Wrestlers set to battle in Metro finals

Posted Feb. 7, 2008
The Metro Conference will crown its tournament and individual wrestling champions Saturday at Southwest High School. Which will be the best wrestling team on the mat? It looks like Bonita Vista, Eastlake and Mar Vista will all push defending champion Hilltop for the team title.
If recent results hold course, this year’s conference finals may be the best in several years as far as parity and level of technical competition is concerned.

Bonita Vista certainly is coming off a week that it will find hard to duplicate after topping Eastlake, 36-25, in a battle of unbeaten Mesa League teams in dual competition on Jan. 31. Two days later, both teams were standing atop the award stand at the San Ysidro Invitational. The Barons captured first place in comfortable fashion but Eastlake topped pre-tournament favorite Scripps Ranch — the top team in the City Conference — for second place by a 6.5-point margin.

Montgomery finished fifth—four points behind fourth place Granite Hills — while San Ysidro placed seventh, Chula Vista finished eighth and Sweetwater placed 11th in the 24-team field.

Eastlake 215-pounder Alex Johnson earned honors as the tournament’s outstanding upper weight wrestler.
Meanwhile, Mar Vista enjoyed a successful day at the Helix varsity tournament with an eighth-place finish in a field that included longtime North County Division I powers Carlsbad and Vista and rising East County powers Steele Canyon and Monte Vista.

The Barons and Titans entered their highly anticipated dual encounter both sporting undefeated 3-0 records. Eastlake went up 9-0 after the opening two matches, capped by a pin by David McCluggage at 135 pounds. However, defending league champion Bonita Vista ran off five consecutive wins — three by pin and another by a major decision — to lead 28-9.

But the host Titans responded by winning four of the next five weight classes to close the Barons’ lead to 33-25 with one match remaining. The final match went to overtime, with BV’s Cesar Sandoval winning 11-9 on the first takedown.

“It was closer than I thought it would be,” Bonita Vista coach Gabe Ruz said. “I was looking at the score and thought these guys are doing what we did to them last year.”

The Barons recorded one of the most inspired comebacks in recent memory by scoring three final pins to claim a 37-34 dual win over the then defending league champion Titans last season.

Juan Diaz (140), Alex Contreras (145), Hector Arambula (152), Nick Barnes (160), Frank Bell (171), Henny Harrington (189) and Bryan Roughton (285) all recorded dual wins along with Sandoval for Bonita Vista, which was set to close out regular season competition with a prime time encounter at Otay Ranch on Thursday.

Arambula, Barnes, Bell and Roughton all won by fall.

Anthony Alviz (103), George Castilleja (112) and Ryan Gobeil (119) strung together three key wins for Eastlake, with Alviz scoring a 1:58 pin in his match.

A win over Otay Ranch would give the Barons their second league title in five years under Ruz’ leadership along with two runner-up finishes.

More could be in the making.

“My team is still real young,” Ruz said. “We only had three seniors (in 14 weight classes) in the match against Eastlake. Most of my guys from 140 up are underclassmen. They’re getting better every day. We will have a really good team the next two years.”

Bonita Vista finished with nine medalists at the San Ysidro Invitational, including four finalists and three individual champions: Sandoval (26-5), Arambula (23-2) and Bell (27-7). Barnes (25-6) placed second while Ricky Haynes (112), Diaz, Harrington (23-6) and Roughton (27-4) each recorded third-place finishes and Alex Contreras (145) was seventh. Cody Lopez, who did not compete in the tournament, is 25-2 on the season at 215 pounds after dropping a 5-2 decision to Eastlake’s Johnson in dual competition.

Eastlake had three individual champions: Alviz (22-7), Castilleja (18-4) and Johnson (14-3). The Titans also medaled Gobeil (third, 119), Justin Baroy (third, 125), Luis Green (third, 130), McCluggage (fifth, 135), Stephen Lampa (fifth, 140), Yoshimar Candela (seventh, 171) and Dan Marganski (fifth, 189).

Castilleja may have recorded the upset of the finals when he pinned Granite Hills standout Zach McClanahan with six seconds to go in a battle of the top two-seeded wrestlers in the weight class.
Castilleja placed first at last year’s Metro finals and third at the ensuing Division II championships. McClanahan was ranked seventh in the section coming into the San Ysidro tournament.

The San Ysidro Invitational served as a preview for Saturday’s conference finals. Montgomery and Chula Vista each had two finalists while San Ysidro and Sweetwater each had one finalist.

