Grossmont Conference wrestlers prepare for league finals

Photo: Steele Canyon coach Dan Kida offers encouraging words to Cougar wrestler Alex Perlin

Posted Feb. 4, 2008
The Grossmont Conference will crown its championship wrestlers Saturday, Feb. 9, at West Hills High School. Among the front-runners this season at the annual conference-wide tournament are the Steele Canyon Cougars, Monte Vista Monarchs and Valhalla Norsemen — all resident powers in the Grossmont South League. A trio of Grossmont North League teams — West Hills, Grossmont and El Capitan — will be out to gain their share of respect.

Wrestling is scheduled to start at 9 a.m.

Should El Capitan defeat Santana and Grossmont defeat El Cajon Valley in final regular season dual meets on Thursday, there will be a three-way tie for this year’s Grossmont North League dual championship.

West Hills has already assured itself of at least a share of this year’s dual title and possible outright possession of it after defeating El Capitan, 39-35, last Thursday. The Wolf Pack finished its league duals schedule with a 3-1 record, enjoying a bye this week as the Vaqueros and Foothillers attempt to join them atop the standings.

Grossmont defeated West Hills, 46-24, on Jan. 24 but dropped a Jan. 10 match-up against El Capitan by six points to enter its regular season finale against the Braves with one league loss.

El Capitan’s lone loss in league duals competition was to West Hills.

Santana and El Cajon Valley are both out of the running for this year’s league championship but could determine which team might share the title with West Hills with an upset win.

Grossmont is enjoying a wrestling renaissance under former Foothillers star Todd Bell this season and is led on the mat by reigning standouts Valentin Cuevas (125 pounds) and Danny Demas (heavyweight).

Demas finished second to Vista’s Kasey Cowan, a returning state meet qualifier, in the finals of last Saturday’s Helix varsity tournament. Demas (21-3+) pinned Steele Canyon’s Robert Forester in the semifinals to advance against Cowan, who recorded a technical fall to cap his showing at the tournament’s Outstanding Upper Weight wrestler.

Cuevas finished fourth at the Helix tournament after a 6-2 loss to Lincoln’s Adrian Najera. Cuevas, who entered the tourney with an 18-6 record, dropped a semifinals match-up against Mar Vista’s Allan Delos Reyes, the eventual second-place finisher in the weight class.

Alyx Yoder also took a fourth-place finish at this year’s Helix tourney after dropping a third-place match-up against Rancho Bernardo’s Patrick Brown.

Bell said one wrestler to watch in the future is 119-pound sophomore Jacob McDaniel, who recently earned promotion to the varsity unit after going 25-0 with 19 pins at the junior varsity level.

West Hills, which is coached by former standout Justin Gigliotti, is led on the mat this season by Jackson Kunz (135-140), Nick Gilchrest (160), Emdyhr Meza (215) and Rudy Ortega (heavyweight). Kunz is returning for an injury but turned heads early in the season with a eighth-place finish at the El Dorado Holiday Classic.

Ortega pinned Monte Vista’s Pepe Martinez in 3:50 to place third at this year’s Helix tournament.

El Capitan coach Frank Ludwig has been pleasantly surprised by this year’s Vaquero squad — one that early in the season he admitted he didn’t expect much from this season.

“We only had three varsity returners, so I didn’t think we’d have that good of a team. But we’ve got a lot of freshmen and sophomores who have impacted the program,” he said. “We had 20 freshmen come out for the team. In a couple years, we’ll be good.”

Top returners include seniors Richie Chesky (125), Bryan Robbins (135) and C.J. Bernard (103) while freshman Jake Arcamo (140) has led the newcomers.

El Capitan closed out regular season tournament competition with a ninth-place finish at the 24-team San Ysidro Invitational on Feb. 2. The Vaqueros recorded one finalist (Bernard, second at 103 pounds) and one third-place medalist (Bryce Gregory at 171 pounds) while collecting eight individual place-finishes overall.

Chesky placed fifth while Robbins and Arcamo both placed seventh. Additionally, Shawn Barton (145) finished fifth while Mike Devan (130) and Brad Shawarte (160) were both seventh.

Bernard, who placed third at last year’s conference finals, is 14-4 this season after taking a runner-up finish to Eastlake’s Anthony Alviz at the San Ysidro tournament.

Photo: Grossmont's Danny Demas and Steele Canyon's Robert Forester battle in Helix varsity tournament semifinals.

Grossmont South League
Steele Canyon will be out to defend its Grossmont tournament team title when the Cougars take the mat Saturday at West Hills. Steele Canyon has seemingly fed off the momentum of last year’s conference tourney championship title and an ensuing third-place finish at the San Diego Section Division III finals to scale new heights for the program this season.

The Cougars posted a third-place team finish at last weekend’s Helix varsity tournament while battling a strong field that included North County Division I powers Carlsbad and Vista. Carlsbad won the team title with 165 points, followed by Vista with 154 points. Steele Canyon clawed its way to third place with 138.5 points -- 13.5 points ahead of fourth-place Monte Vista.

