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San Ysidro Invitational Team Standings Championship Finals Top Individuals 114 Pounds 121 Pounds 127 Pounds 132 Pounds 137 Pounds 142 Pounds 147 Pounds 154 Pounds 162 Pounds 173 Pounds 191 Pounds 217 Pounds 277 Pounds
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Metro Conference Report:
Pinning parade propels Barons to top of San Ysidro Invitational
Posted Feb. 4, 2009
With 10 semifinalists, seven finalist and five individual weight class champions, the Bonita Vista Barons stamped their name firmly on last Saturday’s San Ysidro Invitational. For those keeping score, this could be the Barons’ best team in the last two decades — the Mike Mendoza-Ernie Rios-Tommy Casper squads of the mid-1990s notwithstanding.
“What makes this team so good is that all the guys are contenders to win,” BV head coach Gabe Ruz said.
The Barons are set to face off against Hilltop Thursday for the Mesa League title at 6 p.m. The Barons enter the dual match-up as two-time defending Mesa League champions while the Lancers have won six consecutive South Bay League dual titles before moving to the Mesa League this season.
Both teams will compete for apparent supremacy at the Metro Conference championship tournament Feb. 14 at Sweetwater High School. The San Diego Section divisional championships follow on Feb. 21.
Bonita Vista looks to contend for the Division II team title alongside Mt. Carmel and Westview. The Barons remain surprisingly unranked this late in the season. In keeping with their season-long war for respect, Ruz’ mat warriors appear to have won another battle at San Ysidro.
Bonita Vista finished with 248 points — well ahead of second place Serra (134,5 points) and more than double that of third place Otay Ranch (114 points). Scripps Ranch (111 points) finished fourth, followed by Madison (fifth, 108.5 points), Sweetwater (sixth, 101 points), Lincoln (seventh, 96 points) and San Ysidro (eighth, 91 points).
Barons champions included Ricky Haynes (121 pounds), Hector Arambula (154 pounds), Nick Barnes (162 pounds), Frank Bell (173 pounds) and Cody Lopez (191 pounds). Arambula, Barnes, Bell and Lopez all won by pin in their finals matches.
Finishing second in their respective weights for Bonita Vista were Andrew Humiston (137 pounds) and Aaron McCrorey. Other Baron medalists included Steve Johnston (third, 105 pounds), Teddy Mendoza (fifth, 114 pounds) and Deiranieh (third, 127 pounds) for a team total of 10 medalists — tops among the 10 Metro teams entered in the 26-team tournament.
Dalton Randolph nearly made it 11 medalists for the Barons after losing a 9-8 decision to Otay Ranch’s Vic Anton in the fifth-place match at 130 pounds.
Barnes, Bell and Lopez all finished with four pins in as many matches while Arambula had three pins.
Haynes started off the Bonita Vista championship parade by recording a tooth-and-nail 6-5 victory against San Ysidro’s Joey Alvarez. The top-seeded wrestler in the weight class, Alvarez entered the tournament with 21 wins and 16 pins. Haynes, seeded third, upset the second-seeded wrestler in the weight class, Scripps Ranch’s Andrew Palmes, with a 5-2 semifinal win to draw Alvarez in the title match.
Arambula pinned Lincoln’s Daniel Johnson in 3:09 to capture the 154-pound individual championship. Arambula’s three pins include a 37-second fall in first round and a fall in 3:23 in semifinals. He also won by a 17-3 major decision in the quarterfinals.
Barnes pinned Scripps Ranch’s Nick Kieper in 2:31. Barnes pinned his three previous opponents in 1:26 (first round), 0:49 (quarterfinals) and 2:47 (semifinals).
Bell, who towers over most of his opponents, pinned Otay Ranch’s Eddie Bajet in 2:13 in a potential preview of the upcoming Metro finals. Bell opened the tournament with pins of 2:33 (first round), 2:52 (quarterfinals) and 1:01 (semifinals).
Bajet, seeded third, scored a 6-4 victory against second-seeded Yaraslav Katkov of Scripps Ranch in the semifinals after opening the tournament with pins of 3:15 and 2:10.
Lopez may have produced the most dominating performance of the tournament for the Barons with pins of 1:08 (first round), 1:26 (quarterfinals), 0:47 (semifinals) and 1:46 (finals). Lopez pinned Serra’s Jordi Kata in the championship round.
