In retrospect, the Live Oak High wrestling team’s dual season-ending loss to Oak Grove was the best thing to happen to the Acorns.
That loss – which gave away the Acorns’ Blossom Valley Athletic League championship – was used as motivation on Saturday in the league tournament at Santa Teresa High in San Jose.
Taking home three championships, Live Oak pulled away from Pioneer and Oak Grove to win the league title. For co-head coach Armando Gonzalez, the title showcased three years of hard work.
“This is three years in the making,” he said. “We started to build this three years ago. It could have happened sooner, but it took three years. This is great.”
Crosstown rival Sobrato also wrestled well – finishing 14th out of 23 teams – but failed to take home an individual title.
Overall, the Acorns finished with six wrestlers in the top four of their respective weight classes.
Isaiah Locsin (122 pounds) continued his roll Saturday, winning all three of his matches by pin. Only one match – the final – lasted more than a minute.
“It was very exciting,” he said. “We came out and did what we needed to do.”
The match of the day, though, belonged to Nick Locsin (147), who clinched the Acorns’ title with a pin in the third period against Leigh’s Ryan Cummings. At the time, Cummings was in the lead and about to win the match.
“It was really cool,” said his cousin, Isaiah Locsin. “We were really fortunate to get that pin to keep us in the lead.”
Adam Mito (128) also took home the top prize with a forfeit victory over Westmont’s Kenji Young. Austin Langford (134) took second after falling to Oak Grove’s Jordan Pierce.
Josh Acosta (140, third) and Derek Peralta (154, fourth) also finished strong for the Acorns.
The success wasn’t a surprise for Gonzalez.
“This is what I knew we could do,” he said. “Our resilience is what did this for us. All of our kids are prepared in our program. We knew what we had to do. This is another example of how far we’ve come. This took us three seasons, and I’m excited to see what we can do next.”
For Sobrato, Brandon Lefore had the best showing, placing second in the 162-pound bracket. Lefore was the only Bulldog to advance to the title round before losing to Pioneer’s Grant Biral by a 5-2 decision.
Albert Newman (172) and Miguel Redmond (197) also wrestled well for the Bulldogs. Both finished in fourth place in their respective brackets.
In the third-place match, Newman was pinned by Tsean Clark of Gunderson. Redmond lost the third-place match by injury default.
Zach Zhang (147) also wrestled well for the Bulldogs, finishing with a 2-2 record. After starting strong, Zhang lost a tough match to Nick Locsin and quickly fell to Silver Creek’s Joel Demarest in the consolation bracket. He took sixth place after neither wrestler took part in the fifth-place match.
The top five wrestlers in each weight class advanced to the Central Coast Section tournament, which will be held today and Saturday at Independence High in San Jose.
Three Bulldogs advanced to the section meet. Meanwhile, the Acorns will bring six wrestlers to the section meet.
“It will be a tough challenge for the kids,” Gonzalez said. “These kids have what it takes.”
