Mesa League 2006 Dual Meet Opener:
Clash of the Titans: Eastlake tops Chula Vista, 49-22
San Diego Section Dual Meet Scoreboard

By Phillip Brents
Posted Jan. 16, 2006

Before accepting a job as a teacher and wrestling coach at Eastlake High School in 1997, Troy Vierra spent six years coaching the sport at Chula Vista High School on the city’s westside. During those six years, the Spartans won two league dual meet championships, placed as high as fourth once in the San Diego Section Division I finals, produced three state meet qualifiers and one San Diego Masters champion.

Vierra has enjoyed even more success at Eastlake, taking over a fledgling program and building it into a Metro Conference behemoth with five consecutive conference tournament championships, four straight league dual meet titles, numerous San Diego Section divisional and Masters champions, and multiple state meet qualifier and one state finals medal-winner.

While the fortunes of both schools changed last season, with Chula Vista topping a rebuilding Eastlake squad to win the 2004-05 Mesa League dual meet title, Vierra returned to Chula Vista High on Thursday, Jan. 12, with a more experienced Titan team to do battle with the defending champion Spartans. The outcome — a 49-22 Eastlake victory —could go a long way in determining the final order of finish in this year’s Mesa League standings.

“We really needed to win this one,” said Vierra, whose team overcame an early 9-4 deficit to lead 25-9 on the strength of five consecutive wins and captured nine of the 14 matches overall in the league opener for both teams.

Tony Dengeall (112), Donald Jimenez (125), Eric Abordo (130), Jan Vidamo (135), Hawk Thompson (140), Stephen Cooker (145), Alex Johnson (171), Dan Marganski (215) and Justin Kim (275) all picked up wins for the Titans, who scored five pins, three technical falls and one major decision in the dual match-up.

Vidamo (3:32), Cooker (3:50), Johnson (1:58), Marganski (1:50) and Kim (2:20) all won by pin while Jimenez (15-0), Abordo (18-1) and Thompson (19-2) all scored victories by technical fall. Denegall claimed a 21-7 major decision.

“A lot of our guys are second-year wrestlers now, so we have a little more experience than last year,” said Vierra, whose noted his team must still make up ground after suffering a dual meet loss to Bonita Vista at the Jimmy Hamada La Costa Canyon dual tournament earlier this season.

“Bonita is young but has some talent. They’re about the same as us,” Vierra said. “We’ve got to improve every week if we want to win league. I’m real happy with where we’re at. We just need to continue to improve. We want to peak at the end of the season.”

Vierra felt his team did well to win the battle of lower weights where he felt both teams were strong. The Spartans won two of the opening three bouts (at 103 and 119 pounds) but the Titans countered with the five consecutive wins from 125 to 145 pounds.

“Chula Vista is tough. We just matched up well against them. Our strengths are both in the bottom weights. We were lucky we won,” Vierra said.

The Spartans scored the team's first dual meet league championship in a decade. None more elated by the accomplishment was head coach Ed Delos Reyes, who had served in some coaching capacity with the team for that span. But the 2005-06 campaign brings new challenges. Delos Reyes underscores that word, in fact. "It's tougher to keep a title than to win a title. We've got our work cut out for us," the CV head coach said.

As for those challenges? The Spartans return six wrestlers off last year’s league championship team. There are eight new grapplers in this season's lineup.

“We have some good light weights. We have some good middle weights. We have a couple of heavies. We’ve also got some young kids who are first-year wrestlers. They’ve improved since the start of the season but they’re still prone to make some mistakes,” Delos Reyes said.

Gerardo Martinez got Chula Vista rolling with a 2:43 pin in the opening 103-pound match while Aart Corral claimed a come-from-behind 6-5 decision from Eastlake’s Tim Dombrowski at 119 pounds after Dombrowski had moved out to an early 4-0 lead. Freddy Catolico and Robert Hernandez both won bouts at 152 and 160 pounds, respectively, to trim the visitors’ lead to 31-16 with four matches to go. Lupe Corral got the Spartans’ other win at 189 pounds with a 1:19 pin. Catolico defeated A.J. Romero by a 15-5 major decision while Hernandez recorded a gritty 5-0 decision against Ryan Zacharzuk.

“I’m very proud of the boys to battle as hard as they did. We wrestled tough even though we’re a very young team. They left everything they had on the mat,” Delos Reyes said.

Vierra had words of praise for a pair of other Titans, who — while not coming off the mat with victories — did their job by not giving their higher-rated opponents maximum points. A win by minor decision (less than eight points) is worth three points, one by major decision (between eight and 14 points) worth four point, one by technical fall (15-point margin) five points and one by pin six points.

“If you don’t get pinned that changes the match (score),” Vierra said.

The Titans hope to turn around several dual scores from last season.

Mesa League
Eastlake 49, Chula Vista 22
Thursday, Jan. 12 at Chula Vista High School
103: Gerardo Martinez (CV) pinned George Castilleja (EL) 2:43. Chula Vista leads 6-0.
112: Tony Denegall (EL) major decisioned Ben Salas (CV) 21-7. Chula Vista leads 6-4.
119: Art Corral (CV) decisioned Tim Dombrowski (EL) 6-5. Chula Vista leads 9-4.
125: Donald Jimenez (EL) tech fall James Ortiz (CV) 15-0. Teams tied 9-9.
130: Eric Abordo (EL) tech fall Michael Montesdeoca (CV) 18-1. Eastlake leads 14-9.
135: Jan Vidamo (EL) pinned Michael Lopez (CV) 3:32. Eastlake leads 20-9.
140: Hawk Thompson (EL) tech fall Albert Molina (CV) 19-2. Eastlake leads 25-9.
145: Stephen Cooker (EL) pinned Gustavo Ortiz (CV) 3:50. Eastlake leads 31-9.
152: Freddy Catolico (CV) major decisioned A.J. Romero (EL) 15-5. Eastlake leads 31-13.
160: Robert Hernandez (CV) decisioned Ryan Zacharzuk (EL) 5-0. Eastlake leads 31-16.
171: Alex Johnson (EL) pinned Chris Ramos (CV) 1:58. Eastlake leads 37-16. (Eastlake clinches dual win)
189: Lupe Corral (CV) pinned Luis Castro (EL) 1:19. Eastlake leads 37-22.
215: Dan Marganski (EL) pinned Santo Corona (CV) 1:50. Eastlake leads 43-22.
275: Justin Kim (EL) pinned Brian Halter (CV) 2:20. Eastlake wins 49-22.