El Capitan boys, Atwater girls wrestlers shine at Central California Conference tournament
The El Capitan High wrestling team had three days to regroup after losing to Golden Valley on Saturday in the final dual match of the season.
After the loss, the only way the Gauchos could earn a share of the Central California Conference championship was by winning the CCC Tournament.
El Capitan did just that Wednesday, pushing eight wrestlers into the finals, with four of them taking home individual titles in the CCC Tournament at Atwater High.
The Gauchos finished with 224 points, 25 more than Golden Valley, to earn a share of the conference championship with the Cougars.
“I’m so proud of these kids,” El Capitan coach John Petty said.
Gaucho wrestlers Isaiah Serena (112 pounds), Jesus Garcia (135), Juan Martinez (144) and Jose Barnabe (226) won individual championships. Garcia and Barnabe became the second and third El Capitan wrestlers to become two-time league champions.
“It was a very special moment for me,” Garcia said. “I’m tied with two other people as a two-time champion. A lot of hard work went into this.”
Petty said the loss to Golden Valley was tough to swallow, but they knew the season wasn’t over. They put all their energy into the tournament.
“I thought we wrestled incredible,” Petty said. “All the hard work paid off. I would have liked to peak on Saturday, but we got beat. Golden Valley wrestled tough. We knew we had more time. We focused on finishing strong and we did.”
Golden Valley also had four individual winners: Keat Cullen (158), David Lopez (166), Josh Hickman (201) and Ezekiel Trevino (291).
Also winning individual titles were Merced’s Ryan Lee (176) and Marcus Almanza (188), Hilmar’s Nobel Santos (119) and Emmett Carter (126), and Buhach Colony’s Akbar Zamani (132) and Maclain Oh (151).
Oh had to come back late to record an escape in the final seconds of the third round to force overtime. He then scored a takedown against Hilmar’s Broc Perry to win 6-4.
“This was really special because he beat me pretty good in our last dual,” Oh said. “I had to have the mindset to get over it. I had to dig down really deep to tie it in the third round. I knew this was going to be my last match ever, being a senior. When I got the takedown in overtime, it was one of the best feelings ever.”
Atwater girls win
The Atwater girls wrestling team ran away with the girls tournament. The Falcons had eight wrestlers reach the finals, with five of them taking home individual championships.
Atwater finished with 149 team points. Buhach Colony was second with 91 points.
Yvette Villalobos (106), Brooklyn Canela (131), Ulyette Curiel (142), Brianna Juarez (165) and Yisela Vera-Rojas (240) won championships for the Falcons.
The other individual champions were Janet’V Baptista (Livingston, 111), Jackie Hernandez (El Capitan, 116), Leilany Gonzales (El Capitan, 121), Isabel Perez-Zoghbi (Merced, 126), Natalie Flores (Golden Valley, 148), Niara Jones (El Capitan, 155) Najeh Russo (Buhach Colony, 175) and Emily Pacheco (Buhach Colony, 194).
