Metro championship preview:
Eastlake takes Titan-ic feeling into 2006 finals
Helix varsity tournament concludes regular season action

By Phillip Brents
Posted Feb. 9, 2006

Regular season tournament competition wrapped up in the 2005-06 high school wrestling campaign last Saturday at Helix High School when championship trophies and medals were handed out to place-winners in the annual Robert Jenkins Memorial Tournament. Mar Vista finished 10th in the team standings with a trio of medalists while Eastlake finished with two medalists and a lot of momentum heading into this Saturday’s Metro Conference championship tournament at Otay Ranch High School.

Mar Vista’s Alan Matos finished second in his 145-pound weight class for Mar Vista, dropping a decision to La Costa Canyon’s John Strom in the championship match. The Mariner grappler was coming off a third-place finish the previous week at the Holtville Invitational behind Hilltop’s John Sardella (second) and Valhalla’s Keith Juengst (first).

Matos, along with Sardella, will be two of the conference’s top mat men showcased at Saturday’s Metro championships.

Mar Vista’s other medalists included Matt Arroyave (125) and Art Casillas (130).

Arroyave defeated Imperial’s Ray Elizalde for third place while Casillas was fourth following a loss to El Camino’s Nick Furst.

Arroyave finished third at Holtville behind Brawley’s John Cardenas (first) and Valhalla’s Josue Martinez (second).
Eric Abordo (second, 130) and Hawk Thompson (fourth, 135) represented Eastlake on the awards stand at the Helix tournament, with Abordo advancing to the championship round with a defeat of El Caminoi’s Furst in the semifinals. Thompson lost twice to Torrey Pines’ Nate Moore for his only losses in the tournament.

Abordo (20-7) lost by pin to Kearny’s Greg Huth, who earned honors as the tournament’s Outstanding Light Weight wrestler.

Thompson (11-6) was fourth after a loss by fall in the third-place match.

But the Titans still had much to celebrate after defeating Bonita Vista, 46-25, two days earlier in a key Mesa League dual meet. The victory put Eastlake on course to capture this year’s league title with a season-concluding victory Thursday at Montgomery.

The Titans won nine of the 14 match-ups against the Barons, registering five pins (George Castilleja at 103, Ryan Shamrock at 125, Thompson at 140, A.J. Romero at 171 and Alex Johnson at 189).

Vierra said the result was particularly gratifying considering the Titans have only three seniors and eight sophomores in their lineup this season.

“Our kids were definitely up for it. I was just worried they might panic (because they were so up for it. But they wrestled well. They wrestled smart,” Vierra said.

The Titans expect to perform well in the team standings at Saturday’s upcoming conference finals, though head coach Troy Vierra still feels his team still has its better days ahead of it … as in next year.

“Our team has to step it up. We can be there (among the top teams). But everything we’re prepping for is the future,” Vierra said.

Abordo finished fourth at last year’s Metro finals while Thompson, who was sidelined last year because of a football injury, finished second two years ago as a freshman while at Castle Park. Other top Titans this season include Donald Jimenez (15-9), Ryan Zacharzuk (15-11), Stephen Cooker (14-11), Tony Denegall (13-12).
The team’s seniors include Abordo, Cooker and Tim Dombrowksi (the team’s only four-year wrestler).

Helix roundup
Poway’s B team captured the Helix tournament title with 269 points, followed by Carlsbad (second, 205.5 points), La Costa Canyon (third, 175.5 points), Imperial (fourth, 83 points), Torrey Pines (fifth, 73 points), El Camino (sixth, 69.5 points), El Capitan (seventh, 65 points), Kearny (eighth, 61 points), Vista (ninth, 60 points) and Mar Vista (10th, 59 points).

Carlsbad’s Jordan Taghvai earned the Outstanding Heavy Weight award after winning his 189-pound division.
Imperial’s Pete Martinez was honored with the tournament’s coach’s award.

Holtville Invitational
Hilltop finished seventh in the team standings — 11.5 points behind sixth-place Rancho Bernardo and 15 points behind fifth-place Southwest El Centro. The Lancers appear to have made up some ground after finishing a distant 117.5 points behind Southwest at the midseason Scripps Ranch Falcon Invitational, thus fueling the South Bay squad’s Division II title hopes.

Hilltop enters the Division II tournament battling Oceanside, Patrick Henry, Mira Mesa, Orange Glen and Scripps Ranch for the team title. The Lancers out-pointed Mira Mesa by 15.5 points at Holtville after finishing 41.5 points behind the Marauders at the Scripps Ranch tournament.

