The Live Oak wrestling team finished 12th in last weekend
’s 32-team Jim Root Tournament at West Valley. Saturday was a
long day for seven wrestlers from the Live Oak varsity.
SAN JOSE – The Live Oak wrestling team finished 12th in last weekend’s 32-team Jim Root Tournament at West Valley.
Saturday was a long day for seven wrestlers from the Live Oak varsity.
Meeting before dawn, the abbreviated squad car pooled to West Valley College to compete in the highly regarded event.
After completing the weigh-ins at 7 a.m., the team anticipated the start of wrestling at 9 a.m. Due to administrative errors by tournament officials, none of the wrestlers were awarded any type of seeding.
Following four members of the team were forced to wrestle in an “out-bracket” match while three received byes to the next round. A loss in an out-bracket match is a tough break, since if you lose you are eliminated from the tournament.
At 140 pounds, senior grappler Matt Hendersen was the first Acorn on the mat. Tied 1-1 at the end of regulation wrestling, Hendersen suffered a takedown in overtime and was eliminated from the tournament. This was an ominous start as Hendersen went 5-0 the previous weekend at Antioch.
Seniors Matt Melert and Dan Benevento, competing at 145 lbs. and 152 lbs respectfully, both recorded pins in their out-bracket matches. Benevento recorded a 23 second fall against his opponent.
Dan Wahl at 160 lbs. also recorded an out-bracket fall at 5:59 of the third period. Alejandro Dominguez (103), Chris Horner (171) and Mike Gamez (275) received byes into the first full round of wrestling.
In the first full round, Dominguez received a second bye, while Melert and Gamez recorded pins in 1:16 and 2:25 minutes respectfully. Horner won by technical fall, 16–0, while Benevento and Wahl were both defeated by pin.
In the next round of championship bracket wrestling, Dominguez lost 12-6, while Melert continued his pinning ways recording another fall in 1:17. Horner won 16-12, while Gamez was defeated in a 12–7 decision in overtime.
In the first round of the consolation bracket, Benevento recorded a 17-1 Technical Fall, while Wahl suffered his second defeat 7-2 and was eliminated from the tournament.
The second round of the championship bracket found Melert taking his first loss by a a 6-0 decision to Wilcox’s Justin Carskadon, a returning CCS champion.
Horner suffered a 5:54 pin to the number 2 seed in the 171-pound weight class. In the second round of the consolation bracket, Dominguez recorded a pin, Benevento won a 17-4 superior decision and Gamez defeated the Bellarmine heavyweight with a pin in 3:11.
At the end of this round of wrestling, Live Oak was in 10th place in the team tournament standings.
In the final round of consolations, Dominguez lost 7-1, finishing in sixth place. Melert took his second loss, 7-4 and finished fourth. Benevento won his fourth match of the day 5-1, taking seventh place. Horner took his second loss by pin in 3:40, finishing fourth and Gamez lost by pin in 4:39, finishing sixth.
All wrestlers from seventh place up were awarded medals for their performance. The top three teams were Shafta High School with 199 points, St. Francis with 176 points and Oak Grove with 167.5 points.
Fourth through tenth were Palo Alto, Willow Glen, Monterey, Greenfield, Wilcox, Mitty and Kings Academy, who finished with 64 points. Live Oak finished 12th with 62 points, much higher than anticipated in a rebuilding year for the team.
“We continue to be pleased by the performance of the team this year, despite the fact that we were only able to send seven wrestlers to the Jim Root Tournament,” said Head Coach Ron Nichols. “We are ahead of where we expected to be at this point of the season and continue to prepare for the League Championship Tournament in February.”
The Acorn wrestlers travel to Salinas on Jan. 23 for their next T-CAL league match and compete in the Overfelt tournament in San Jose on Jan. 25.
In the frosh/soph tournament in Los Gatos, two of the three Live Oak competitors medalled. Sophmore Jonathan Redmond finished second, and Britton freshman Jason Henderson took third.