Humiston dropped a 9-1 major decision to top-seeded Chris Seo of Mission Hills in his finals match while McCrorey lost by a 3-1 decision to Castle Park’s Jovonnie Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was seeded second in his weight class; McCrorey upset top-seeded Armondo Viramontes of Montgomery in the semifinals to advance to meet Gonzalez.
Overall, eight Metro wrestlers captured individual weight class titles at last weekend’s San Ysidro Invitational while South County teams combined for 15 finalists.
Otay Ranch finished with two champions — Eddie Estevez (105 pounds) and Jonathan Henkle (heavyweight) — three finalists and four medal-winners overall.
Estevez defeated three Metro wrestlers in succession to advance to the championship match. He opened the tournament with pins of 4:53 (against San Ysidro’s Carlos Portillo) and 25 seconds (against Mater Dei's Jorge Gamez) and out-pointed top-seeded Johnston of Bonita Vista, 6-5, in the semifinals. Estevez pinned Canyon Crest Academy’s Josh Spry in the championship round in 1:39 to finish with three falls in four matches.
Henkle earned the top seed in his weight class, pinning all three of his opponents en route to capturing the gold medal. He pinned his first opponent in 41 seconds and followed with a 3:13 pin in the semifinals.
Also placing runner-up in their respective weights were Sweetwater’s Ricardo Yaji (114 pounds) and Alvaro Castillo (217 pounds) and Montgomery’s Mario Alvarez (147 pounds).
Yaji, seeded third, scored pins of 1:30 and 1:15 to advance to the finals where he dropped an 11-8 decision to Canyon Crest's Daniel Gallenson.
Castillo also recorded a pair of falls — 3:09 and 3:20 — to qualify for the finals.
Alvarez jump-started the tournament with two pins (1:58 and 1:38) before scoring a 9-8 win in the semifinals.
Sweetwater finished the tournament with four medalists: Yaji (second, 114 pounds), Cesar Chavez (third, 137 pounds), Omar Vargas (fifth, 173 pounds) and Castillo (second, 217 pounds).
Tourney host San Ysidro finished with five medalists: Portillo (fifth, 105 pounds), Alvarez (second, 121 pounds), Brandon Gregory (fifth, 127 pounds), Christian Quevedo (third, 154 pounds) and Jonathan Bastien (287 pounds).
Montgomery, which finished in 12th place, had three medalists: David Valenzuela (third, 121 pounds), Viramontes (third, 142 pounds) and Alvarez (second, 147 pounds).
Olympian, which finished in 13th place, had three medalists: Jose Gonzalez (third, 114 pounds), Mark Pimentel (third, 121 pounds) and John Grylls (fourth, 191 pounds).
Southwest, which finished in 18th place, had two medalists: Jesus Barron (fourth, 114 pounds) and Taylor Dutcher (fourth, 215 pounds).
Holtville Invitational
Hilltop competed last weekend in the two-day Holtville Invitational, coming back from the desert with six grapplers with top five tourney showings: Anthony Salinas (fifth, 114 pounds), Mike Reyes (fourth, 132 pounds), Matt Reyes (third, 137 pounds), Roman Flores (third, 147 pounds), David Ramirez (fourth, 154 pounds) and Andrew Aguilar (second, heavyweight).
Eastlake’s David McCluggage finished second in his 142-pound weight class while other Titan place-winners included Ryan Gobeil (third, 127 pounds) and Xavier Godoy (fifth, 173 pounds).
Mar Vista’s Carter Barnett finished second at 154 pounds. The Mariners also had place-winners at 173 pounds (sixth) and 217 pounds (fifth).
Dual report
Bonita Vista defeated Eastlake, 39-33, on Jan. 28 to take an undefeated 4-0 record into Thursday’s league championship match-up against Hilltop. For the Barons, Bell and Lopez pinned their respective opponents in their final two matches to add an exclamation point to the victory.
Bonita Vista opened league dual meet competition on Jan. 8 with a 72-0 win against Mater Dei, recording 13 pins. The Barons subsequently defeated Chula Vista (59-16) and Otay Ranch (50-18).
Hilltop opened the Mesa League season on Jan. 8 with a 54-21 dual win against Otay Ranch and topped Eastlake, 41-15, on Jan. 22.