2006-07 San Diego Section
Wrestlers to Watch

San Diego Section Masters Finals

Hilltop's Martinez qualifies for state meet
Posted Feb. 28, 2007

Hilltop High junior Javier Martinez made the finals of every tournament in which he competed this season except last weekend’s San Diego Masters state qualifying tournament. So what happens? Martinez is headed to Bakersfield this weekend as the Metro Conference’s lone state qualifier.

Competition gets under way Friday and concludes Saturday at Rabobank Arena.

The top four finishers in each of 14 weight classes at last weekend’s Masters finals earned berths in the state tournament — the goal of every wrestler who sets foot on the mat at the beginning of the season. Martinez finished third in his 145-pound division.
“It was exciting,” said Martinez, who sports a 38-7 season record. “When I won (the qualifying match) I was thinking how I was going to state.”

Martinez is the first Hilltop wrestler to qualify for the state tournament under new Lancer head coach Thomas Juarez, a former state medalist and high school All-American at Montgomery High School.

“It was a special thing,” Juarez said. “Javier qualified because he’s put in a number of years in the sport. The combination of hard work and dedication paid off. He has the ability to shock some people at the state meet and hopefully place.”

Martinez entered the two-day Masters tourney as this year’s San Diego Section Division II champion, though he was seeded third behind top-seeded Hawk Ruis of Poway (Division I bronze medalist) and second-seeded Anthony Meza of Vista (Division I champion). Martinez won his first match by pin last Friday against Steele Canyon’s Connor Hanten but lost a 5-2 decision in the quarterfinals to La Costa Canyon’s T.J. Webb to drop to the single-elimination consolation wrestle-backs.

Martinez opened the second day of competition needing to win three consecutive matches to qualify for the state meet. He won four — defeating Central Union’s Joey Creiglow (by 3:34 pin), Carlsbad’s Taylor Benson (by 6-1 decision), Scirpps Ranch’s Kyle Clapp (by 7-3 decision) and Rancho Buena Vista’s Cody Fanning (by injury default).

The win against Clapp in the consolation semifinals punched Martinez’s ticket to this year’s state tournament.

The Hilltop grappler said he considered that match to be his best at this year’s Masters. He defeated Clapp, 7-2, the previous week to win the Division II individual championship.

“That one was to go to state,” Martinez said. “I’d wrestled him at the CIF finals. I was very confident.”

Martinez drew another wrestler he had previously beaten this season — Fanning — in the third--place match.

Martinez is no stranger to high-level competition after placing second in the state in both freestyle and Greco-Roman competition during the high school off-season. He represented Team California at last summer’s National Duals in Missouri, going 4-2.

However, he breaks out in a smile when recalling his start in the sport at age 10 after following his older brother David onto the mat. David Martinez graduated from Montgomery High School in 2003 as a Metro champion.

“I just wanted to be like my brother,” said the younger Martinez, who began his wrestling career with the Chula Vista Badgers Wrestling Club. “I didn’t win one match my first year (at the kids level). I just thought it was really fun.”

The competitive juices obviously began to flow once he hit high school.

Sometimes Masters is just too difficult to watch
There are some things at the San Diego Section Masters tournament that are just too difficult to watch. The tournament, which serves as the section’s state qualifier, brings together the top wrestlers from throughout San Diego and Imperial counties. As the field narrows toward the medal matches, both heartbreak and elation occur — often simultaneously.

The pairings — especially in the single-elimination wrestle-backs — can often be brutal.

Eastlake’s Lamar Dent and Montgomery’s Pedro Tapia paired up in one such match, a bout that sent the winner to the medal rounds and sent the loser home. Tapia entered last weekend’s Masters tournament at San Ysidro High School as the Metro Conference championship tournament’s Outstanding Lower Weight wrestler after winning the 125-pound title.

Tapia had gone on to place second in the weight class at the ensuing San Diego Section Division III championships a week later. Dent, who had placed runner-up to Tapia by fall at the Metro finals, won the 125-pound division at the Division II championships.

Dent defeated Tapia, 8-7, in a match that was every bit as close as the score indicated and one in which there was a minor squabble at what point it ended.

Dent went on to place sixth in the weight class with a pair of ensuing losses. The loss to Dent ended Tapia’s season.
You could read the pain and anguish on Tapia’s face. It was not pleasant to behold and made the onlooker feel just as bad.
Dent is a junior and will be back. Tapia is a senior.

Understand the agony.

And celebrate the ecstasy that goes with winning.

“My goal this season was to get to state,” said Dent, who defeated Hoover’s Gary Green to win the Division II title and finished 3-3 at Masters. “That will have to wait. My goal for next year will be to place at state.”

Tapia had opened the tournament seeded fourth in the weight class. The top four finishers qualify for the state meet that will take place Friday and Saturday at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, the home of the Bakersfield Condors’ minor league hockey team.

Dent was seeded eighth.

The Montgomery matster drew a first-round bye and then pinned Southwest’s Richard Rojas in 51 seconds to advance to the quarterfinals of the 24-person bracket. Tapia’s run in the championship bracket ended there following a 13-8 loss to Escondido senior Matt Redden, who would later go on to place fourth in the weight class.

