San Diego Section Division II Finals Report
Hilltop wrestlers pin banner season

By Phillip Brents
Posted Feb. 23, 2006

What’s in a ranking? Some coaches believe in them; others pass them off as someone else’s misguided opinion. Most agree they are at least fun to look at. Many use them as a motivational tool.

Picked to finish first at this year’s Division II San Diego Section championship meet in a close battle with Scripps Ranch and Oceanside by one Internet forum before the Metro Conference finals were even contested on the mat, the Hilltop High School wrestling team made good on that prediction by winning a close battle with Scripps Ranch at last Saturday’s divisional meet at Mira Mesa High School.

Prior to the divisional championships, Lancer coach Tim Tyler was non-committal on his team’s title chances, saying he believed his team would finish somewhere among the top four teams, offering up Patrick Henry and Orange Glen as other teams to watch. “It all depends on which Hilltop team shows up, whether everyone’s on the same page,” Tyler said when asked to make his own pre-tournament prediction.

Well, it turned out the Lancers wrote the book on how to win a championship — the team’s fourth divisional title under his reign.

Trailing after the first round, Hilltop assumed the team lead in points and maintained a slim lead throughout the day until entering the championship finals facing a one-half point deficit against Scripps Ranch. But with four individual champions and four defeats suffered by the five Falcon finalists (including a pair administered by fellow Metro Conference mat men), the Lancers prevailed, winning the team title by 12.5 points.

“We got it done,” said Tyler, who took the team to a post-tournament dinner to celebrate. “It’s a great feeling for these kids. It’s a big deal. Four CIF banners is the most of any sport at Hilltop High School.”

The Lancers previously won division titles in 1995, 1997 and 1999, finishing second in both 1998 and 2000. It’s been seven years since the last championship but apparently well worth the wait for a new cadre of wrestlers — a team that Tyler called one of the “loosest and most fun” he had coached.

“There’s a lot of luck in winning something like this no matter what team you are on. Every team has its issues. Hopefully, everyone has their act together the day of the match. Everything has to work,” Tyler said.
Like most Tyler-coached teams, Hilltop kept improving as the season went on. When the Lancers finally looked around to see where they were, as one astute observer pointed out, the only thing at their level was the 10-foot-tall Green Hulk the team recently adopted as its mascot.

Not a bad view.

But there were some nerve-racking moments along the way.

“We kept losing points up till the finals,” Tyler said. “We led every round except the first round. The key to that was the byes. We were losing by eight or nine points, I think, at the first round. But we quickly made it up.”

And slowly lost that lead.

In the semifinal round, the Lancers had five of seven wrestlers win matches while Scripps Ranch had five of its nine semifinalists win, bringing Hilltop’s lead to six points.

After the final consolation round and medal round finished up, however, Scripps Ranch held a half-point lead.
Both teams had five wrestlers in the championship round, with two head-to-head matchups. There were two other matchups between Scripps Ranch wrestlers and wrestlers from Montgomery and Eastlake.

In all four instances, Falcon grapplers failed to win.

The finals started off with a blockbuster showing for Hilltop as first-year heavyweight Keoki Cavaco and 189-pounder Agustin Mercado both won matches. Cavaco, who earned the outstanding upper weight wrestler award at the preceding Metro Conference finals, defeated San Ysidro’s Juan Mendoza in double overtime. Mercado pinned Oceanside’s Nestro Zapata in 5:44 to cinch the Division II outstanding upper weight award. Mercado finished the tournament with four pins in as many matches, including two in the first period.

The two wins were worth 10 points in the team standings, pushing the Lancers to a 9.5-point lead with five Scripps Ranch wrestlers yet to take the mat. The rest of the finals thus created its share of anxious moments for both the Hilltop and Scripps Ranch coaching staffs.

The drama provided a fitting climax to the 17-team tournament.

Montgomery’s Pedro Tapia (119 pounds) and Eastlake’s Eric Abordo (130 pounds) were the next two Metro Conference wrestlers to take center stage, both facing Scripps Ranch opponents. Tapia, who earned the Metro outstanding light weight award, bested Scripps Ranch’s Jon Leavy by a 17-4 major decision. Abordo defeated Scripps Ranch’s Tony Nguyen a pre-tournament favorite, by a 10-9 decision to deny the Falcons precious team points and the chance to retake the lead in the team standings.

Scripps Ranch did make up some ground at 125 pounds when Byron Murphy — the tournament’s outstanding light weight wrestler — scored a 13-3 major decision against Patrick Henry’s Thomas Giambruno, cutting the Lancers’ lead to 4.5 points.

Then the two remaining head-to-head matchups between Hilltop and Scripps Ranch grapplers took place with the Lancers still holding onto their narrow 4.5-point lead with the potential to lose it with a final pair of setbacks.

But that did not happen. Sophomore Javier Martinez defeated Scripps Ranch’s Justin Dang by a 5-0 decision at 135 pounds and senior John Sardella topped Scripps Ranch’s Chris Araiza — the City Conference’s outstanding light weight wrestler — by a 6-2 score at 140 pounds.

It was the second consecutive divisional title for Sardella, who won at 130 pounds last year.
It was Martinez’ win that put Hilltop over the top, clinching the division title.

“When Javier won, that did it for us. They couldn’t catch us,” Tyler said.

Sardella’s win simply capped a magical ending.

But it was wins by both Cavaco and Mercado, Tyler said, that set up the team’s higher-profile closers.

“After Keoki and Auggie both won, that put us ahead before the head-to-head matchups started,” Tyler said. “Montgomery and Eastlake both had wrestlers in the finals. They told us they would try to help us as much as possible. With four champions, as it turned out, we didn’t need help from anybody but it was a nice gesture by both Montgomery and Eastlake. It was nice to have that emotional support from the South Bay.”

