|
With two
individual champions and three second place
finishers, the Cerritos College wrestling team was
able to compile 140.5 team points, which were enough
to put them in second place at the Southern
California Regional Tournament at West Hills College
on Saturday. Winning the Southern California title
was South Coast Conference rival Santa Ana College,
who had 159.5 team points. The Falcons had seven of
their 10 wrestlers finish in the top six, so they
will advance to the State Championships, which will
take place at Victor Valley College next Friday and
Saturday.
Leading the way
for Cerritos was the duo of freshman
Caleb Gerl
(Calvary Chapel HS) at 197 pounds and
sophomore 285-pound
Juan
Enriquez (John Glenn HS), who
each won all three of their matches to capture the
championship. At 125 pounds, freshman Joe
Cabanas (Canyon Springs HS)
reached the championship match, as did freshman
Ryan
Giovenco (North Torrance HS)
and 133 pounds and sophomore 141-pound
Mike
Koehnlein (Marina HS), but all
three finished in second place.
Others who will
compete in the state championships include freshman
Eric Sauvageau (Loara HS)
at 157 pounds, who came in third place, while
sophomore
Adam Hase
(Long Beach Millikan HS) finished seventh
in the tournament, but advanced as the sixth place
wrestler when Moorpark College's Matt McCauley did
not appear for his sixth place wrestle-off. The
Falcons could have had an eighth advance, but
freshman149-pound
Tillman
Tran (Loara HS) lost his
sixth-place wrestle-off against Daniel Gudino of
Victor Valley College. The wrestle-off between the
sixth and seventh place wrestler is held if the two
have not faced each other during the season to see
who advances to the state tournament.
For Gerl, who was
seeded #1, he received a bye in the first round and
then defeated Faustino Becerra (Moorpark) by pin in
2:31 before posting a 15-0 technical fall over Josh
Villagomez of Mt. San Antonio in the semi-finals. In
the championship match, Gerl registered a 15-5
victory over Matt Garcia of West Hills. In the
285-pound weight category, Enriquez was also seeded
#1 and received a bye in the first round. After
opening with a 9-1 win over Ryan Wallace of Cuesta,
Enriquez pinned Edgar Rodriguez of West Hills in
4:00 to advance to the finals. In that match, he
posted a 4-2 win over Tommy James of Mt. San Antonio
for the championship.
In the matches
where Falcons came in second place, Cabanas opened
with an 18-1 technical fall over David Prado of
Moorpark and followed with an 8-5 victory over Kyle
Hamabata of Mt. San Antonio. A 10-2 win over Alex
Carrico of Rio Hondo sent Cabanas to the finals
where he dropped an 11-6 decision to top-seeded
Jaime Martinez of Santa Ana. Giovenco, seeded
second, had a bye until the semi-finals, where he
pinned Justin Garza of East Los Angeles in 4:26,
sending him to the finals. In that match, Giovenco
was defeated, 4-1 by top-seeded Gabe Aguilar of
Santa Ana. Koehnlein entered the 141-pound division
as the top seed and received a bye in the first
round. After a pin over Ryan Takei (East Los
Angeles) in 54 seconds, he defeated Jose Mondragon
of Palomar, 11-3. But in the championship match,
Koehnlein was upset by Bobby Schofield of Santa Ana,
5-4.
Others who
competed for Cerritos but did not advance to the
state tournament included freshman
Daniel
Wosik (Bonanza, NV HS), who
came in seventh place at 165 pounds and freshman
197-pound
Mario
Delgado (North Torrance HS),
who also placed seventh.
|
