2010 Monte Vista Invitational Report

Monte Vista Invitational
Monarchs roar to runner-up finish

Posted Jan. 12, 2010
With four weight class finalists, one champion and a solid second place finish to defending state champion Poway, the Monte Vista High School wrestling team made a statement in the finals of its own invitational tournament, held Jan. 9 at the Spring Valley school. The Monarchs totaled 161 team points to finish comfortably ahead of third place Eastlake but placed well behind the behemoth Titans, who captured the team title by more than a 200-point margin.

“When you’re second to Poway, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Monte Vista coach Steve Bulette said. “We had some good matches. We could have won a couple more. Overall, we had a good showing. But there’s always room for improvement.”

Kenneth Tribble pinned Poway’s Austin Crider in the 171-pound championship match. Three other Monarchs placed runner-up to Poway mat men: Shervin Iraniha (145), Shamar Barnes (189) and Alex Rossell (215).

Overall, Monte Vista finished the tournament with eight medalists.

Everret Pratt (103) placed fourth while Daniel Leyva (125), Raul White (130) and Adrian Daniels (135) all captured fifth-place medals.

Tribble, a senior, placed runner-up in last year’s San Diego Section divisionals and was fourth at the ensuing Masters tournament, missing the state cut by one place-finish. Crider was third at last year’s Division I finals and was coming off a meteoric second-place finish at the prestigious El Cajon Invitational a week earlier. Crider entered the finals of the Monte Vista tournament with a 19-4 record.

On his finalist information sheet Tribble declined to list his record, simply stating, “It doesn’t matter; I’m a beast.”

The Monarch grappler proved that was no empty boast when he went out and pinned Crider in 1:44. Fans in the gym again let out a roar deserving of a lion.

The top-seeded wrestler in his weight class, Tribble recorded a 19-1 technical fall in the quarterfinals and a 5:08 fall in the semifinals. Crider, seeded second, had advanced to the championship match with two pins and a 7-0 shutout decision.

“Tribble is progressing,” Bulette said. “He’s a gifted athlete. As a freshman, he won the Steele Canyon dual for us. As a sophomore he was a CIF champion; as a junior he finished fourth at Masters. He missed going to state by one match. He’s set a goal this year to get to the state meet.”

Iraniha, a fourth-place medalist at last year’s state finals, entered the Monte Vista tournament ranked second in the state at 140 pounds but competed up a weight class, drawing Poway’s Rio Gallegos (ranked seventh in the state at 145 pounds) in the championship round. Gallegos won by an 8-4 decision to improve to 18-2 on the season.

“I know Shervin wants to win the whole thing,” Bulette said. “I think he realizes there are some quality wrestlers out there he has to get by before he can do that. I think one of the things he got from this tournament was which weight to compete at.”

Iraniha, who suffered his first loss after a perfect 12-0 start this season, won his opening two matches by first-period pins before edging Poway’s Maudin Latifi, 8-6, in the semifinals. A state qualifier last year, Gallegos was even more impressive with a pair of pins and a 17-8 major decision in his run to the championship match.

Barnes advanced to the 189-pound title bout with pins of 3:32 and 3:39 but suffered a finals loss by a 3:00 fall administered by Poway’s Jimmy Moreno, who was named the tourney’s outstanding upper weight with four pins in as many matches.

Rossell advanced to the 215 final on the strength of three pins but lost, 3-2, to Poway’s Porfi Sosa in the championship round.

Among East County teams, Helix finished in fifth place with six medalists while Valhalla was sixth with seven medal-winners, including two finalists (Shawn Miller at 103 and Zack Maguire at 152). El Capitan, with one medalist, finished 13th while Mt. Miguel placed 17th in the team standings.

Helix’s medalists included Ridvah Bekirov (third, 119), E.J. Perkins (third, 189), Dorian Cao (fourth, 112), Devon Williams (fourth, 152), David Hollie (fourth, 171) and Quantail Jackson (fourth, 215).

Miller, seeded second, dropped a 13-0 major decision in his finals match to Poway’s Victor Lopez, the 103-pound champion at the recent Reno Tournament of Champions. Maguire, seeded third, lost a hard-fought 11-5 decision against Hilltop’s Roman Flores, a reigning CIF champion.

Miller, a sophomore, finished with a 14-0 major decision and 1:35 pin in the tournament, saw his record improve to 13-6 on the season.

