The Eastlake Titans captured this year’s Mesa League dual meet championship while the Chula Vista Spartans out-dueled the Montgomery Aztecs to claim this year’s South Bay League championship banner.
The area’s boys mat teams got together last Friday at Castle Park High School for the annual conference championship tournament, which the Olympian Eagles captured.
“It was an extremely competitive tournament in the sense that the top four teams were all within 20 points of first place,” Olympian head coach Joseph Schaeffer III said.
“Going into the tournament I expected our all-stars like Sam Costa (108 pounds), Alex Sarabia (115 pounds), Jareth Marmolejo (128 pounds) and Jace Watson (287 pounds) to do well … and indeed all four wrestlers made it to the finals. However, it was the kids who battled back in the consolation finals who really pushed us over the edge. Ethan Mallon (197) and Roman Ruiz (134), both first year varsity wrestlers, clutched wins in the third-place matches.”
Marmolejo won light-weight MVP honors. He pinned his finals opponent in the first period after pinning his first two opponents in less than 30 seconds.
“Of the 11 wrestlers we brought, nine placed in the top four,” Schaeffer said.
Chula Vista strong-armed its way into second place in the tournament standings
Olympian finished with 169 points to 162,5 for the Spartans. Otay Ranch was third with 158 points while Eastlake was fourth with 152 points.
.Chula Vista had four finalists: Diego Peraza Aguilar (first place, 147 pounds), John Reyna (second place, 162 pounds), Angel Zuniga (second place, 184 pounds) and Alejandro Scolari (second place, 287 pounds).
Of note, Bonita Vista freshmen Ivan Hernandez (108 pounds) and Nathan Banaszek (115 pounds) both won their weight classes, though neither grappler was seeded first.
Eastlake’s top wrestlers Brayden Zingano (162 pounds), David Mitrovitch (172 pounds) and Alex Martinez (197 pounds) all pinned their way through their brackets to earn honors as individual conference champions.
“Brayden Zingano will be the South County wrestler to watch next year,” Schaeffer said.
Martinez won the tournament upper weight MVP award.
Other weight class champions included Hilltop’s Justin Bernardo (122 pounds), Mater Dei Catholic’s Brandon Kamali (134 pounds), Otay Ranch’s Abram Jimenez (140 pounds), San Ysidro’s Rahman Ferguson (154 pounds), Southwest’s Brian Moreno (184 pounds) and San Ysidro’s Angel Daniel Martinez (222 pounds).
Of Olympian’s four finalists, Marmolejo and Watson both won titles while Costa and Sarabia each finished second in their weight classes.
