The El Cajon Invitational wrestling tournament rolled out its 45th edition Dec. 18-19 at Olympian High School in Chula Vista. With 42 teams participating from throughout San Diego and Imperial counties, as well as from Arizona and Washington, it remained one of the San Diego Section’s showcase tournaments.
The annual tournament features returning state meet qualifiers, state medalists and CIF divisional champions to provide a measuring stick for section mat men. This year’s tournament was no different.
“Over the last five years, the competition has steadily gone up,” explained Valhalla High School head coach Steve Bulette, who serves as tournament director. “It’s our goal to have a well-run and competitive tournament in a venue that is spectator friendly, and one that finishes at a decent hour.”
The tournament was moved to Olympian High School this year due to on-campus construction at Christian High School in El Cajon.
The Rancho Bernardo Broncos won the team title with 251.5 points to top the Northview Vikings, who finished with 213 points in second place. Auburn (Wash.) finished third with 191.5 points, followed by Poway in fourth place with 187 points, Marana (Ariz.) in fifth place with 159 points and Sultana in sixth place with 151.5 points.
The tournament title was a big deal for the Broncos, who had 10 of 14 wrestlers earn medals, as Northview and Sultana finished first and second, respectively, at last season’s Southern Section Northern Division finals.
The Broncos also flexed their collective muscles against local competition. Rancho Bernardo finished 125.5 points ahead of Ramona, its nearest San Diego Section challenger. The Broncos nearly doubled the point margin on the Bulldogs, who finished with 126 points.
Eastlake (10th, 107.5 points) and Otay Ranch (14th, 97 points) were the top finishing teams from the Metro Conference. Hilltop (17th, 67 points), Mar Vista (19th, 46 points), Montgomery (24th, 36 points), Sweetwater (29th, 28 points), Olympian (31st, 24 points), San Ysidro (32nd, 23 points), Mater Dei Catholic and Chula Vista (tied 34th place, 18 points) and Bonita Vista (37th place, 14 points) rounded out participating South County teams.
Eastlake produced two individual finalists at this year’s event. Ben Martinez finished runner-up in his 120-pound weight class following a 4:43 pin by Poway’s Cameron Santiago while Jake Suggett finished runner-up to Northview’s Jackson Serna by a 2-1 decision in his 285-pound division.
Santiago, with four pins, finished as the tournament’s outstanding lower weight wrestler.
Overall, 13 Metro Conference wrestlers picked up medals.
Eastlake and Otay Ranch each finished the tournament with four medalists while Hilltop had three medalists and Sweetwater and Bonita Vista each recorded one medalist.
Besides its two finalists, Eastlake also had two other grapplers medal: Rickey Renteria (fourth, 220 pounds) and Jesus Galvadon (sixth, 120 pounds).
Renteria finished 5-2 in the tournament while Galvadon was 3-3.
“We’re really happy with our performance because it’s a tough tournament,” EHS coach Troy Vierra explained. “Two of our guys made the finals, and we had other guys who did well. We took 10th place and right now we’re not fielding all the weights.”
Otay Ranch’s medal-winners included Brandon McCurdy (third, 120 pounds), Sithara Diunugala (fifth, 152 pounds), Mustafa Farha (fifth, 220 pounds) and Jonathan Wu (seventh place, 170 pounds).
McCurdy went 6-1 on the mat. His only loss was to Righetti’s John Martinez by a 5-0 decision in the quarterfinals. McCurdy then went on to win his next four matches, capped by an 11-2 major decision win over Gabriel Castaneda of KOFA (Ariz.) in the third-place match, to finish the tournament with two pins and one technical fall.
Diunugala and Wu both finished 5-2 while Farha advanced to the semifinals before losing to the eventual weight class champion.
For Hilltop, Giany Barbobosa placed fourth in his 145-pound weight class, Alberto Garcia was fifth in his 126-pound division and Nate Lara was seventh in his 120-pound division. Garcia and Barbosa both advanced to the semifinals and finished 4-2 overall at the tourney.
Sweetwater’s Manny Nieves placed seventh at 195 pounds while Bonita Vista’s George Harlan finished eighth at 285 pounds.
Notepad
Rancho Bernardo advanced five wrestlers to this year’s ECI finals, with two winning individual championships.
Runner-up Northview had seven individual finalists and five weight class champions.
“It was a good tournament for us,” Rancho Bernardo coach Joe Eddie Terribilini noted. “We wrestled really well. Our goals are to finish the season strong, be one of the top teams in the county and put kids on the medal podium.”
The Broncos will again compete in the Division II enrollment level this season. The Broncos finished second at last season’s CIF dual meet championships and third at CIF individual championship tournament.
Weight class champions at this year’s ECI included Ramona’s Jeff Ramsthaler (106), Northview’s Dominick Arellano (113), Poway’s Santiago (120), Northview’s Richie Casillas (126) and Ricky Marin (132), Rancho Bernardo’s Chaz Franchina (138), KOFA’s David Castandea (145), Auburn’s Michael Yadon (152), Poway’s David Scrivnor (160), Northview’s Stephen Comstock (170), Rancho Bernardo’s Chasen Blair (182), Marana’s David Tilley (195), KOFA’s Sergio Gutierrez (220) and Northview’s Jackson Serna (285).
Marana’s Tilley won the MVP upper weight award with three pins.
