While Gilroy remains the Central Coast Section’s most dominant wrestling program, the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League has quietly become one of the section’s most dominant leagues.
So as the Mustangs were cruising to an incredible 12th consecutive team championship last weekend at the annual CCS finals held at Independence High School, the SCVAL, led by league champ Fremont, placed three of its teams–all members of the rugged De Anza Division–among the top 10 in team scoring.
“The De Anza Division of the SCVAL is the toughest league right now in the CCS,” said Fremont assistant coach Daniel McCune. “For the last several years, Wilcox, Monta Vista, Fremont and Gunn have been tough.”
The Firebirds, who were runner-up to Gilroy at last year’s tournament, finished a strong third while Monta Vista and Wilcox came in fifth and sixth, respectively. Bellarmine of the West Catholic Athletic League captured second place honors with a very strong performance, while Half Moon Bay of the Peninsula Bay Athletic League rounded out the top five by claiming fourth.
Filling out the top 10 were Everett Alvarez of the Monterey Bay Athletic League in seventh, Christopher of the MBAL in eighth, Aptos of the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League in ninth and Palma of the MBAL in 10th.
“Bellarmine wrestled extremely well, and pretty much dominated everyone but Gilroy,” noted McCune.
The SCVAL will be sending a contingent of eight wrestlers to the state tournament at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield this weekend, including Daniel Huerta and Ezra Clark of Fremont, Jonathan Pohahou and Gabe Fuentes of Wilcox, Max McCann of Monta Vista, Ian Cramer of Gunn, James Giaccia of Palo Alto and Christian Murabito of Saratoga. Both Cramer, at 138 pounds, and Murabito, at 182, claimed individual titles at the section finals.
McCann, who had finished fourth at his weight at both the 2013 (120 pounds) and 2014 (132 pounds) CCS tournaments, earned a second-place finish this year, dropping a 5-1 decision to Cramer in the finals at 138.
The Matadors’ outstanding senior, who was seeded second behind Cramer at the start of the tournament, won his opener in a fall at 3:44 of his match against Archbishop Mitty’s Thomas Formosa.
He then decisioned Daniel Woo of Pioneer 11-4 in the quarterfinals and disposed of Jed Kraft of San Lorenzo Valley by way of an 11-3 major decision in the semifinals to earn a shot at the title against Cramer.
Also capturing runner-up honors was the Firebirds’ Huerta at 160 pounds.
Huerta, who finished sixth at the same weight at the 2014 section finals, was, like McCann, also seeded second at this year’s event. He began his tourney stay with a 17-2 technical fall over Kohana Wiks of Watsonville, and advanced to the semifinals by defeating Johnny DeBianco of Sacred Heart 7-3 in the quarters. In the semi’s, Huerta triumphed by major decision, 15-7, over Ryan Olmos of Lincoln. But in the finals, it was Christopher’s Alex Garcia, the top seed, coming out on top by virtue of a 24-9 technical fall.
Also placing for Fremont at the section tourney was Christian Reyes, who placed sixth at 145.
In addition to McCann’s outstanding effort, the Matadors received a fourth-place showing from Nick Kolesov at 145, and a trio of sixth place performances from Jake Bornstein at 106, Kenji Kadukura at 170 and Adam Rizk at 220.
Kolesov registered pins over Spencer Threatt of Riordan and Ryan Spohn of Monta Vista Christian before being knocked into the consolation bracket following a narrow 6-5 quarter-final decision at the hands of Julian Macias of Bellarmine. He gamely battled back to reach the third place match by pinning Adam Mena of Christopher, beating Juan Ruelas of Alisal 7-3 and then defeating Matthew Martinez of Everett Alvarez 5-4. But in the consolation finals, Kolesov came up on the short end of a 7-1 decision against Bellarmine’s Julian Macias.
At 182 pounds, Lynbrook standout Gavin Dersh-Fisher also copped fourth place.
Dersh-Fisher won his first three matches, blanking Michael Camacho of San Benito 4-0 and Matt McLean of Los Gatos 15-0, and then edging Bellarmine’s Julian Perez 2-1 before losing a tough 5-2 decision to top-seeded and eventual champ Murabito of Saratoga in the semifinals. That put him in the consolation semi’s, where he defeated Anthony Jimenez of Oak Grove 9-4, setting up a rematch with the Bells’ Perez for third place honors. This time is was Perez who came out on top of a close decision, nipping Dersh-Fisher 3-2.
The story of the tournament was once again Gilroy’s total dominance en route to their record-extending 12th consecutive team championship. The Mustangs piled up 282 team points to easily outdistance runner-up Bellarmine, which garnered 151 points. Fremont collected 118.5 points in finishing third.
Gilroy laid claim to six individual championships and three seconds in running away with the team crown.
