Posted Jan. 7, 2008
Zach McClanahan turned heads just about this time last year. The Granite Hills wrestler is back at it again this season.

McClanahan was one of three East County finalists at last Saturday's Monte Vista varsity invitational tournament, joining Monte Vista's Hunter Beamon and Grossmont's Danny Demas as second-place finishers in the 23-team field.

McClanahan finished runner-up at 112 pounds while Beamon was second at 125 pounds and Demas was runner-up in his heavyweight division.

Granite Hills co-coach Bart Hartley would like to believe that McClanahan can duplicate last year's showing that ended with a trip to the state championship meet in Bakersfield. Beamon would like to retrace his footsteps as well after making a trip to the state finals two years ago.

Both remain cautiously optimistic this season about not only qualifying for the state meet but also possibly returning home with a medal.

“We haven't seen many wrestlers in San Diego yet,” said Hartley, who serves as co-coach of the Eagles with former Granite Hills standout Jeremiah Larson. “This was our first tournament in San Diego County this season. I haven't done that much research on where Zach stands but we'll know more about that after the (upcoming) Rancho Bernardo 10-way. This tournament was pretty tough, so a No. 2 finish is not that bad.”

McClanahan finished fourth at last year's San Diego Masters state qualifying tournament after winning the Grossmont Conference individual title as a 103-pound sophomore.

The Granite Hills wrestler took an 11-3 record into his finals match against Poway's Ryan Nasseri at this year's Monte Vista tournament, losing by a decision. McClanahan was seeded second in the weight bracket and advanced to the championship round with a pair of first-period pins in his opening two matches and a semifinal decision against third-seeded Jesse Ramirez of A.B. Miller in the semifinals.

Nasseri improved to 20-4 with the hard-fought victory against the Eagles grappler, who won his fair share of fans in the back-and-forth match-up.

McClanahan – one of three Granite Hills medalists in the tournament -- pinned Dana Hills' Glen Cooper in 1:02 to open the day and added a 1:39 fall against Austin Gneck of Gilbert, Ariz., in the ensuing quarterfinals.

“There were a lot of quality teams at this tournament,” Hartley said. “There were some very talented wrestlers but no one amazing.”

McClanahan opened the season with a 2-2 showing at the El Dorado Holiday Classic, dropping a 13-12 quarterfinal-round decision against Poway's Anthony Alvarez, who has since dropped to the 103-pound weight class. The Eagles standout then went 5-0 at the La Quinta dual tournament before dropping a match to La Costa Canyon's Bryan Grubbs in a non-league dual meet. Grubbs is currently ranked seventh in the state.

Hartley said McClanahan has improved on his top wrestling this season, particularly now that he has someone more his own size to wrestle with in practice – former Valhalla state meet qualifier Landon Holmes, who has joined the Granite Hills coaching staff as an assistant this season.

Beamon qualified for the 2006 year's state tournament as the third-place finisher in his 103-pound weight class at the San Diego Masters tournament. The top four finishers at Masters advance to the state meet – a goal that every wrestler in the section is clearly striving for.

Beamon finished 3-1 at this year's Monte Vista invitational following a finals loss to Poway's Mike Hernandez, a returning state medalist . Beamon, seeded third, pinned Morse's Travis Carus in 1:11 to open the tournament and then defeated Hilltop's Mike Reyes (the champion of the season-opening Mar Vista Battle by the Beach tournament) in the quarterfinals. Beamon then recorded a major decision against Bonita Vista's Cesar Sandoval in the semifinals. Sandoval (a seventh-place finisher at the preceding El Cajon Invitational) was seeded second in the weight.

Beamon is 15-1 this season heading into Thursday's high profile Grossmont South League dual meet at Steele Canyon.

Hernandez, who is ranked fifth in the state this season, remains undefeated at 11-0.

Beamon was one of five medalists for the tourney-host Monarchs, who finished in ninth place in the team standings.

Steele Canyon, with six medalists, placed third with 127.5 points. Monte Vista totaled 101 points, finishing just 11 points out of fourth place in a tightly-packed grouping of six teams.