The Lancers qualified a total of nine wrestlers for this weekend’s San Diego Masters state qualifying tournament at Otay Ranch High School. The top four place-winners in each weight class at the Masters tournament earn berths in the state championship meet in Bakersfield March 3-4.

The top six place-winners at the Division II finals qualified for Masters berths. Joining Hilltop’s four divisional champions at this weekend’s Otay Ranch showcase event will be Benz Seaton (second, 152), Andy Galata (third, 119), Mel Zamora (fourth, 215), Gabe Cajina (fifth, 160), Kevin Diaz (fifth, 171) and Damian Santillan (sixth, 125).

Eastlake, which finished seventh in the team standings, had an impressive six Masters qualifiers, including two divisional finalists, while the Metro Conference, as a whole, qualified 26 wrestlers from the Division II tournament, sending nine mat men to championship-round matches.

Scripps Ranch had 10 Masters qualifiers, and rematches could play a pivotal role in the road to the state championship meet.

“We’re finally wrestling as a team. We’d be in better shape but our 171- and 189-pounders became ineligible. We gave up some points that we obviously could have used. The kids showed lots of heart. I think the kids believe in themselves,” Falcons coach Matt Becker said.

Summed up Tyler: “It was a great ending to the season.”

Only the season isn’t quite over yet. That will be determined at this weekend’s Masters meet.

Metro nets seven individual CIF champions

The Metro Conference may have paled in comparison to many of its counterparts this season but the South County’s showing at last weekend’s San Diego Section divisional finals was something definitely to savor. What is that overused clichÈ? It’s not how one starts but how one finishes?

It certainly seemed appropriate as the conference finis hed with seven divisional individual champions, two outstanding wrestler awards and one team championship.

Hilltop captured this year’s Division II team title with a come-from-behind performance in the championship round against Scripps Ranch.

There were six individual champions at the Division II finals: Hilltop’s Javier Martinez (135 pounds), John Sardella (140 pounds), Agustin Mercado (189 pounds) and Keoki Cavaco (275 pounds), Montgomery’s Pedro Tapia (119) and Eastlake’s Eric Abordo (130). Mar Vista’s Joey Martinez (215 pounds) captured his weight class at the Division III finals.
Both Mercado and Martinez earned honors as their respective tournament’s outstanding heavy weight wrestlers.
By comparison, the Grossmont Conference finished with two individual champions.

Thirty-nine Metro Conference mat men qualified for this weekend’s San Diego Section Masters state qualifying tournament at Otay Ranch, including nine from Hilltop, six from from Eastlake, five from Mar Vista, three each from Chula Vista, Montgomery, Otay Ranch and San Ysidro and two each from Bonita Vista, Castle Park and Sweetwater.

Masters schedule
Twenty-four wrestlers from the four divisional qualifying tournaments will compete in each of 14 weight classes, with the top four place-winners earning a berth in the state championship tournament the following weekend. Competition starts Friday, Feb. 24, at 11 a.m. and resumes Saturday, Feb. 25, at 9 a.m. Championship finals are scheduled at 5 p.m. For complete results of all four divisional tournaments and seeding for this weekend’s Masters tournament, visit the Web site at www.sdgrappler.com.

San Diego Section
Masters Qualifiers
(Metro Conference qualifiers)

Division I Finals
Feb. 18 at Poway High School
(Top eight place-winners qualify)
Fifth Place
103: Carmelo Trinidad (Sweetwater).
Sixth Place
215: Daniel Robledo (Sweetwater).
Seventh Place
112: Ben Salas (Chula Vista).
160: Robert Hernandez (Chula Vista).
Eighth Place
112: Cory Meza (Otay Ranch).
119: Jon Bagube (Otay Ranch).
152: Freddy Catolico (Chula Vista).
171: Zack Petrin (Otay Ranch).

Division II Finals
Feb. 18 at Mira Mesa High School
(Top six place-winners qualify)
First Place
119: Pedro Tapia (Montgomery).
130: Eric Abordo (Eastlake).
135: Javier Martinez (Hilltop).
140: John Sardella (Hilltop).
189: Agustin Mercado (Hilltop).
275: Keoki Cavaco (Hilltop).

Second Place
152: Benz Seaton (Hilltop).
171: A.J. Romero (Eastlake)
275: Juan Mendoza (San Ysidro).

Third Place
112: Tony Denegall (Eastlake).
119: Andy Galata (Hilltop).
140: Habib Shukur (Montgomery).
145: Gabe Ruz (Bonita Vista).

Fourth Place
125: Jose Durazo (Castle Park).
135: Hawk Thompson (Eastlake).
145: Stephen Cooker (Eastlake).
215: Mel Zamora (Hilltop).

Fifth Place
160: Gabe Cajina (Hilltop).
171: Kevin Diaz (Hilltop).
215: Joel Mendoza (San Ysidro).

Sixth Place
119: Lamar Dent (Eastlake).
125: Damian Santillan (Hilltop).
130: Hector Hernandez (Castle Park).
140: Matthew Periola (Bonita Vista).
171: Gilbert Madrid (Montgomery).
191: Toby Galaviz (San Ysidro).

Division III Finals
Feb. 18 at University City High School
(Top six place-winners qualify)
First Place
215: Joey Martinez (Mar Vista).

Second Place
145: Alan Matos (Mar Vista).

Third Place
125: Matt Arroyave (Mar Vista).

Sixth Place
119: Hugo Medrano (Mar Vista).
130: Art Casillas (Mar Vista).