For the best local grapplers, Saturday
’s Tri-County Athletic League wrestling finals at Hollister-San
Benito High was a mere tune-up for this weekend’s Central Coast
Section Championships and next weekend’s State Finals. These are
the wrestlers – largely from Gilroy and Hollister – with their eyes
on a prize loftier than TCAL
bragging rights. For the rest, the TCAL Championships were an
exclamation mark on the 2004-05 season and, at best, an outside
shot at qualifying for those Central Coast Section finals at San
Jose’s Overfelt High this Friday and Saturday.
For the best local grapplers, Saturday’s Tri-County Athletic League wrestling finals at Hollister-San Benito High was a mere tune-up for this weekend’s Central Coast Section Championships and next weekend’s State Finals. These are the wrestlers – largely from Gilroy and Hollister – with their eyes on a prize loftier than TCAL bragging rights.
For the rest, the TCAL Championships were an exclamation mark on the 2004-05 season and, at best, an outside shot at qualifying for those Central Coast Section finals at San Jose’s Overfelt High this Friday and Saturday.
But for those in the stands, the action on the mat was simply another chance to witness first-rate wrestling from a first-rate league that pretty much has a headlock on regional grappling dominance for the forseeable future.
Of course, the biggest reason for that dominance is Gilroy High, which as expected dominated the TCALs for the third year in a row, taking eight titles. A slightly lesser reason is Hollister-San Benito High, which won four titles. Both schools will send 14 wrestlers – filling all 14 weight division slots – to Overfelt.
Live Oak took two individual titles, while the Salinas schools were shut out of the first-place spots, as was Sobrato of Morgan Hill, to round out the final standings.
When all was said and done, 70 wrestlers lined up for ribbons and the right to move on to CCS.
The Acorns will send seven wrestlers to the CCS Finals, including top finishers Hondo Dominguez (119) and John Redmond (171).
“We did very good for how many freshmen and sophomores we had,” said Redmond, the lone Acorn with a No. 1 seed going into TCALs.
Live Oak head coach Robert Fernandez said he was pleased with his wrestlers’ performances and he is looking forward to CCS.
“The kids have been training real hard all year,” he said. “We had solid places throughout the tournament.
“We’re going to have a good time at CCS, it will be fun.”
In its first year of competition, Sobrato will send four wrestlers to Overfelt, including Gennaro Redmond, Jake Ortiz, Victor Gillespie, and Jenenetta Marisclan. The Bulldogs had a third-place finish, a fourth and two fifths.
The Mustangs, heavily favored in the tournament, had eight No. 1 seeds going into TCALs. All eight finished first. Gilroy also had two wrestlers place second and four more finished third. The ’Stangs racked up 243.5 points to easily take home the team title.
Hollister’s five No. 1 seeds did almost as well, with four going the distance and only one No. 1 – Chris Mora (119) – falling to second at the hands of Live Oak’s third-seeded Dominguez.
Overall, the ’Balers had 176.5 team points on the day, followed by Live Oak (83.0), Salinas (80.5), Palma (63.5), North Salinas (26.0) and Sobrato (24.0).
Perhaps no finals match better represented the in-a-class-of-their-own rivalry between the ’Stangs and the ’Balers than the 160 division clash between Gilroy’s freshman phenom Hunter Collins and Hollister’s multi-sport star Chuck Thompson.
Collins, the No. 1 seed, had already beaten No. 2 Thompson at last month’s TCAL dual meet between the two schools, and Saturday’s 11-4 decision in his favor would seem to indicate that the freshman has the senior’s number.
The numbers, though, don’t tell the whole story.
Collins had the match well in hand after the first round, and took control again in the third.
It was in the second round that Thompson gave Collins fits, nearly pinning his Mustang opponent before the top seed escaped, shook off the near disaster and outpointed the No. 2 the rest of the way.
“Everyone gives as much effort as they can,” Collins said after the match. “We always want more and we’re never satisfied.”
Hollister head coach Matt Olejnik had nothing but praise for his wrestler, a star running back on the football field as well as the mat for the Haybalers.
“Thompson did very well against the kid who was No. 1 in the section,” Olejnik said.
For his part, Gilroy head coach Armando Gonzalez said he had no doubts that his team would perform up to its own high standards.
“We expected them to do as well as they did,” Gonzalez said. “We thought we would have seven champions, but we ended up with eight.”
Eight champions are impressive under any circumstance, but the fact Gilroy only has one senior and two juniors make the accomplishment that much more noteworthy.
“There is so much work you have to do when you have such a young team,” Gonzalez said.
“But they’ve shown up and wrestled consistently. Now we’re ranked 10th in the state.”
Gilroy’s final ranking of 13th in California after last season was a high water mark for the program – and many thought this year’s squad wouldn’t come close to matching it after graduating several top placers.
But the current crop of kids who won TCAL gold Saturday – freshmen Collins and Tim Ibañez (112), sophomores Nico Naranja (103), Austin Gubrud (140) and Andres Barragan (189), juniors Adin Dueñas (130) and Armando Gonzalez (135), and the lone senior, Joseph Serrano (125) – simply don’t know they’re not supposed to be this good.
The Hollister squad was deficient only by comparison to the mighty Mustangs … in other words, pretty darn good themselves. Remarkably consistent from top to bottom, the Haybalers had wrestlers contest all 14 divisions; just one finished below third place.
Olejnik was happy with his team’s performance and took his hat off to the superior squad from up the road.
“(The Mustangs) were running on all cylinders,” he said. “They’re not ranked No. 1 in TCAL and 10th in the state for nothing.”
But the ’Baler coach had some of his own wrestlers running at full throttle, including top finishers Alex Diaz (145) and Evan Rodriguez (152). Hollister’s one-two punch of big men – Ryan Dunn (215) and heavyweight Jake Mahan won easily.
Mahan needed less than 20 second to pin Gilroy freshman Jeremy Sabla in the final match of the evening.
“He is always our silent contender and slips under the radar of many,” Olejnik said of Mahan.
The heavyweight division is historically thin in TCAL, which is known for its strength in the lower weight classes. Nevertheless, the champion from Hollister said the weight class is getting better.
“Everyone I wrestled did well,” Mahan said. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement from everybody.”
