2006-07 San Diego Section
Wrestlers to Watch


Reno Tournament of Champions

SFC mat man is All-America at celebrated TOC

Updated Jan. 15, 2007
Reno Tournament of Champions
Dec. 21-22, 2006 in Reno, Nev.

Wrestling royalty returned to San Diego Country during the holiday break — and he wasn’t wearing Poway green.

Santa Fe Christian junior John Mossy finished third in his 140-pound weight class at the prestigious Reno Tournament of Champions to earn All-America honors. He was the lone San Diego Section wrestler so accorded and only one of four section medalists at what is regarded as the toughest high school wrestling tournament on the West Coast.

Mossy finished 8-1 in his weight class, his lone loss to Poway’s Brad Robinson. However, Mossy successfully navigated the usually brutal consolation wrestle-backs to finish third with six consecutive victories. “My attitude was to just keep wrestling,” he said.

The climb back through the consolation rounds could have been easily provided the story line for any inspirational film about high school wrestling, he admitted. “It was awesome,” Mossy said.

Mossy is currently 21-3 on the season. He opened the season by winning his weight class at the Carlsbad Invitational. His only other two losses came at the Lemoore tournament where he placed fifth.

Mossy seemed almost apologetic at mentioning the latter. The push now is to finish the remainder of the season strong. “I expect to do well,” he said. “My goal was just to place at a tournament like Reno. I want to place at state.”

The section’s other medalists included Carlsbad’s Jordan Taghvai (fourth at 215 pounds) and Poway’s Matt Lewellen (sixth at 215 pounds) and Joe Boone (seventh at 130 pounds).

Poway finished the first day of competition in first place in the team standings but closed out the tourney in third place behind team champion Easton, Pennsylvania.

State Rankings
The initial California high school state rankings made their apperance at the turn of the New Year. Eleven San Diego Section wrestlers received rankings: Poway’s Joe Boone (first, 130); Vista’s Anthony Meza (second, 152); Poway’s Tim Boone (fourth, 125) and Hawk Ruis (fourth, 145); Valhalla’s Landon Holmes (fifth, 112); La Costa Canyon’s Elliott Dennis (fifth, 135); Poway’s Henry Yorba (sixth, 112); Santa Fe Christian’s John Mossy (sixth, 140); Carlsbad’s Jordan Taghvai (seventh, 215); and Poway’s Travis Brown (eighth, 171) and Matt Lewellen (eighth, 215),

Nine more received honorable mention: La Costa Canyon’s Bryan Grubbs (103), Poway’s Mike Hernandez (119), Santa Fe Christian’s Tyler Iwamura (130), Brawley’s Ivan Arevalo (135), Poway’s Brad Robinson (140), Anthony Almanza (152) and Jake Ray (160), Valhalla’s Chris Thomas (189) and Poway’s Sean Hill (189).

Top-ranked wreslters included: Gilroy frosh Jesse Delgado (103), South Hills senior Thomas Williams (112), Campolindo senior Nikko Triggas (119), Fremont senior Boris Novachkov (125), Poway senior Joe Boone (130), Clovis East junior Alex Rodriguez (135), Foothill Palo Cedro senior Mike Vasser (140), Selma senior Joe Cisneros (145), Temecua Valley senior Ted Bristol (152), Las Lomas junior Jason Welch (160), Central Catholic junior Louis Bland (171), Paradise senior Kyle Bergstedt (189), Buchanan senior Ryan Flores (215) and Vacaville senior Clayton Jack (heavyweight).