2008 San Diego Section Divisional Championships

Metro mat men collect 5 CIF titles

Posted Feb. 21, 2008
The road to this year’s state wrestling tournament began with last Saturday’s San Diego Section divisional tournaments and continues with this weekend’s San Diego Section Masters state qualifying tournament at Mission Hills High School.

Competition in the 24-person weight brackets starts Friday, Feb. 22, and concludes with medal matches and finals Saturday, Feb. 23.

The top four place-finishers in each of 14 weight classes qualify for the two-day state tournament the following weekend.

The Metro Conference qualified a sizable number of wrestlers — 43 — for this weekend’s Masters tournament, among them five divisional champions and 10 divisional finalists.

Winning coveted weight class titles were Hilltop’s Javier Martinez (142 pounds) and Bonita Vista’s Hector Arambula (154), both at the Division II finals at Scripps Ranch High School, and Montgomery’s Hector Hernandez (132) and Mar Vista’s Hugo Medrano (137) and Tommy McLaughlin (191), all at the Division III finals at Serra High School.

The four Metro teams competing at the Division II finals — Bonita Vista, Hilltop, San Ysidro and Sweetwater — combined to produce 17 Masters qualifiers.

The four Metro teams competing at the Division III finals —Castle Park, Mar Vista, Montgomery and Southwest — combined for 15 Masters qualifiers.

The three Metro teams competing at the Division I finals at Otay Ranch High School — Chula Vista, Eastlake and Otay Ranch — combined to produce nine Masters qualifiers.

Bonita Vista, Eastlake, Hilltop, Mar Vista and Montgomery led the local contingent with six Masters qualifiers apiece, followed by San Ysidro with three.

A total of 12 area teams had at least one Masters qualifier, with Otay Ranch, Southwest, Sweetwater and Olympian each netting two qualifiers and Castle Park and Chula Vista both recording one qualifier.

Division II finals
The Metro sent six grapplers to finals matches, including four from third-place Hilltop. The Lancers’ Martinez, a returning state meet qualifier, recorded a 16-0 technical fall against Hoover’s T.Y. Eison and BV’s Arambula pinned Hoover’s Earnie Campbell in 1:30.

Both Martinez and Arambula won individual Metro titles the previous week; Arambula was also a champion at the regular season-ending San Ysidro Invitational.

Placing second in their respective weight classes were San Ysidro’s Carlos Portillo (105) and Hilltop’s Anthony Salinas (114), Andy Galata (147) and Jerry Santillan (217).

Galata lost by a 9-1 major decision to Orange Glen’s Aaron Smith while Santillan dropped an 18-6 major decision against West Hills’ Rudy Ortega.

Portillo lost by fall to Mt. Carmel’s Steven Martinez, the tournament’s outstanding light weight wrestler, while Salinas lost by pin against Helix’s A.J. Agustin.

Galata and Santillan were finalists at this year’s Metro finals, with Galata winning the 147-pound title and Santillan placing runner-up at 217 pounds.

The top six placers advanced to Masters from the Division II tournament.

Three Bonita Vista wrestlers — Frank Bell (173), Cody Lopez (191) and Bryan Roughton (287) — qualified for third-place matches. All three were finalists at the Metro championships, with Bell and Roughton scoring titles.

Bell tied for third place under the five-match limit rule while Lopez captured third place with a 7-5 decision against his opponent from tourney champion Mt. Carmel. Roughton took fourth after a 6-4 loss to Scripps Ranch’s Brendan Edwards.

Martinez has just one loss in the section this season — that to Division I champion Daniel Kwittken of Torrey Pines in the finals of the midseason Scripps Ranch-Mission Hills Invitational.
Martinez will be making a bid to return to the state championships with a top four place-finish at this weekend’s Masters tournament.

“I already know wrestling — I just need to improve on my speed and technique,” said Martinez, who went 1-2 at last year’s state meet as a junior. “I’ve been there before. I’m a senior. I’m not facing anyone older than me. They’ll all be the same age or younger.”

Division III finals
Four Metro wrestlers qualified for finals matches, with Montgomery’s Hector Hernandez (132) and Mar Vista’s Hugo Medrano (137) and Tommy McLaughlin (191) all winning individual titles.

Hernandez, who was voted the outstanding lower weight wrestler at this year’s Metro finals, defeated Monte Vista’s Shervin Iraniha by a 4-2 score in his finals match while Medrano defeated his opponent from Ramona by a 9-3 decision. McLaughlin, voted the Metro’s outstanding upper weight wrestler, pinned his opponent from Ramona in the finals.
Mar Vista sent three grapplers to the finals, as Joey Rilatt finished second in his 147-pound weight class following a 5-3 loss to Valhalla’s Shane Mallory.

Five area mat men advanced to third-place matches, with Mar Vista’s Allan Delos Reyes (127) and Carter Barnett (142) both taking third place as well as Montgomery’s Jonathan Villanueva (217).

The top six placers advanced to Masters from the Division III tournament.

Division I finals
No one placed higher than fourth in the section’s largest schools field that traditionally remains a killing ground for North County teams. Eastlake finished the highest of the entered South Bay teams in 11th place –trailing 10 North County teams – while Otay Ranch was 16th and Chula Vista was 17th.

Eastlake’s Justin Baroy (127) and Chula Vista’s Brian Halter (287) both engineered fourth-place showings in the challenging field while a pair of Titans —Anthony Alviz (105) and Luis Green (132) both placed fifth.

Alviz is a reigning Metro champion.

The top eight placers earned Masters invitations. Otay Ranch’s Jonathan Hinkle (287) was sixth while Eastlake’s David McCluggage (137), Stephan Lampa (142) and Dan Marganski (191) along with Otay Ranch’s Orville Roachford (173) all placed seventh in their respective weights.
Alternates with ninth-place finishes included Eastlake’s Ryan Gobeil (121) and Otay Ranch’s Philip No (132).

How tough was the Division I tournament? Metro champion Alex Johnson from Eastlake placed 10th in his 217-pound weight division.

Division IV finals
Olympian finished 14th out of 18 teams in its first varsity section divisional appearance. The Eagles had two wrestlers qualify for third-place matches: Victor Viesca (third, 137) and Jake Seibel (fourth, 154).

The top four placers from the Division IV finals qualified for Masters.