2008 San Diego Section Masters Championships

Masters is monster again

Posted Feb. 28, 2008
It is no secret that the stronghold of high school wrestling has shifted decidedly north of Interstate 8 and the results of this year’s San Diego Masters state qualifying tournament confirm that. The top four place-finishers in each of the 14 weight classes at last Saturday’s finals at Mission Hills High School in San Marcos earned coveted trips to this weekend’s state championship meet in Bakersfield.

North County mat men captured 44 of those 56 guaranteed berths — or 79 percent of the total. The remaining 12 guaranteed state qualifying berths were divided as follows: one for the City Conference, four for the Grossmont Conference, five for Imperial Valley teams and, drum roll … two from the Metro Conference.

There was a time when the best from the Metro Conference — and other non-North County leagues — was the envy of the section. Now individual teams from North County out-perform the best from what an entire conference has to offer.

Poway qualified 12 grapplers for this weekend’s state meet while La Costa Canyon and Vista each had six qualifiers.

Rancho Buena Vista and Carlsbad each had three state qualifiers — more than all 13 Metro Conference teams combined.

Metro Conference nets two state qualifiers
Mar Vista’s Medrano, Hilltop’s Martinez qualify for elite meet
Given the competitive blender called Masters, what can be said is that the cream does rise to the top — regardless of where one wrestles.

The two celebrated South County heroes to punch their tickets to Bakersfield are Mar Vista junior Hugo Medrano (137 pounds) and Hilltop senior Javier Martinez (142 pounds).

Martinez placed third in his weight class while Medrano finished fourth. Martinez becomes a two-time state meet qualifier after qualifying last year as a junior. This is Medrano’s first of what the Mariner coaching staff hopes will be two trips to high school’s promised land of wrestling.
As a team, Mar Vista finished 14th and Hilltop 15th in the 72-team entry field. Bonita Vista finished 19th to give the Metro Conference three top 20 teams.

Respect ... to a degree. But not in the same league as teams from the northern fringes of the section.

Poway won the team title in annual runaway fashion with 318.5 points. La Costa Canyon was second with 195 points, Vista third with 175 points, Brawley fourth with 119.5 points, Rancho Buena Vista fifth with 114 points, Carlsbad sixth with 99 points and Valley Center seventh with 91.5 points.

The Metro Conference qualified 43 wrestlers for the two-day Masters tournament — only two got through the mat monster.

Martinez, the reigning Division II champion, drew the No. 2 seed in his weight class and opened the tournament with two wins to advance to the semifinals. The Hilltop grappler recorded a 15-0 technical fall against Orange Glen’s Josh Gordon in his first match and then out-pointed Escondido’s Joe Rivera 4-2 in his second match.

The Lancer standout drew La Costa Canyon’s Dustin Hernandez, the Division I runner-up, in the semifinals. Hernandez got enough of a lead to fend off Martinez’s offensive jabs to record a 4-1 upset victory and advance to the finals for a rematch against Torrey Pines’ Daniel Kwittken, the Division I champion.

Hernandez lost 10-7 to Kwittken in the Division I championship match but recorded a 2:40 pin against his adversary in the showcase Masters final en route to earning the tournament’s outstanding lower weight award.

Martinez regrouped and won his next two matches in the consolation round by fall. He pinned Hoover’s Ty Eison — his championship opponent in the Division II finals — in 4:27 to qualify for the third-place bout. Martinez pinned Rancho Bernardo’s Mel Dramen in 2:20 in the bronze medal match.

Medrano, the champion in his weight class at the Division III finals, was seeded seventh in his weight class but won his opening two matches to advance to the semifinals. The MV matster topped Granite HIlls’ Ryan Garat by a 5-1 score in his first match en route to scoring a 14-4 major decision against second-seeded Justin Macovichuk from Valley Center in the quarterfinals.

Medrano drew third-seeded Danny Varela of Orange Glen, the Division II champion, in the semifinals, with Varela recording a tight 5-2 victory to drop the Mariner wrestler to the consolation semifinals. Medrano decisioned Mt. Carmel’s Brandon Hetzler 11-5 to advance to the bronze medal match where he lost 4-2 to Brawley’s Mason Rodriguez.