Granite Hills placed 13th – seven points behind 12th-place Grossmont (three medalists).

Grossmont's Demas reached the finals of his third San Diego County invitational, placing second to Poway's Sammy Cervantes in the heavyweight division. Demas was seeded sixth in the weight class but advanced to the semifinals on the strength of two pins before upsetting second-seeded Bryan Roughton of Bonita Vista, 16-15, to qualify for the finals.

Demas entered the championship round sporting a 10-1 record after winning his weight at the Carlsbad invitational and placing second at the Mira Mesa Marauder invitational.

Cervantes improved to 11-1 with the finals victory.

Cougar country
Steele Canyon continued to impress, finishing second among San Diego Section teams at this year's Monte Vista invitational.-- 19 points ahead of defending South Bay League champion Hilltop (third among section teams) and 23.5 points ahead of defending Mesa League champion Bonita Vista (fourth among section teams).

Caleb Cardenas (119), Ryan Esquibel (171) and Robert Forester (285) all keyed the Cougars with third-place finishes. Cardenas and Esquibel both advanced as far as the championship semifinals before dropping to consolation matches.

Cardenas, who is bound in the fall for Wheaton College in Illinois, recorded a decision against Centennial's Rudy Tinoco in the third-place bout. Cardenas finished 4-1 in the tournament.

Esquibel, who is following an older sibling through the Steele Canyon program, finished 4-1 with four pins. He pinned Centennial's Brett Jack in 3:12 for third place.

Forester, who was coming off a seventh-place showing at the national-draw El Cajon Invitational, finished 3-1 with the one loss to Demas in the quarterfinals.

Todd Graff finished fourth at 140 pounds with a 3-2 record.

Dylan Sawyer finished fifth at 125 pounds with a 3-1 record after going 3-0 in the wrestle-backs with two pins and a major decision.

Angel Ramirez was fifth at 152 pounds with a 3-1 record after going 3-0 in the wrestle-backs with a technical fall and major decision.

Jesse Cardenas was sixth at 103 pounds, Dylan Lincoln was sixth at 112 pounds, Cody Rowland was sixth at 130 pounds and Connor Young was sixth at 145 pounds in dropping medal matches but scoring important team points – all with two victories to their credit.

Medalists
Besides McClanahan, Granite Hills also received some encouraging performances from Johnny Valencia (fifth, 145) and Jacob Castillo (fifth, 160). The Eagles only have two seniors in this year's lineup and put five freshman on the mat at this year's Monte Vista invitational.

Monte Vista's medalists, besides Beamon, included Levi Annon (third, 103); Shervin Iraniha (third, 135), Donovan Santos (fourth, 215) and Alex Rossell (fifth, 215).

Grossmont's Alyx Yoder finished fourth at 145 while Valentin Cuevas (two falls, major decision) finished fifth at 130 pounds.

Taking sixth-place finishes but scoring valuable points for their respective teams were Monte Vista's Persio Morel (119), Grossmont's Jacob McDaniel (119), Granite Hills' Victor Castro (125), Mt. Miguel's Dylan Marx (135), Grossmont's Nick Luis (140), Monte Vista's Tico Martinez (152), Granite Hills' Jason Ladiner (171) and Monte Vista's Pepe Martinez (285).

Tourney champion Poway medaled all 13 of its wrestlers, placing 12 in the finals and winning 12 individual titles. The Titans' parade of champions included Alvarez (103), Nasseri (112), Nick Schavrien (119), Hernandez (125), Henry Yorba (130), Tim Boone (135), Anthony Almanza (152), Ian Roy (160), Ian Daube (171), Matt Heman (189), Chris Crosthwaite (215) and Cervantes (285).

Almanza finished fourth and Yorba and Hernandez both finished sixth at last year's state finals while Boone finished eighth two years ago as a sophomore. Yorba is currently ranked second in the state this year while Boone is ranked third in his weight class, Daube fourth and Cervantes seventh.

Alvarez and Daube earned the tournament's outstanding lower weight and upper weight awards, respectively.

