Paced by a pair of individual weight champions, the Cerritos College wrestling team took second place in their first tournament of the season. The Falcons, who had nine wrestlers place in the top four, finished with 94.5 team points and trailed only Fresno City College, who had 170 team points and five individual weight champions. Cerritos will look to improve on their finish this Saturday when they compete in the Santa Ana Tournament.
Freshman 125-pound Damien Gomez (Warren HS) and freshman 157-pound Ramon Estrada (Perris HS) each won their weight bracket by winning all four of their matches. For Gomez, he opened with a win by fall and then defeated freshman teammate Miguel Rosales (California HS), 6-0 to reach the semi-finals. A 9-2 win over Darren Salazar of West Hills College set the stage for Gomez to pin Fresno City's Junior Davila in :39 seconds to win the title. For Ramon Estrada, he opened with a win by fall in 2:58 against Claude Claybrook of Sierra College and then recorded a 10-8 decision against Marcial Rodriguez of Lassen College to advance to the semi-finals. In his next two matches, Ramon Estrada posted 9-3 wins to capture the title, which included wins over Brady Bersano of Fresno City in the semi-finals and over Jessie Baldazo of Sierra College in the finals.
Six other Falcon wrestlers reach the semi-finals of their respective weight classes, with four of them coming in third place, and the other two placing fourth. At 133 pounds, freshman Rudy Delgado (North Torrance HS) advanced to the semi-finals with a win by fall and a technical fall, before he was defeated, 9-8 by Michael Ruiz of West Hills College. Delgado rebounded with a 4-2 win over Mark Chambers of Fresno City and then posted a 4-1 win over Austin Walfort of Sierra College for third place. Freshman Voris Meeks (Yucca Valley HS), who dropped his opening match at 149 pounds against Owen Craugh of Lassen College, came right back and won four straight matches to take third place, which included a win by fall in 1:54 over freshman teammate Zach Mitchell (Temecula Valley HS) for third place. Mitchell reached the semi-finals before a loss to eventual champion Conrad Rangell of Fresno City, but then pinned sophomore teammate Alex Razo (La Quinta HS) to face Meeks for third place.
Sophomore Alfonso Estrada (Perris HS) posted a 9-5 win to advance to the semi-finals at 165 pounds, but after a loss, he came back to post a technical fall over Aaron Pickard of Sierra College and then defeated Josh Lujan of West Hills College, 6-4 in the third place match. After splitting his first two matches at 184 pounds, freshman Keith Nieves (Warren HS) pinned Alex Smith of Chabot College, shut out Preston Hill of Fresno City, 13-0 and then recorded a 6-4 decision over John Almen of Sierra College to advance to the third place match. He finished off the tournament with an 8-5 victory over Quinten Becker of Sierra College to come in third place.
At 141 pounds, freshman Anthony Kaouri (Mayfair HS) came in fourth place, even though he lost his first match. He went through the consolation bracket by defeating Byron Treece of Lassen (16-1), Nick Ghannam of Sierra (6-2) and pinned Anthony Neblin of Fresno City in 2:20 to face sophomore teammate Marco Frantantoni (Marina HS), who reached the semi-finals, but was defeated by eventual champion, Alberto Arredla of West Hills. Kaouri squeaked out a 4-3 win over Frantantoni before losing in the third place match. Freshmen 285-pound Spencer Smith (Los Alamitos HS) and Gerardo Aguirre (Oak Hills HS) both advanced to the semi-finals, but suffered losses to send them to the consolation round. Aguirre lost to Mike Perez of West Hills, while Spencer defeated Caleb McDade of Sierra, 11-3 before defaulting against Perez in the third place match.