Four Metro mat men qualified for fifth-place matches: Mar Vista’s Allan Delos Reyes (127 pounds), Montgomery’s Hector Hernandez (132 pounds), Hilltop’s Andy Galata (147 pounds) and Mar Vista’s Tommy McLaughlin (191 pounds). Hernandez, Galata and McLaughlin all placed fifth while Delos Reyes finished sixth.

Hernandez, voted the Metro's outstanding lower weight wrestler at the conference finals prior to winning his weight class at the Division III championship tournament, drew the No. 6 seed but won his first two matches to advance to the semifinals. He bested Valley Center’s Wyatt Castner 7-1 and then recorded a 16-6 major decision against Mt. Carmel’s Primo Julian, the No. 3 seeded-wrestler, in the quarterfinals. Hernandez dropped a narrow 6-4 decision to No. 2-seeded Derek Dixson of Vista in the semifinals but was assured of an appearance in the medal round despite losing his subsequent consolation match-up against Monte Vista super freshman Shervin Iraniha (a 5-3 winner). Hernandez topped RBV’s Mario Ramos 3-1 in the battle for fifth place.

Galata, the Metro champion in his weight class and the No. 2 finisher at the Division II finals, was seeded fourth. He pinned Imperial’s Israel Ramos in 4:33 in his first match but dropped a 12-7 decision to fifth-seeded Russell Delmar of RBV in the quarterfinals. Galata fought back valiantly with back-to-back wins in the single-elimination wrestle-backs to qualify for the medal round. He eliminated Torrey Pines’ Spencer Sarazin with a 12-2 major decision and then ousted Patrick Henry’s Thomas Mendoza by an 11-3 major decision. Galata fell short of Orange Glen’s Aaron Smith (the Division II champion) by a 5-1 decision in the consolation semifinals but captured fifth place with a dominating 14-1 major decision against San Marcos’ Jarrod McGeehee.

Smith had beat Galata 9-1 in the Division II championship match a week earlier.

McLaughlin, the Metro’s outstanding upper weight wrestler at the conference finals and champion in his weight class at the Division III tournament, was seeded sixth and won his first two matches to make it to the semifinals, topping Torrey Pines’ Shawn Murphy by a 5:11 pin and Mission Hills’ Andy Bowen (the No. 3-seeded wrestler) by a 13-2 major decision. The Mariner strongman exited the championship bracket following a 4-2 loss to No. 2-seeded Chase Eskam of Carlsbad (the runner-up at the Division I finals) in the semifinals. McLaughlin dropped a narrow 4-3 decision to Vista’s Mike Thomas in the consolation semifinals to drop further to the fifth-place match where he bested Bowen 8-4 in a rematch.

Delos Reyes was seeded sixth and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 13-7 victory against Westview’s Ben Demeulle. Delos Reyes, the No. 3 placer at the Division III finals, then lost to El Camino’s Jaydy Gonzales (the No. 2 placer at the Division I finals) by a 10-6 decision to drop to the single-elimination wrestle-backs where he eliminated Valley Center’s William DeYoung (12-7 decision) and Mission Hills’ Chris Seo (3:04 pin) to qualify for the medal round. Delos Reyes lost his ensuing match to LCC’s Nick Nelson 11-4 to drop to the fifth-place match. Lincoln’s Adrian Najera took fifth with a 5-2 decision.

The state tournament starts Friday, Feb. 29, and concludes Saturday, March 1, at the 9,000-seat Rabobank Arena, home of the ECHL Bakersfield Condors professional ice hockey team.

Masters notepad
Poway finished with seven Masters champions, followed by La Costa Canyon with three champions, Vista with two champions and Santa Fe Christian and Rancho Buena Vista each with one champion.

Poway’s Tim Boone, a returning state medalist, earned honors as the tournament's outstanding lower weight wrestler while SFC's Kyler Hasson was named the outstanding upper weight wrestler. Boone racked up three pins and an 18-0 technical fall in the finals to win his 137-pound division while Hasson navigated his way to the championship from his fifth-seeded position with four consecutive wins, including a finals win in overtime against reigning Division I champion Taylor Benson of Carlsbad.