Metro Conference Report
Hilltop's Martinez wrestling toward state ranking?

To say that Hilltop High School senior Javier Martinez is wrestling tough might be an understatement at this point of the season. The Lancer standout, among the elite cadre of the San Diego Section's retunring state meet qualifiers, has butted heads against some of the top mat men in the state in recent weeks and come out on top.

A state ranking could be in the offing before the season is out, according to Hilltop coach Thomas Juarez.

"The past two weeks Javier has wrestled the best wrestlers in his weight class in California. This kid really deserves to be ranked in the top 10," Juarez said.

Martinez (22-1) finished third with a 5-1 record in a star-studded field at the Lemoore Bash over the winter break and captured his 140-pound weight class at last Saturday's Monte Vista varsity tournament with an overtime defeat of Natomas' Vlad Dombrosky in the finals.

Dombrosky (20-2) won his weight class at the El Cajon Invitational, held Dec. 28-29 at San Ysidro High School. He entered that national-draw event rated as an honorable mention among 140-pounders in California and topped Drew Hill of Midwest City, Okla., in the ECI finals.

While Dombrosky was excelling on the mat in the South Bay, Martinez was competing in Lemoore in a rare out-of-town venture for the Lancers.

Martinez topped Foothill sophomore Travis Gallegos, the state's eighth-ranked wrestler at 140 pounds, by a 3-2 decision for third place. Martinez's only defeat was a 9-2 loss against Oakdale senior Trevor Machado Ching, who entered the Lemoore tournament as the top-ranked 145-pound wrestler in California.

"The score was very deceiving," Juarez noted. "Javier got caught at the beginning of the match and it was just too difficult for him to catch up."

Lemoore sophomore Nick Sierra, ranked second in the weight in the state, took a runner-up finish to Ching in the finals.

Martinez went 3-1 at the 23-team Monte Vista invitational. Seeded first in the weight class, he advanced to the championship match with three consecutive pins, including an 18-second fall against Southwest El Centro's Zach Coronado in the quarterfinals. Martinez pinned A.B. Miller's Joseph Ramirez, seeded fourth, in the semifinals after opeing the tournament with a 3:48 pin against Sweetwater's Bobby Pena.

Dombrosky was seeded second and advanced to meet Martinez in the finals with pins of 3:24 and 5:55 and a 2:15 technical fall. He pinned Poway's Nate Gutschow in the semifinals.

"I think he's a true candidate to be ranked," Juarez said of Martinez. "He has been wrestling the best there is in the state and beating them."

Martinez was joined in the finals by teammate Andy Galata, who finished second in his 145-pound weight class after a loss by decision to Centennial's Denzel Hawkins. Galata finished 2-1 with a win by technical fall against Bonita Vista's Alex Contreras and a semifinal victory agianst Cameron Cox from Gilbert, Ariz.

Hawkins, who was seeded second, advanced to meet Galata in the championship match with three consecutive pins.

Galata went 2-2 at the Lemoore Bash, dropping his final two matches by tight decisions: 2-1 against Oakmont's Cody Fitzgerald (sixth place) and 4-2 against Righetti's Antony Ibarra (seventh place).

"Andy was so close to making the award stand at the last tournament," Juarez said. "He's been close to turning the corner all season and finally did it at this tournament. This was a good situation to start his run to CIF."

As a team, Hilltop finished seventh with 108.5 points -- just one point behind sixth place Natomas, two-and-a-half points behind fifth-place A.B. Miller, four-and-a-half points behind Gilbert and 19 points behind third place Steele Canyon.

Poway captured the team title in runaway fashion with 356 points -- double that of runner-up Centennial (175 points).

Bonita Vista finished four-and-a-half points behind Hilltop in ninth place while Mar Vista placed 10th with 78.5 points.

Hilltop and Bonita Vista each totaled five medalists while Mar Vista had four medalists.

Sweetwater, which finished 16th with 44 points, had three medalists.

Hilltop's Martinez and Galata were the Metro Conference's only two championship finalists. The Lancers did finish with one third-place and two fifth-place medalists, however.

