Metro sends six mat men to state tournament

It’s the biggest annual high school boys wrestling event in San Diego County and last weekend’s San Diego Section Masters state-qualifying tournament at Christian High School in El Cajon once again delivered its share of ecstasy and heartbreak.

The ecstasy was measured in the six South County mat men who qualified to compete in this weekend’s state championship tournament in Bakersfield. The heartbreak was felt by all those who didn’t qualify, some of whom missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Each weight class at Masters consisted of 24 wrestlers but only the top four place-winners punched their ticket to the state meet.

South County’s 2022 state qualifiers are led by a pair of Olympian Eagles: Abram Cline (second place, 108 pounds) and Carlo Arreola (third place, 115 pounds)

They are joined by San Ysidro’s Santiago Luna (second place, 147 pounds), Montgomery’s Christian Venegas (second place, 287 pounds), Eastlake’s Tomas Jacobo (third place, 140 pounds) and Mater Dei Catholic’s Keith Moreno (fourth place, 115 pounds).

Of the six Metro Conference state qualifiers, three of them advanced to the championship round at Masters on an impressive note.

All lost to higher-seeded wrestlers from state-ranked and Masters champion Poway.

Cline (30-6) lost by a 2:50 pin to Edwin Sierra (23-5) while Luna (22-3) lost by a 3:19 fall against Noah Tolentino (36-2). Venegas (32-2) lost by a 1:20 pin to Jamikiel Lytle (18-3) as the Titans won 12 of their 14 Masters finals matchups.

Cline, who had finished second at the Division II finals with 8-0 loss by major decision to Sierra, won his opening three matches at Masters to draw a championship rematch. Cline paved his way to the finals with a 1:08 pin of Christian’s Landon Bedsole in his first match, then recorded a 9-0 major decision over Kearny’s Christian Wilson in the quarterfinals before out-pointing Brawley’s Evan Valez 4-1 in the semifinals.

Luna, who had finished second at the Division II finals with a loss by a 33-second pin to Tolentino after winning his weight class at the Metro Conference finals, opened his run to the championship round with a 12-2 major decision over Ramona’s Andrew Martin before recording a 9-7 sudden victory over Cathedral Catholic’s Nick Rodriguez in the quarterfinals. Luna scored a 22-7 win by technical fall in the semifinals over Holtville’s Payton Iten to advance to the gold medal match.

Venegas, another Metro individual champion and all-league football player, carried only one loss in 33 matches into this year’s Master’s tournament. He advanced to the final round on the strength of pins of 5:22 (Chula Vista’s Alejandro Scolari in the second round) and 1:25 (Torrey Pines’ Nik Renner in the quarterfinals) and a 5:23 injury default in the semifinals against Mira Mesa’s Noah Chiw.

The Aztec warrior racked up four pins in as many trips to the mat in winning his weight division at the preceding Division III championship tournament.

“He battled all season,” Montgomery head coach David Jarumayan said. “He worked hard. He showed his potential since his freshman year and it’s showing.”

Mat men
Arreola and Moreno paired up in an all-Metro bronze medal match with Arreola getting the better of his Crusader opponent with a 2:23 pin.

Arreola (the Metro individual champion at 115 pounds) logged a 4-1 record at Masters with three pins while Moreno (the Metro individual champion at 122 pounds) finished 3-2 in his Masters odyssey.

Moreno won his weight class at the preceding Division IV championships while Arreola placed runner-up at the Division II finals.

Jacobo, the Metro Conference champion in his weight class this year and runner-up in his weight division at the preceding Division I finals, recorded a 4-0 decision over Granite Hills’ Jayson Suetos to place third. It was his second shutout win over Suetos in the tournament.

Jacobo finished 4-1 at Masters as the bronze medalist.

Award stand
Top six place-finishers in each weight class received medals. Metro tournament champion Eastlake had a total of four medalists at this year’s Masters tournament en route to posting an eighth-place team finish, highest among the 12 South County teams represented in the massive, two-day 72-team draw.

Medalists also included Hilltop’s Sergio Porras (fifth place, 134 pounds) and Eastlake’s Orlando Amado (fifth place, 172 pounds), David Mitrovich (sixth place, 154 pounds) and Alex Martinez (sixth place, 197 pounds).

Porras, who won his weight class at the Division III finals, took fifth place with a medical forfeit over La Costa Canyon’s Cael Supulveda. The Lancer finished 4-2 with one pin (2:43) and two technical falls (20-4 and 19-2).

Amado (fourth at Division I) won by a 9-1 major decision over San Marcos’ Louie Sanchez to place fifth. The Titan opened the tournament with a pair of wins to advance to the semifinals before dropping his next two matches en route to a 3-2 Masters finish.

Mitrovich (fourth at Division I) lost by medical forfeit to Scripps Ranch’s Jun Melchior in the fifth-place match. Martinez lost by medical forfeit to LCC’s Mason Blue to place sixth.

Mitrovich finished 5-3 at Masters with a torrid run of four consecutive wins in the wrestle-backs to reach the medal round. He finished the tournament with two pins (2:10 and 2:09) and one technical fall (17-2).

Martinez (third at Division I) finished 4-3 with a 38-second pin to his credit.

Mitrovich, Amado and Martinez all won individual Metro weight class titles at this year’s tournament while Porras was second.

