San Diego Section 2006-07 Preview:

Barons face off wrestling season with high expectations

Posted Dec. 7, 2006
With three finalists and four medalists at last Saturday’s fifth annual Battle by the Beach wrestling tournament and the top record in Wednesday’s second annual South Bay Face-Off team duals, the Bonita Vista Barons appear to have given head coach Gabe Ruz a fair weather barometer reading to start the season.

“We’ve had a couple good outings. The kids are pumped and want to work even harder to get into better wrestling shape,” said Ruz, who used the phrase “we’ll wait on that” when asked to initially preview this season’s team.

Cesar Sandoval (112 pounds), Matthew Periola (160) and Ed Bell (215) all recorded second-place finishes in their respective weight classes in the Mar Vista tournament. Marttin Periola finished fifth at 152 pounds after defaulting due to injury.

Sandoval, who was seeded eighth in his weight class, pinned top-seeded Khanh Nguyen of Kearny in the quarterfinals and finished the tournament with three pins (including one by 47 seconds in the semifinals) before losing by a first-period fall in the finals to Poway’s Alex Gonzalez.

Matthew Periola, seeded third, defeated second-seeded Andrew Jauregui of Valley Center by a 4-0 decision in the semifinals before dropping a narrow 1-0 decision to Poway’s Wes Jones in the championship match.

Bell, seeded fourth, pinned top-seeded Rusty Garcia of Brawley in the semifinals and came the closest of Bonita Vista’s three finalists to pulling out a first-place medal after losing in double overtime to Mar Vista’s Tommy McLaughlin.

New overtime rules stipulate two 30-second periods if the match is still tied after the first one-minute overtime period. Bell scored an escape in the first 30-second period and, letting out a roar, thought the match was over and therefore, according to Ruz, did not go after a takedown that could have given him a three-point edge. McLaughlin scored a late reversal to win in the second 30-second period.

With three pins and the climactic double OT victory, McLaughlin earned honors as the tournament’s Outstanding Heavy Weight wrestler.

The Barons finished eighth in the team standings with 83 points behind seventh-place Hilltop (91 points) and fourth-place Mar Vista (101 points).

Ruz was particularly pleased with his team’s performance after bringing only nine wrestlers to the tournament. A split squad of Baron freshmen and sophomore wrestlers won the team title at the Otay Ranch frosh/soph dual tournament also held that same day.

“I want these guys to set high expectations for themselves,” Ruz said. “You work and work and work. You want to get something out of it.”

The tourney-host Mariners led the nine Metro Conference teams in the entry field with five medalists and one champion. Besides McLaughlin, Allan Delos Reyes (125) and Hugo Medrano (130) both claimed third-place medals while Daniel Holian (130) was seventh and Leon Williams (189) was eighth.

Delos Reyes and Medrano both advanced to the semifinals before suffering their first loss.

Hilltop had four medalists and one finalist — Javier Martinez at 145 pounds. Andy Galata (135), Todd Garrison (140) and Benz Seaton (160) all finished third. Martinez dropped a 7-1 decision to Poway’s Kea Reynolds in the finals.

Otay Ranch, which finished 12th with 61 points, had four medalists: Jon Bagube (third, 125), Sonny Garcia (third, 171), Vic Anton (fifth, 119) and Diego Hernandez (seventh, 152). Bagube was a semifinalist.

Chula Vista had three medalists: John Garcia (third, 103), Lupe Corral (fifth, 215) and Tory Girten (eighth, 152). Corral earned the most pins award with four falls in 6:16 (0:49, 2:01, 1:46 and 1:40).

Montgomery also had three medalists: Gideon Hemesath (fifth, 135), Gilbert Madrid (fifth, 171) and Raul Avila (seventh, 189). Madrid made it as far as the semifinals, dropping a 4-3 decision to Serra’s Andy Lefkarites.

Southwest’s Adrian Andrade finished second at 285 pounds while teammate Robert Hughes placed fifth at 215. Andrade, seeded fourth, scored successive falls of 1:12, 1:15 and 0:50 to advance to the championship round before being pinned in 4:41 by Poway’s Brandon Ruff.

San Ysidro had two fifth-place medalists: Jonathan Rubio (119) and Toby Galaviz (189). Galaviz advanced to the semifinals.
Castle Park had two eighth-place medalists: Cristian Figueroa (140) and Ricky Archunda (160).

Poway (with nine champions and 12 finalists) won the team title with 317 points while Brawley (four champions and five finalists) finished second with 251 points and El Camino was third with 137 points.

Brawley’s Robert Castaneda earned MVP light weight honors at 125 pounds while defending Masters champion Ivan Arevalo, also from Brawley, earned the MVP middle weight award.

Oceanside’s Noland Nguyen scored a seven-second fall to capture the fastest pin award.

South Bay Face-Off
Bonita Vista defeated Hilltop, 39-36, and Otay Ranch, 54-25, to finish as the lone undefeated team in the four-team field. Bonita Vista had seven wrestlers finish with 2-0 records: Jeff Breton, Ethan Wheeler, Sandoval, Hector Arambula, Matthew Periola, Bell, Curtis Smith. Bell scored a 22-second fall against Otay Ranch while Smith won by pin the final match against Hilltop to give the Barons the come-from-behind victory.

In other duals, Hilltop bested host Eastlake, 51-23, while Eastlake topped Otay Ranch, 42-33.

In one of the high profile matchups of the night, Eastlake’s Hawk Thompson edged Hilltop’s Martinez by a 2-0 decision in a battle of 145-pounders.

Hilltop had four wrestlers go 2-0: Galata (135), Garrison (140), Seaton (171) and Craig Engleman (189). Also for the Lancers, Robert Zak picked up his first varsity win with a 2:48 pin against Eastlake’s Chad Denegall at 160 pounds.

Eastlake had four wrestlers compile 2-0 marks: George Castilleja (112), Lamar Dent (125), Hawk Thompson (145) and Alex Johnson (189).

“We have a few holes in our lineup right now but we expect to fill those by January,” Titans coach Troy Vierra said. “I expect us to challenge for the league title again.”