 Cerritos College
sophomore 141-pound wrestler
Mike
Koehnlein (Marina HS) not only
avenged a loss in the Southern California Regional
Championships to Santa Ana College's Bobby Scofield,
he did so on the grandest stage of the season.
Koehnlein, who finished in third place in last
year's state championship, posted a 9-2 win to
capture the college's 46th all-time individual state
championship. The Falcons, who had three wrestlers
advance to the championship round, finished in
fourth place as a team with 91.5 team points,
trailing only Fresno City College, who won their
second title in the last three years with 133
points, as well as Santa Ana (118) and Sierra
College (115).
"My approach in
the match was to be aggressive, but smart," said
Koehnlein, who finished the season with a 39-4
record. "Losing to him (Scofield) last week opened
my eyes, but at the same time, it relieved a lot of
my stress."
In the other
championship matches, freshman Caleb
Gerl (Calvary Chapel HS) was
defeated by Fresno City's Steven Urquizo, 5-3, while
sophomore 285-pound
Juan
Enriquez (John Glenn HS)
dropped a 9-3 decision to Matt Gibson of Sierra
College. Last year, Enriquez came in third place in
the state championships.
For Koehnlein, he
opened the match with a hard shot and recorded a
takedown with 1:21 remaining in the first period. He
continued to pressure Scofield and finished the
period with 1:22 in riding time on the clock. But in
the second, Scofield looked to make a comeback and
even had Koehnlein in a possible pinning situation.
Koehnlein broke out of the hold and turned it into a
reversal for a 4-0 lead with 1:00 left. In the
third, a takedown with 1:20 left upped his lead to
6-1, while Koehnlein also added a reversal at the
buzzer.
"My goal from the
end of last year's state championship was to come
back and win it this year," added Koehnlein. "We had
a real good chance as a team coming into today with
six in the semi-finals, and I was excited that we
have six All-Americans this season."
Head coach
Donny Garriott added,
"Mike wrestled a very smart match against a guy who
knew as much about him as he knew about. He did a
very good job all season and especially this
weekend."
Gerl, who was the
top-seed from the South, fell behind 3-0 in the
second period after Urquizo posted a three-point
near-fall. Gerl responded with a two-point reversal
and appeared to be in position to get Urquizo on his
back. But his opponent spun around and was awarded a
two-point reversal with one second left in the
second period. Gerl rode Urquizo the entire third
period, but could not get him on his back and
dropped a 5-3 decision.
Facing a much
taller opponent, Enriquez had a hard time facing
someone who had already defeated him three times
this season. Gibson scored an early takedown in the
first period and had his lead up to 7-0 in the third
period before Enriquez scored an escape and
takedown. His energy level seemed to increase, but
Gibson was able to hold him off and gave Enriquez
his fourth out of five losses all year.
Also earning
All-American honors this season were freshman
125-pound
Joe Cabanas (Canyon
Springs HS) and freshman 133-pound freshman
Ryan
Giovenco (North Torrance HS), who each
came in third place, while freshman 157-pound
Eric Sauvageau (Loara HS)
finished in fourth place.
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