With 14 state qualifiers and 12 Masters champions, Division II team champion Poway topped the scoring chart with 416 points, followed by Division I team champion Rancho Bernardo with 255.5 points in second place and Division III champion Brawley in third place with 160.5 points.

Granite Hillls tallied 143.5 points to place fourth. Division IV champion Holtville was fifth with 107 points to place ahead of La Costa Canyon (sixth place, 104 points) and Mira Mesa (seventh place, 101 points). Eastlake (eighth place, 97 points), Olympian (ninth place, 64 points) and Vista (10^th place, 63.5 points) rounded out the top 10 teams.

Other participating Metro Conference teams scoring points included Montgomery (14^th place, 52 points), Hilltop (18^th place, 44.5 points), Bonita Vista (28^th place, 26 points), San Yisdro (30^th place, 24.5 points), Mater Dei Catholic (34^th place, 20.5 points), Otay Ranch and Sweetwater (tie for 47^th place, 10.5 points) and Chula Vista (52^nd place, eight points).

 

San Diego Section Boys Wrestling Championships

Division I

Feb. 12 at Rancho Bernardo High School

(Top 7 placers to Masters)

Team standings: 3. Eastlake, 13. Chula Vista, 14. Otay Ranch, 17. Sweetwater

108 POUNDS

8. Dominick Martinez (Otay Ranch)

115 Pounds

3. Josue Garcia (Eastlake)

122 Pounds

4. Alex King (Eastlake)
5. Damien Martinez (Sweetwater)

128 Pounds

6. Kevin Perales (Sweetwater)

134 Pounds

3. Justin Graham (Eastlake)

140 Pounds

2. Tomas Jacobo (Eastlake)
3. Abram Jimenez (Otay Ranch)

147 Pounds

6. Angelo Dushane Jr. (Otay Ranch)
7. Allan Rosas (Chula Vista)
8. Jace Peter (Eastlake)

154 Pounds

4. David Mitrovich (Eastlake)
5. Darius Rhodes (Chula Vista)

162 Pounds

3. Gabe Duron (Eastlake)
4. Cesar Guerra (Sweetwater)

172 Pounds

4. Orlando Amado (Eastlake)

184 Pounds

5. Richard Inzunza (Eastlake)

197 Pounds

3. Alex Martinez (Eastlake)

222 Pounds

5. Joel Zapata (Chula Vista)
6. Toren Brown (Otay Ranch)

287 Pounds

5. Aiden Pich (Otay Ranch)
6. Alejandro Scolari (Chula Vista)

 

Division II

Feb. 12 at Alliant University

(Top 7 placers to Masters)

Team standings: 5. Olympian, 8. Bonita Vista, 9. San Ysidro

 

108 Pounds

2. Abram Cline (Olympian)

115 Pounds

2. Carlo Arreola (Olympian)
3. Noah Gallegos (Bonita Vista)

122 Pounds

5. Wyatt Costa (Olympian)

128 Pounds

3. Isaac Lopez (Bonita Vista)
4. Jareth Marmolejo (Olympian)

134 Pounds

7. Bradley Bell (Bonita Vista)

140 Pounds

7. Rahman Ferguson (San Ysidro)

147 Pounds

2. Santiago Luna (San Ysidro)
3. Isaac Fortin (Bonita Vista)
4. Oscar Perez (Olympian)

162 Pounds

3. Isaac Romero (Bonita Vista)

197 Pounds

5. Julian Cervantes (San Ysidro)
6. Lucas Rodriguez (Bonita Vista)

222 Pounds

3. Itzak Gonzalez (Olympian)
4. Arath Arellano (San Ysidro)

287 Pounds

3. Angel Martinez (San Ysidro)
4. Jace Watson (Olympian)

 

Division III

Feb. 12 at Ramona High School

(Top 6 placers to Masters)

Team standings: 10. Hilltop, 17. Castle Park

108 Pounds

3. Joaquin Angulo (Hilltop)

115 Pounds

6. Noah Heredia (Hilltop)

122 Pounds

5. Justin Bernardo (Hilltop)

134 Pounds

1. Sergio Porras (Hilltop)

162 Pounds

5. Aspericueta Jose (Montgomery)

172 Pounds

3. Carlos Mendez (Hilltop)
4. Armando Montalvo (Montgomery)
5. Francisco Magana (Castle Park)

184 Pounds

5. Darius Eddington (Montgomery)

197 Pounds

4. Jason McClanahan (Montgomery)

222 Pounds

3. Joel Maya (Montgomery)

287 Pounds

1. Christian Venegas (Montgomery)

 

Division IV

Feb. 12 at Valley Center High School

(Top 4 placers to Masters)

Top teams: 4. Mater Dei Catholic, 11. Mar Vista, 22. High Tech High Chula Vista

108 Pounds

4. Sergio Delos Reyes (Mar Vista)

115 Pounds

1. Keith Moreno (Mater Dei Catholic)
2. Nathan Crosby (Mar Vista)

122 Pounds

3. Brandon Kamali (Mater Dei Catholic)

128 Pounds

6. Jacob Gilbert (Mater Dei Catholic)

147 Pounds

3. Dylan Hartley (Mar Vista)

154 Pounds

1. Ruben Rodriguez (Mater Dei Catholic)

162 Pounds

3. Chris Sullier (Mater Dei Catholic)

197 Pounds

5. Frank Zhou (Mater Dei Catholic)