Jerry Santillan finished third in his 215-pound weight class with a 4-1 record, defeating Monte Vista's Donovan Santos in the third-place match. Seeded third, Santillan finished the tournament with three pins and a semifinal loss to weight class champion Chris Crosthwaite.

Anthony Salinas (112) placed fifth with a 3-1 record that included two pins and a major decision.

Edgar Sanchez (130) placed fifth with a 3-1 record that included three pins (two first-period falls).

Bonita Vista's medalists included Hector Arambula (third, 152), Ricky Haynes (fourth, 112), Henny Harrington (fourth, 189), Bryan Roughton (fourth, 285) and Cesar Sandoval (fifth, 125).

Arambula finished with a 4-1 record. Seeded fourth, he advanced to the semifinals with a pair of pins before losing by a decision to eventual weight class champion Anthony Almanza of Poway, a returning state medalist. Arambula won his final two matches in the consolation rounds to place third.

Ricky Haynes (112), Henny Harrington (189) both were 3-2 records while Roughton finished with a 2-2 mark.

Roughton was seeded second in the 285-pound class based on his sixth-place showing at the preceding El Cajon Invitational and won his quarterfinal-round match by 2:53 fall before losing a 16-15 semifinal match-up against Grossmont's Daniel Demas. Roughton pinned Sweetwater's Chris Metoyer (fifth) in his ensuing consolation bout, then attempted a throw on Steele Canyon's Robert Forester in the third-place match but could not fully complete the move and instead wound up on bottom and was pinned in 48 seconds.

Sandoval, seeded second after recording a seventh-place trophy at the El Cajon Invitational, posted a 3-2 record. Sandoval won his opening two matches by first-period pins before being relegated to the consolation bracket following a loss by major decision to Monte Vista senior Hunter Beamon, a state meet qualifier as a sophomore. Sandoval encountered further misfortune after suffering a loss by 2:30 pin to Mar Vista's Allan Delos Reyes in the consolation semifinals before finishing the tournament with a victory by 4:19 fall against Granite Hills' Victor Castro in the fifth-place match.

The Barons finished 5.5 points out of sixth place and eight points out of fourth place.

"I think once everyone gets back healthy that we'll be in the thick of things," BV head coach Gabe Ruz said.

Mar Vista's medalists included Delos Reyes (third, 125), Hugo Medrano (fourth, 135), Tommy McLaughlin (fifth, 189) and Buzz Breading (285).
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Delos Reyes posted a 4-1 record that included a 2:30 pin of BV's Sandoval in the consolation semifinals. The MV matster was seeded fifth but was upended by fourth-seeded Carlo Chavez of Natomas in the quarterfinals. Delos Reyes then won his final three consolation matches, including one by default over Chavez in the third-place match.

Medrano, seeded fourth, went 3-2. He advanced to the semifinals with two pins before running into eventual weight class champion Tim Boone, who administered a tech fall in 3:53 to qualify for the finals. Medrano finished the tournament with three pins after winning his consolation match against Gilbert's Brad Moreno by 3:56 fall.

McLaughlinm seeded second, finished 2-2. He won his quarterfinal-round match against BV's Harrington by a 2:00 pin before dropping a semifinal decision against Centennial's Chase Harrell. McLaughlin lost for a second consecutive time againt A.B. Miller's Carlos Diaz in the consolation semifinals before finishing the tournament with a 2:23 pin of Central Union's Michaelanbelo Romero in the fifth-place bout.

Breading finished 2-1 with one pin.

Sweetwater's Cesar Chavez (135) and Alvaro Castillo (215) both finished fifth with a 3-2 records that included two pins apiece. Metoyer had three pins, including one in 3:17 against Monte Vista's Pepe Martinez in the fifth-place match.

Placing sixth but scoring valuable team points for their respective teams were Mar Vista's Carter Barnett (140), Sweetwater's Diego Gomez (152), Bonita Vista's Nick Barnes (160) and Mar Vista's Izzy Covarubbias (160).