Lopez (15-1) is ranked 11th in the nation.

Maguire captured a pair of one-point decisions in the quarterfinals and semifinals to qualify for the championship round.

Rounding out Valhalla’s medalists were Jordan Saunders (fourth, 119), Nick Botte (fourth, 125), Richard Tonnaer (fifth, 130), Chaz Stampfer (fifth, 145) and Jacob Ionnides (fifth, 171).

El Capitan’s Nathan Duggie placed fourth in his 160-pound weight class to round out the Grossmont Conference medal-winners.

Notepad
Poway advanced wrestlers to 13 of the 14 finals matches, winning 11. Besides Crider, Brandon Hernandez (130) also suffered defeat in the finals. Hernandez (13-5) was the victim of a stunning 3:35 pin at the hands of Morse’s Joshua Joseph, who earned honors as the tournament’s outstanding lower weight wrestler. Joseph’s fall easily elicited the largest cheer on the day from the fans in attendance.

But the Titans amply showed why they are ranked among the top six teams in the state this season. Besides Lopez, Gallegos, Moreno and Sosa, other Poway champions included Josh Chua (112), Gabe Brown (119), Jesse Taylor (125), Will DeYoung (135), Richard Lair (140), Ian Roy (160) and John Castle (285).

DeYoung, who finished fourth at the Reno Tournament of Champions, hiked his record to 21-2 on the season while Roy (fifth at the Reno event) improved to 20-3. Roy is ranked fourth in the state.

Joseph, one of three Morse grapplers in the finals, improved to 15-1 on the season.

Metro Mat Attack
Hilltop’s Flores leads three South Bay finalists at Monte Vista tournament with 152 title

Posted Jan . 14, 2010
Roman Flores was a key cog to Hilltop’s runner-up finish at last year’s San Diego Section Division II championship wrestling tournament. Flores was one of three weight class champions for the Lancers, who finished 21.5 points arrears of team champion Mt. Carmel.
Flores captured the individual title at 145 pounds in 2009. He made a statement that he’s ready to win another after capturing the 152-pound title at last Saturday’s Monte Vista Invitational.

“I’ve been really working on my takedowns,” said Flores, who was among three Metro Conference wrestlers to advance to the tournament finals and the lone champion. “I want to keep my energy going the whole match.”

There was no lack of either in his championship match against Valhalla senior Zack Maguire. Flores, a junior, gained the upper hand early on and kept the momentum going throughout the championship final, winning by an 11-5 decision.

“I’d like to go out and get a pin every time to help out the team but that’s really not my style of wrestling,” Flores said.

The Hilltop matster placed runner-up at last year’s Metro finals prior to winning the division title, then finished fifth at the San Diego Masters state qualifying tournament. Only the top three place-winners in each weight class advance to the state meet from the section championships.
Flores is setting his goals higher this season.

“I do want to medal at state — I really want to before my high school career is over,” he said. “I didn’t make it to state last year and I really want to this year.”

The Monte Vista individual title was the latest in a series of eye-openers this season after opening the season with a sixth-place finish at the Edison tournament and an eighth-place finish at the prestigious El Cajon Invitational that wrapped up Dec. 29 at San Diego City College.

Maguire was coming off a sixth-place finish at the season opening El Dorado tournament.
Flores opened the Monte Vista tourney with pins against Otay Ranch’s Zach Prado (3:53) and El Capitan’s Jake Arcamo (5:19) before capturing a 7-6 decision against Southwest El Centro’s Josh Suamataia in the semifinals.

“I want to pick things up — I kind of got out to a slow start this season,” he said. “I think if I can continue to wrestle like I am wrestling now that I can win CIF again.”

Joining Flores in the championship round were Hilltop senior teammate Joseph Kent (140 pounds) and Sweetwater junior Adan Mendez (135 pounds).

Kent, who finished fifth at the ECI, did not wrestle last season while sitting out a mandatory one-year transfer period from Montgomery High School. Kent appears no worse for the time off after recording a tense 5-3 victory against Eastlake’s David McCluggage in the semifinals. McCluggage, an individual CIF champion last year, was seeded second at the Monte Vista mat fest after finishing fourth at the ECI a week earlier.

Kent, a fifth-place finisher at the ECI, drew Poway senior Robert Lair in the finals. Top-seeded in the weight class, Lair recorded a 4:00 pin in the finals.

