Delhi’s Flores repeats as as top grappler

Jesse Flores was cast into a new role this season. Last year the Delhi High star was a new face on the scene and caught people by surprise with his postseason success that ended with him standing on the podium after the CIF State Meet with a seventh-place medal.

This year Flores was a household name. The type of wrestler you didn’t want to see on your side of the bracket.

Flores enjoyed a spectacular senior year. He was ranked No. 1 in the Sac-Joaquin Section for most of the season. He won a divisional championship, finished second at Masters and reached the finals at the state tournament where he finished second to Clovis’ undefeated phenom Seth Nevills.

After compiling a 37-4 record, Flores is the Sun-Star Wrestler of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Flores says he relished the idea of being the guy people tried to avoid in the bracket.

“I took a lot of pride in that,” he said. “People knowing who you are, people being afraid to wrestle you. I had their respect and I liked that.”

Last year people weren’t used to seeing a wrestler from Delhi on the big stage. Flores made a name for himself by reaching the semifinals at Masters and then earning his medal at state.

His success last year only elevated his expectations for this season.

“My goal was to win a state championship,” Flores said. “It didn’t turn out that way. My goal after that was to do better than I did last year.”

The road block to a state championship for Flores was Nevills, who pinned Flores three times this season, including the finals of the Doc Buchanan Invitational and the state finals.

Nevills’ win over Flores in the state championship capped a third straight title and a 37-0 record this season. Nevills is 127-0 in his high school career.

“He’s really tough,” Flores said. “He hasn’t lost during his whole high school career. The game plan was to get in close and get a body lock on him. It didn’t turn out that way. He flipped me.”

Flores only other loss – to somebody not named Nevills – came in the Masters finals against Vacaville’s Jake Levengood. Flores was dinged with a controversial stalling call late in the match that proved to be the difference in a 2-1 loss.

“I shouldn’t have lost that match,” Flores said. “He didn’t beat me. He wasn’t better than me. He was better at making me look like I was stalling. I felt we should have gone to overtime and I win it.”

When you go through a season with only four losses each one stings in its own way. But they don’t overshadow all the success Flores had along the way.

Like pinning his way through four matches to reach the Masters final, including a rematch in the semifinals against Del Oro’s Pablo Miller.

“That was fun,” Flores said. “I didn’t go in expecting to pin my way to the finals. Every match was tough and the pins just happened. My semifinal match was tough. Pablo had beat me in last year’s semifinals and he beat me at state. It turned out different this year.”

Part of the reason for Flores’ success this year is he had workout partners that were closer to his weight. Last year he worked out with a 160-pounder every day in practice. It helped his quickness. This year he had teammates Eduardo Martinez (190 pounds) and Zech Ybarra (220) to spar with every day.

Flores wrapped up his Delhi career as the most decorated wrestler in the history of the school.

“Just being from Delhi and placing in the state championship tournament was great,” Flores said. “Not many people can say I made it to the state tournament and placed.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 8:39 PM with the headline "Delhi’s Flores repeats as as top grappler."