ramona (Division III) and Mt. Miguel (Division IV) are seeded second in this year’s event.
Following the CIF divisional dual championships, the section’s divisional individual championships are slated Feb. 20. Otay Ranch High School will host the Division I tournament. Other sites include Westview (Division II), Del Norte (Division III) and Madison (Division IV).
The San Diego Section Masters state qualifying tournament is scheduled Feb. 27-28 at Christian High School in El Cajon.
The top three wrestlers in each weight class at the Masters tournament qualify to compete in the state championship meet March 4-5 in Bakersfield.
“It’s a numbers game,” Branstetter noted in regard to amassing enough qualifiers to the state meet to make a serious run at the state title under the current format. “The San Diego Section only gets three spots (per weight class). That makes it tough. One year, we qualified all 14 guys and took second. Last year, we scored 189.5 points, the most ever for us, had two state champions and nine medalists and still took second.”
Clovis, braced by 10 medalists and six finalists, set a state scoring record with 276.5 points as last year’s team champion.
Poway’s Ralphy Tovar (145) and Colt Doyle (160) each won individual state championships to close the 2014-15 season. Doyle finished as a two-time state champion while Tovar was a three-time state medalist.
Clovis finished with three individual state champions: Justin Mejia (113), Seth Nevills (220) and Hexton Coronado (285). Nevills was one of two freshmen to win state titles last year.
The San Diego Section had 13 state medalists overall in 2015 — the highest percentage of qualifiers to earn medals among the state’s 10 sections.
Holtville Invitational
Eastlake, Olympian, San Ysidro, Mater Dei Catholic, Mar Vista, Castle Park and Montgomery were among the 27 teams that competed in last weekend’s two-day Holtville Invitational. Eastlake led the contingent of seven Metro Conference teams with a fourth-place team finish, followed by Olympian (12th), San Ysidro (17th), Mater Dei Catholic (18th), Mar Vista (20th), Castle Park (21st) and Montgomery (23rd).
Top place-finishers included Castle Park’s Dante Preciado (first, 140 pounds), San Ysidro’s Pablo Perez (first, 162 pounds), Mar Vista’s Christian Winnie (second, 108 pounds), Eastlake’s Ben Martinez (second, 122 pounds), Mater Dei Catholic’s Christian Paquian-Macias (third, 134 pounds), Olympian’s Royce Casiano (third, 154 pounds) and Eastlake’s Ricardo Renteria (third, 222 pounds).
Eastlake finished the tournament with seven place-winners. Other medalists included Jesus Gavaldon (fourth, 115 pounds), Jake Suggett (fourth, 287 pounds), Carlos Vasquez (fifth, 172 pounds), Paul Crampton (sixth, 115 pounds) and Ethan Hill (sixth, 134 pounds).
Mater Dei Catholic had two place-finishers. Joining Paquin-Macias was Jonas Ullsperger (sixth, 128 pounds)
San Ysidro’s Arath Rodriguez (fourth, 222 pounds) and Olympian’s Ethan Ramos (fifth, 122 pounds) also earned place-finishes in the tournament.
Paquian-Macias, a freshman, had a “great” tournament according to MDCHS coach Scott Ullsperger.
“He was unseeded despite a number of coaches supporting at least a sixth seed,” the Crusader coach explained. “In the random draw into the bracket, he upset the No. 5 seed in the second round, the No. 4 seed in the quarterfinals and lost to the No. 1 seed, Memo Lopez of Morse, in the semifinals. Christian then defeated Ethan Hill of Eastlake to advance to the third-place match. Christian defeated Michael Anaya of Orange Glen, the No. 6 seed, to earn third place as a freshman.”
There were no freshmen champions at this year’s Holtville Invitational, though Brawley’s Jacob Moreno (122), Calexico’s Robert Tabarez (128) and Rancho Bernardo’s Chasen Blair (184) were repeat champions.
There are no current candidates for the coveted four-time champion helmet.
Rancho Bernardo won the team title, followed by San Marcos (second) and Brawley (third).
“I thought it was a tough tournament, tougher than in the past,” EHS head coach Troy Vierra explained. “There were some tough teams there like Rancho Bernardo, San Marcos and Brawley. I think we were in good company.”
Vierra noted that Martinez has been wrestling up a weight this season in preparation for post-season competition. “He’s been up a weight but he’s getting the competition he needs,” Vierra said.
Suggett, one of the section’s top-ranked heavyweight wrestlers, lost, 2-1, in double overtime to San Marcos’s Oscar Solano in the semifinals. Vierra called the setback a “wake-up” call.
“Jake has a great chance to go to the state tournament,” Vierra said. “He’s going to have to beat these guys at some point down the line. Jake has been involved in a lot of close matches this season. This was another test for him.”
Eastlake moved closer to claiming this year’s Mesa League dual meet championship after defeating visiting Bonita Vista, 68-6, on Jan. 28. The Titans had one league dual remaining on their schedule on Thursday.
“I think we’re wrestling tough and smart right now,” Vierra said.
Girls wrestling: Lady Titans capture history-making first tournament title
The San Diego Section girls wrestling championship tournament is scheduled Feb. 12-13 at Clairemont High School. The top two finishers in the two-day tournament advance directly to the state championship tournament in Visalia.
The Eastlake High School Lady Titans prepped for the event by winning the team’s first tournament title Jan. 16 when Eastlake hosted a regular season girls wrestling tournament.
Eastlake claimed its first tournament title in dramatic fashion by edging Westview 103-102 in total team points.
“That’s kind of a big deal,” EHS head coach D.J. Mancillas explained in regard to the history-making event. “We had some good performances overall. The four girls who made it to the finals racked up points and the two girls who won their weight classes racked up a lot of points.”
Isabela Hook captured the 123-pound title while teammate Loraine Tejano won the 152-pound class.
Second-place finishers included Elizabeth Hafen at 128 pounds and Grace Williams at 133 pounds.
Jasmine Stewart finished third at 128 pounds as a non-scoring wrestler while Katiana Carrillo placed fourth at 118 pounds.
The top five girls in each weight class earned place-finishes while the top three girls received medals.
The Jan. 16 tournament attracted approximately 100 girls.
“There was some good competition,” Mancillas said. “Our girls seem to be peaking at the right time.”
Mancillas has been part to two history-making events. He was a sophomore when Eastlake won its first tournament championship in 2000 by capturing the conference tournament title.