Mendez opened the season with a runner-up finish at the season opening Battle by the Beach tournament at Mar Vista High School and had gone undefeated until dropping an 18-3 technical fall in the Monte Vista finals against Poway’s Will DeYoung, a high school All-American, after engineering a fourth-place finish at the recent Reno Tournament of Champions.

Mendez who went 5-0 in the Metro dual tournament, was seeded third at Monte Vista but defeated second-seeded Jeffrey Eaker of St. Augustine, 3-2, in the semifinals. The SuHi wrestler opened the tournament with an 8-1 victory against Hilltop’s Justin Creel and pinned Morse’s Gabriel Reyes in 1:33 in the quarterfinals.

Mendez is 13-2 on the season.

Eaker won his weight class at the Mira Mesa Marauder Invitational in December.
Eastlake finished third in the team standings — 17.5 points ahead of fourth place Hilltop and 25 points behind second place Monte Vista. The Titans finished the tournament with nine medalists, including a trio of bronze medal-winners.

Taking third-place finishes for Eastlake were Abraham Sanchez (125), Anthony Alviz (130) and Barron Hinojosa (215).

Ryan Gobeil (135) finished fourth after a 7-1 loss to St. Augustine’s Eaker.
Five Eastlake matsters finished fifth: Mathias Mendillo (112), McCluggage (140), Juan Inumerable (152), Chris Fryxell (171) and Matt Gaughan (285).

Alviz, Gobeil, McCluggage and Gaughan all advanced as far as the semifinals before suffering their first tourney loss.

Sanchez pinned Valhalla’s Nick Botte for the bronze medal while Alviz edged Gilbert’s Jared Johnson by a 3-2 decision and Hinojosa topped Helix’s Quantail Jackson by a 7-3 score.

In fifth-place matchups, Mendillo won by a 16-4 major decision over Helix’s Dillon Cao while McCluggage pinned Monte Vista’s Kyle Archer in 4:40, Inumerable recorded a default win over Mt. Miguel’s Dylan Marx, Fryxell pinned El Capitan’s Trevor Bryans in 52 seconds and Gaughan pinned Helix’s Damien Oliver in just 21 seconds.

Hilltop had a very productive tournament showing with six medalists. Angel Seville (103) and David Ramirez (160) both finished third while Ricardo Aceves (119) and Andrew Aguilar (215) finished fifth.

The Lancers advanced five grapplers to the semifinals: Kent, Flores, Eli Eaves (125), Ramirez and Aguilar. Eaves lost a 10-0 major decision to Eastlake’s Sanchez in the consolation semifinals and then lost his fifth-place match against Morse’s George Sanchez by forfeit.

Seville pinned Monte Vista’s Everett Pratt for third place while Ramirez (fourth at the ECI) recorded a 17-1 technical fall against El Capitan’s Nathan Duggie.

Aceves recorded a 15-3 major decision over Point Loma’s Steve Freeman for fifth place while Aguilar out-pointed Monte Vista’s Javier Juarez 4-1.

“We’ve been fighting a few injuries but things will start to turn around once we finally get everyone healthy,” Hilltop coach Thomas Juarez said.

Otay Ranch, with three medalists, finished 11th in the team standings. Eddie Estevez (112) finished third while Alfredo Espinoza (103) and Albert Lopez (145) were both fifth.

Estevez advanced to the semifinals with a 3:50 fall against Justin Moodie of Gilbert, Ariz., and a 15-0 technical fall against San Pasqual’s Derek Malone before losing a 16-9 decision to top-seeded Josh Miranda of Poway. Estevez scored two more wins in the consolation bracket, defeating Eastlake’s Mendillo, 10-4, in the consol semis and Helix’s Dorian Cao, 8-6, in the bronze medal match. Cao was a medalist at the recent ECI.

Espinoza, a freshman, also made it to the semifinals before losing to eventual weight class champion Victor Perez of Poway, the champion of the elite Reno Tournament of Champions over winter break. Espinoza then dropped a tight 2-1 decision to Hilltop’s Seville in the consol semis.

Espinoza scored a 10-0 major decision over Southwest El Centro’s Victor Mendez for fifth while Lopez topped Hilltop’s Jason Jasmund by a 9-1 major decision.

Notepad
Otay Ranch finished second in the Metro duals to Grossmont after opening the season with a 3-2 showing in the Jimmy Hamada La Costa Canyon duals.