The Aztec mat warrior dropped to the consolation wrestle-backs, where he opened the second day of competition last Saturday with a 1:32 pin against Torrey Pines’ Sean Richland.

Dent followed the same route as Tapia to the single-elimination consolation bracket after opening with a bye, defeating Mt. Carmel’s Primo Julian, 10-6, and then losing by 1:02 fall against Poway’s Tim Boone, seeded first in the weight class and ranked eighth in the state.

The consolation bracket lined up that if both Tapia and Dent won their first matches on the second day that they would meet in the next round.

Dent pinned Scripps Ranch’s Hayase Yoshizumi in 4:35, necessitating the unfortunate all-Metro elimination match.

Dent’s run thereafter was short-circuited by Santa Fe Christian’s Tyler Iwamura, the reigning Division IV champion and seeded third in the bracket. Iwamura dropped to the consolation semifinal match against Dent following a semifinal-round loss to second-seeded Robert Castaneda of Brawley. The winner of the consolation semifinal pushed through to the third-place match, thus guaranteeing himself a back door trip to the state meet.

Iwamura pinned Dent in 1:43, then decisioned Redden by an 8-2 score to place third.

The list of Metro place-winners was short at this year’s Masters. Just one South County wrestler — Hilltop junior 145-pounder Javier Martinez — managed to beat the monster that defines this tournament to qualify for this weekend’s state meet. Montgomery’s Gideon Hemesath (runner-up at the Division III finals) matched Dent’s sixth-place finish at 135 pounds while Mar Vista junior Tommy McLaughlin finished fifth at 215 pounds.

One state qualifier and four medalists. Not one of the South Bay’s top showings in recent history but better than last year’s one state qualifier and two medalists.

The Grossmont Conference finished with four state qualifiers and seven medalists.

Masters team champion Poway set a state record by qualifying all 14 of its wrestlers to the state tournament, sending 10 to finals matches and coming away with seven weight class titles.

Vista and Brawley, which finished second and third, respectively, in the team standings, both qualified six wrestlers for the state tournament.

Hemesath — a Metro champion — drew the sixth seed in his weight class, winning a 12-11 match against Rancho Bernardo’s Mel Dramen before dropping a 5-3 decision to Poway’s Mark Flores (seeded third) in the quarterfinals.

The Montgomery wrestler won twice more in the consolation round to assure himself of a medal. He eliminated Hilltop’s Andy Galata (second at the Division II finals) by a 16-11 decision in last Saturday’s opening elimination match.

Hemesath might have placed higher if he didn’t have the misfortune to draw the tournament’s No. 1-seeded wrestler (and Reno Tournament of Champions All-American) John Mossy in the consolation semifinals after Mossy had been upset, 6-5, by Helix senior Stephen Alvarez in the preceding semifinals.

Mossy pinned Hemesath in 2:31. Hemesath then drew Mt. Carmel’s Beau Cervantes (seeded fourth), losing 9-5 in the fifth-place match.

McLaughlin, meanwhile, also could taste the state meet after advancing to the semifinals to conclude the opening day of competition last Friday. McLaughlin, seeded fifth, advanced in a bit of an upset after recording a 9-6 decision against Rancho Bernardo’s Mike Rutherford in the quarterfinals.

The MV grappler, however, drew Carlsbad’s Jordan Taghvai, top-seeded in the division and ranked fourth in the state, in his semifinal bout. Taghvai, would go on to earn the tournament’s Outstanding Upper Weight award, won by a 1:41 pin.
McLaughlin (second at the Division III finals) then drew Central Union’s Angel Romero in the consolation semifinals. Romero won 6-3, sending the Metro’s 2007 Outstanding Upper Weight wrestler to a fifth-place matchup against Monte Vista’s Tim Pugsley.

McLaughlin (42-7) won by injury default. A junior, he will return next season and once again stand out as one of the section’s top 189- or 215-pounders.

Notepad
A total of 16 Metro wrestlers qualified for the second day of competition. Joining the aforementioned grapplers were Bonita Vista’s Cesar Sandoval (112), Chula Vista’s Artemio Corral (119), Mar Vista’s Allan DeLos Reyes (119), Southwest’s Joseph Amivisca (135), Montgomery’s Joseph Kent (140), Eastlake’s Hawk Thompson (145), Bonita Vista’s Matthew Periola (160), Otay Ranch’s Sonny Garcia (160), Eastlake’s A.J. Romero (171) and Bonita Vista’s Cody Lopez (189).

DeLos Reyes (46-10) finished in a tie for seventh place with CV’s Corral while BV’s Periola and Otay Ranch’s Garcia tied for seventh. Garcia became the first Mustang to win a match at Masters and to advance to the second day of competition.

Poway’s Joe Boone (13) and Carlsbad’s Taghvai (215) were named the outstanding wrestlers at the 2007 Masters tournament while La Costa Canyon’s John Strom (152) and Vista’s Seth Rehn (160) each received the CIF sportsmanship award. Boone is ranked second in the state.