It wasn’t the way Mike Duran envisioned it at the CIF State
Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena.
Bakersfield – It wasn’t the way Mike Duran envisioned it at the CIF State Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena.
Unfortunately for the Sobrato senior, he ended his tournament on his back against a wrestler ranked in the top-5 in the state.
“He was doing real well and just got caught in the first round,” Sobrato coach Phil Luna said of Duran, who led 5-2 before getting assessed a stalling penalty. “After that, he took a shot and got thrown to his back for a 5-point (turnaround).”
With that, Duran (40-9) had a sense of urgency and got caught by Stevens Espindola with 16 seconds left in the bout. Interestingly, Duran lost 5-4 earlier in the season to state runner-up Kellen Aura.
“Being at his first state meet, he might have been a little shell-shocked,” Luna said. “I’m happy with the season he had.”
After dropping into the consolation bracket, the Central Coast Section 112-pound champion scored a 12-10 decision over Chris Kirk of Ramona.
And then Duran found himself up against Henry Yorba of powerhouse Poway. Yorba pinned Duran in 2:23, and moved through the consolation rounds to finish sixth in the state. By reaching the third round of consolations, Duran went one step farther than CCS placers Rey Mendoza of Watsonville, Junior Davila of Sobrato and Tyler Naman of Harbor.
Thomas Williams, the No. 1-ranked wrestler from Covina-South Hills, won the 112-pound title when he decisioned Kellen Aura of Pleasanton-Foothill, 5-2.
Vacaville won the team title with 124 points with Poway finishing second for the second straight year with 116 points and Buchanan another three points behind in third. Gilroy was easily the best of the CCS teams with 63 points for eighth best overall.
The Mustangs had two third-place finishers – freshman Jesse Delgado (105) and junior Hunter Collins (171). Delgado had to win eight consecutive matches after being pinned in his first bout by Chad Thornack of San Jacinto. One of his eight wins was over Thornack in the consolations. Sophomore Martin Gonzalez finished seventh at 119.
Collins’ matchup with Louis Bland of Modesto Central Catholic in the semifinals was a repeat of last year’s final. Bland built a 6-0 lead but had to hold off Collins’ comeback before escaping with a 7-5 win. But Bland’s bid for a third straight state title was denied by Justin Danz, 9-4, in the final.
The only CCS wrestler to win a state title was Boris Novachkov of Sunnyvale-Fremont, who moved up three weight classes to win at 125. Novachkov won the state title last year at 103.
Note: Genaro Redmond, who was Sobrato’s first state representative last year who didn’t return because of injury, wrestled 17 of the 38 heavyweights in the field this year, according to Luna. He posted a 13-4 record against them.