Steele Canyon was coming off a 59-6 dual win against Mt. Miguel two days earlier and finished the Helix tournament with four wrestlers who placed among the top four placers in their respective weight classes, led by individual champions Caleb Cardenas (119) and Todd Graff (140).

Cardenas, who entered the Helix tourney with a 23-3 record, topped Brawley’s Oscar Lizarraga by a 14-11 decision in his finals match while Graff bested Poway’s Daniel Pinney by a 7-2 score in the finals.

Cody Rowland (130) took third place with an injury default victory against Poway’s Josh Malvaney while Angel Ramirez (152) finished fourth following a 4-2 setback against Rancho Bernardo’s Oren Dramen.

Cardenas and Rowland, along with teammates Ryan Esquibel (171) and Robert Forester (heavyweight), each have recorded 20 or more wins this season. Connor Young is another high achiever, reaching the semifinals at last weekend's Helix tournament at 145 pounds. Adam Cham (135) was another semifinalist for the Cougars.

Head coach Dan Kida said his team -- conceivably the best in school history -- would like to build on the high standards set by last year’s team.

“We want to set ourselves up to be successful,” Kida said. “That comes around by compiling seeding points. We then have to win matches. We want to at least match what we did last year, which was third at CIF. But with Brawley, Ramona and Monte Vista all in our CIF division, it will be tough to beat that. It will be a battle. Basically, everyone is trying to top (defending Division III champion) Brawley.”

Monte Vista, which was coming off a lopsided dual win against Helix, showed very well in its concluding regular season tournament. The Monarchs host arch rival Valhalla Thursday for the rights to second place in the league standings and could be peaking at the right time of the season for a strong post-season performance.

“We still have a young team,” head coach Steve Bulette said. “We had six sophomores and one freshman in the lineup for our dual meet against Steele Canyon.”

Monte Vista produced two finalists and had four more mat men contend for third-place medals at last weekend’s varsity tournament. Shervin Iraniha (130) and Masud Hassan (135) both captured second-place finishes while Levi Annon (103) placed third and Persio Morel (119), Kenneth Tribble (171) and Pepe Martinez (heavyweight) both finished fourth in their respective weights.

Iraniha entered the Helix tourney with a fine 26-3 record.

Hunter Beamon has just two losses this season but has been out the last three weeks with a hand injury. He had the cast taken off last Friday and was expected to resume practice on Monday. He qualified for the state tournament as a sophomore and prior to the injury sustained at the Temecula Valley tournament had established himself as one of the favorites to qualify for this year’s state tournament.

Beamon dropped a 5-2 decision to Poway’s Mike Hernandez in the 125-pound finals of the Monte Vista tournament the first weekend in January. Hernandez is currently ranked fifth in the state in the 119-pound weight class.

Granite Hills and Valhalla will be chasing the Cougars and Monarchs for an upper division finish at this year’s conference finals. Don’t’ count out either school from helping level the field.

The underclassmen-heavy Eagles brought just nine grapplers to last weekend’s San Ysidro Invitational but captured fourth place. Granite Hills had three wrestlers qualify for the finals: Zach McClanahan (second at 112), Steve Martin (second at 119) and Jesse Alvernaz (second at 152).

Additionally, Danny Neff (103) and Jacob Castillo (160) both finished third in their divisions while Wes Fulkerson (125) and Johnny Valencia (145) and Willy Horner (152) both were fifth.

McClanahan (22-8) was seeded first in his weight class but was thrown for a last-second upset pin by Eastlake’s George Castilleja (18-4) in the finals. Martin (17-9) bested both the second- and third-seeded wrestlers in his weight class to reach the finals. Alvernaz competed as the Eagle’s “B” wrestler in his weight class. Seeded third, Alvernaz (6-2) topped teammate Horner, seeded third, by a 4-2 score in the semifinals to pair up against Bonita Vista’s Hector Arambula in the championship round. The Granite Hills matster showed well with an 18-10 finals loss.

Martin lost 15-0 to Imperial freshman Tony Ramos in his finals match. Ramos was named the tournament’s outstanding light weight wrestler with two pins and two technical falls.

Valhalla, which topped Granite Hills by a 40-29 score in dual competition last Thursday, finished with three medalists at this year’s Holtville Invitational. Norsemen leaders in the Jan. 25-26 duel in the desert included Tony Espinoza (third, 103), Wade Templeton (fifth, 130) and Max Verduzco (sixth, 140).

Helix is not without its “big guns” this season. The Highlanders are steadily making improvement on the mat in the depth department. Leaders this season include A.J. Agustin (112), Victor Richmond (135) and Patrick Phalen (215).

Richmond turned in a highlight performance by earning the outstanding light weight award with a perfect showing in his 135-pound weight class at the Helix tournament. He topped Monte Vista’s Hassan by a 15-4 major decision in the finals.

Phalen placed fourth following a 7-1 loss to San Pasqual’s Vito Grippo while Agustin earned the top-seeded position in his weight class.

Another wrestler to watch for the Highlanders is Mike Converse, who recorded a meteoric third-place finish at last weekend’s Helix event with a 7-3 win against Poway’s Jordan Tibbets.