Morgan Hill was well represented at the CCS championships at Independence High School in San Jose, just missing on chances to send a wrestler to the state meet.
Between Sobrato and Live Oak, Morgan Hill had five placers, including one who just missed out on going to state.
Overall, Sobrato took 21st as team with 50 points after sending six wrestlers to the tournament.
Sobrato had two wrestlers advance into the semifinals of the championship bracket and had one other make a heroic run out of the consolation brackets.
While his teammate Harrison Zhang and Felipe Duenas both saw early success and clinched a shot at a medal, Luis Lopez had to go the long way to his.
The 285-pounder took sixth after having to battle through five consolation rounds, coming up just shy of competing for a spot at the state tournament.
Lopez actually scored a win to open CCS, when he landed a pin in the first 48 seconds into his tournament.
But that set him up to go against the No. 1 seed out of South San Francisco, who eventually pinned Lopez in the second round.
And from there, Lopez went to work.
He got a little help thanks to a forfeit and an injury, but he scored a pin against Terra Nova’s Tory Young in 28 seconds.
And there his luck ran out, getting pinned by eventual third place finisher Jose Sanchez of Gonzales and falling in the fifth-place round to third seed Marc Leon of Oak Grove.
Live Oak, meanwhile, had two placers out of three who advanced to CCS, with John Levis missing out on a chance to compete for a spot in the state tournament following an epic match in the consolation semis.
But it was Sobrato’s Felipe Duenas who got the closest at 126 pounds.
Duenas muscled his way through the first three rounds of the tournament, but ran into a wall when he finally met Gilroy’s Daniel Vizcara.
But even then, he didn’t get railroaded.
Duenas fell into an early 3-0 hole through the first two periods, but scored an escape in the third to pull within two.
He wasn’t able to score the takedown, however, and had to battle is way back through the consolation bracket.
There, Duenas scored an easy 7-2 decision to advance to the consolation finals where one move in the second period decided the match.
Scotts Valley’s Raul Ortiz—who was one match shy of running the full consolation bracket table—scored a takedown in the second round and that was all he needed.
Duenas wasn’t able to get his opponent down nor did he score an escape and settled for fourth place.
Meanwhile, teammate Harrison Zhang had already notched a mark on his belt when he defeated No. 2 seed Seth Goyal from Palo Alto in the semifinals with a 10-5 win.
Zhang wasn’t able to keep the magic alive for a second time against the No. 3 seed, falling 5-1 to Mike Amaro of Prospect.
The then ran into Amman Klair of Monte Vista Christian who had run the gauntlet in the consolation bracket, scoring an 8-3 decision.
Zhang then fell in the fifth place match by way of pin in the third period.
Conversely, Live Oak’s two medalists both went through the same path as Zhang and Duenas.
John Levis, who was seeded sixth, advanced to the quarter finals thanks to an opening round 6-0 win and a pin at the very end of his second round match—officially listed at the six-minute mark of the contest.
But Levis got caught against the No. 3 seed, falling in 32 seconds.
Levis had to then go the long way back to contending for a spot at state, when he won 15-0 in his first bout and then 4-0 to advance to the consolation semis.
Then in a match for the ages, Levis fell 13-8 to Evan Jones of Serra.
Levis and Jones went back and forth for the entire match, but Levis found himself down 11-3.
He battled back to down 11-6 and scored a reversal to go down by three. But Jones went up 13-8 as time was winding down.
Levis took it in stride, giving a thumbs up as the last seconds wound down and had a big smile on his face. He congratulated his competitor and bounced off the mat.
He looked a little more spent after the fifth place match, however, losing 11-7 after holding a 5-2 lead through two periods. He led 7-6 at one point in the third, but saw his fortunes reversed as Michael Guzman of San Benito put up five points to steal the match.
Finally, Javier Torres saw his state hopes crumble before his eyes when a scorer’s error erased what appeared to be a win.
Torres was up 4-3 after two rounds, but was taken down in the third and had his opponent score a two-point near fall.
That near fall wasn’t posted on the board.
So Torres got a reverse and thought he had won 6-5 when the Evergreen coach brought the error to the referee’s attention.
The official went through the log and awarded Harrison Nguyen the victory.
Torres was visibly upset following the decision and stomped off the mat. He did not wrestle in the fifth place match.
Sobrato’s wrestlers
Sophomore Riley Hedden got his first taste of CCS competition at 195 pounds, going 1-2 for the tourney.
Hedden dropped to the consolation round after dropping to Adam Vega in the opening round.
He came back in the consols, winning 4-0 before losing in the consols second round.
Senior Austin Spang at 145 pounds went 0-2 for the tournament.
He lost in a major decision to open the tourney then bowed out on a pin in the consol opener.
At 220 pounds, Ivan Dominguez went 0-2 for the tournament.
He fell to eventual third place winner Jose Quintero in the opening round and then lost to San Benito’s Miguel Puga to exit from the tourney.
Live Oak’s wrestler
Live Oak’s Tyler Souza rounded out the day for the Acorns, going 1-2 for the tournament.
He fell to the consolation bracket after losing in the opening round and kept himself alive with a second-round pin in the consolation opener.
However, Souza fell at the very end of the second round of the consols to Justin Garcia of Evergreen Valley.