Hilltop finished with five medalists at Holtville: Sardella (second, 140), Augustine Mercado (second, 171), Javier Martinez (fourth, 135), Gabe Cajina (fifth, 160) and Keoki Cavaco (fifth, 275).

Sardella, one of nine Hilltop finalists and five champions at last year’s Metro championship meet, won last year’s Division II title at 130 pounds and got of to a 15-0 start this season after winning weight class titles at the Mar Vista Battle by the Beach, Marauder Invitational and the San Diego Holiday Invitational tournaments. He subsequently placed sixth at the Monte Vista Invitational (by injury default) and fourth at the Scripps Ranch tournament.

Mar Vista had four medalists at Holtville: Martinez (second, 215), Arroyave (third, 125), Allan DeLosReyes (fourth, 112) and Hugo Medrano (fifth, 119).

Arroyave was second at the Scripps Ranch Invitational (to El Capitan’s Nathan Neuhardt) while Martinez upset Patrick Henry’s Leo Coleman to take first place at 215.

Metro Conference standouts
Matos was one of three Metro medalists in the 140-pound weight class at the Scripps Ranch tournament, placing fifth behind Hilltop’s Sardella (fourth) and ahead of Bonita Vista’s Matthew Periola (eighth).

Bonita Vista’s Gabe Ruz finished third in his 145-pound weight class at the Scripps Ranch Invitational
Hilltop’s Mel Zamora was among two Metro medalists in the 215-pound division at the Scripps Ranch tournament, finishing fifth behind Mar Vista’s Martinez.

Hilltop’s Martinez was fifth at the Monte Vista tournament after finishing fourth at the El Cajon/San Ysidro Invitational along with Zamora (fifth). The Lancers finished with five medalists at the Monte Vista tournament. Besides Sardella and Martinez, Benz Seaton was fifth at 152 pounds, Cajina was fifth at 160 pounds, Mercado was sixth at 189 pounds. Hilltop was 12th among teams — seven points behind 10th-place Mira Mesa.

San Ysidro’s Juan Mendoza was third at 275 pounds at the Monte Vista Invitational.

Sweetwater’s Daniel Robldeo (215) placed sixth at the Monte Vista tournament while teammate Carmelo Trinidad (103) placed seventh at the Scripps Ranch tournament.

Chula Vista’s Ben Salas (112) was eighth at the Scripps Ranch tournament.

Medals at the 2005 El Cajon/San Ysiro tournament went to nine South County grapplers, including three from Mar Vista and two from Hilltop. Montgomery’s Pedro Tapia was the highest finisher with a third-place medal at 119 pounds while Hilltop’s Martinez (140) and Mar Vista’s Matos (145) and Martinez (215) all finished fourth.

Bonita Vista’s Ruz (145) was fifth while Hilltop’s Zamora (215) was sixth. Eighth-place finishes went to Mar Vista’s DeLosReyes (112), Bonita Vista’s Ed Hill and San Ysidro’s Mendoza (275).

Post-season preview
Following the Metro Conference finals, the road to qualify for the state tournament begins with four San Diego Section divisional championship tournaments on Feb. 18, capped by the section’s Masters state qualifying tournament Feb. 24-25 at Otay Ranch High School.

Chula Vista, Otay Ranch and Sweetwater will compete alongside Poway, Carlsbad, La Costa Canyon, Torrey Pines, El Camino and Vista in this year’s San Diego Section Division I finals (at Poway High School). Poway finished the Helix tournament with 10 finalists and six champions. La Costa Canyon had 10 medal-winners, led by finalists T.J. Webb (first, 135 pounds), John Strom (first, 145 pounds) and Elliott Dennis (second, 119 pounds). Carlsbad, which has set a goal to finish among the top two teams at this year’s divisional and Masters tournaments, finished the Helix tournament by medaling 10 of 13 wrestlers. Included were four finalists: Matt Duffy (first, 112 pounds), Taghvai (first, 189 pounds), Kurt Klimek (first, 275 pounds) and Devon Anderson (second, 140 pounds). Klimek is currently ranked second in the state in his weight class.

Bonita Vista, Castle Park, Eastlake, Hilltop, Montgomery, San Ysidro and Southwest will all compete in the Division II championships at Mira Mesa High School while Mar Vista will compete in the Division III championships at University City along three a dominant field that includes three reiging CIF champions: Mt. Carmel (Division II), Valhalla (Division III) and Brawley (Division IV).

The South Bay League dual meet title was set to be decided Feb. 9 when upstart Otay Ranch visited Hilltop in the wake of its 51-27 upset victory on Feb. 2 against Mar Vista.