Chula Vista’s Gustavo Ortiz improved to 23-4 after winning the 145-pound class while Chula Vista teammate Brian Halter captured the heavyweight title.

Hector Hernandez (28-6) finished first at 130 pounds and Joseph Kent (20-9) placed second at 135 pounds, respectively, for Montgomery while Sweetwater’s Daniel Sanchez (12-6) and San Ysidro’s Tony Sifuentes (16-5) both placed second in their respective 140 and 215 weights.

Eastlake’s Johnson pinned Sifuentes in 4:53 to cap a four-pin performance on the day.

Third-place Metro medalists included Montgomery’s David Valenzuela (112), San Ysidro’s Michael Chavez (119), Southwest’s Ricardo Rojas (130), Castle Park’s Genaro Gazca (145) and Montgomery’s Jesus Villegas (171).

Fifth-place Metro medalists included San Ysidro’s Carlos Portillo (103), Otay Ranch’s Chris Abadon (103), San Ysidro’s Brandon Gregory (130), Castle Park’s Jovonnie Gonzales (130), Sweetwater’s Cesar Chavez (135), Otay Ranch’s Ed Bajet (160), Chula Vista’s Roman Molina (171), Otay Ranch’s Tim Mitchell (171), Sweetwater’s Alvaro Castillo (215) and Otay Ranch’s Jonathan Henkle (285).

Seventh-place Metro medalists included Olympian’s Mark Pimentel (119), San Ysidro’s Jesus Hernandez (125), Sweetwater’s Bobby Pena (125), Chula Vista’s Ismael Agguire (130), San Ysidro’s Jose Bautista (140), Sweetwater’s Adrian Diaz (145), Olympian’s Jake Seibel (seventh, 152), Sweetwater’s Diego Gomez (seventh, 152), Sweetwater’s Victor Villavicencio (160), Montgomery’s Dwain Duran (189) and Jonathan Villanueva (215) and Castle Park’s Thomas Tighman (215) and Alexi Samaan (285).

Mar Vista’s “Big Three,” as coach Levi Harbin likes to refer to them, include tri-captains Allan Delos Reyes (125), Hugo Medrano (135) and Tommy McLaughlin (189). “Our ‘Big Three’ can wrestle with anybody,” Harbin said.

The trio backed that up with elite place-finishes at last weekend’s Helix tournament. McLaughlin (25-4) won his division with a 3-1 decision against Torrey Pines' Shawn Murphy while Delos Reyes (23-4) placed second following a 16-6 loss to Santa Fe Christian’s Tyler Iwamura, the section’s lone placer at the midseason Reno Tournament of Champions. Medrano, who entered the tourney with a 20-5 record, captured third place.

At the preceding Holtville Invitational, held Jan. 25-26 in that desert city, Delos Reyes placed second while McLaughlin and Medrano were third.

The Mariners are blessed with a large contingent of freshmen who look to build the team in the future. Mar Vista has already made strides this season as those young wrestlers have started to get their moves down. Among the frosh standouts are Max Uribe (103) and Carter Barnett (140).

Harbin said the youngsters have what he terms a “blue-collar mentality” when it comes to wrestling. “They have that will to win that you can’t coach. Now I need to teach them moves,” the former community college state champion said.

Hilltop, which defeated Mar Vista 44-30 for the rights to this year’s South Bay League dual championship, received nothing but compliments from opponents throughout the section following its fifth-place finish at the Holtville tournament (just two points behind fourth-place Carlsbad). The Lancers, braced by returning state meet qualifier Javier Martinez, should challenge for a top three finish at the upcoming Division II finals.

Martinez’s lone section loss this season has been against Torrey Pines’ Daniel Kwittken, the top-ranked wrestler in the 140-pound division. Martinez is ranked second.

Andy Galata appears to be wrestling at his best. After taking a second-place finish at the Monte Vista Invitational to open the 2008 calendar year, he scored major prestige points by winning his 145-pound weight class at the Scripps Ranch/Mission Hills Invitational. He placed second at Holtville to Orange Glen’s Aaron Smith.
Martinez resumed his perch atop the awards stand at the Holtville tournament with a first-place finish after defeating Brawley's Alex Trinidad in the finals while Jerry Santillan (215) scored a meteoric second-place finish. The Lancers finished with six medalists overall.

Anthony Salinas (112) placed at both the Scripps Ranch/Mission Hills Invitational (fifth) and Holtville Invitational (sixth).