Golden Valley wrestlers win CCC championship to wrap up third consecutive title
The Golden Valley High boys wrestling team wrapped up their third consecutive Central California Conference championship by winning the CCC Tournament on Saturday at Central Valley High School.
The Cougars placed 10 wrestlers in the finals and came away with four individual champions to finish with 244 team points. Merced finished with five individual champions and finished second with 233 points.
“We talked all year about winning a championship, since we started in November,” said Golden Valley coach Chopper Mello. “We worked hard and went 21-1 in dual matches in December and January and then we got shut down for COVID. It was our goal all along, but it was nice to see the kids not lose focus on the end goal.”
Golden Valley and Merced both went 5-0 during CCC dual matches in the regular season. The two teams didn’t get an opportunity to wrestle each other because the match was canceled due to COVID. So the winner of the CCC Tournament would win the league championship.
Golden Valley’s Devin Fagan (128 pounds), Josiah Gonzalez-Martin (162), Travon Moore (172) and Ezekiel Trevino (197) all won individual championships.
The Bears also had a good showing on Saturday with Elijah Valencia (108), Isaiah Serena (115), Abram Granados (122), Colin Krieger (154) and Anthony Nixon (222) all winning championships in their respective divisions.
The other individual CCC champions were Patterson’s Jesse Cota (134) and Thomas Flores (140), Buhach Colony’s Jose Mata (147) and Joel Lara (heavyweight) and Central Valley’s Ruben Valenzuela (184).
The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the Division III Championships on Feb. 12 at Vista Del Lago High School.
Girls
The Merced and Golden Valley girls wrestling teams each had three wrestlers win individual titles in the CCC Girls Championship Tournament, which was also held at Central Valley on Saturday.
Damarys Anguiano-Lara (118), Natalie Flores (139) and Elyse Flores (145) all won individual championships for Golden Valley.
Merced’s three champions were Jessica Flores (123), Isabel Perez-Zoghbi (128) and Evelyn Vargas (172).
Central Valley won the team championship with 134 points. Merced finished second with 94 points.
Central Valley’s Julia Roton (191) and Brianna Espinoza (heavyweight) won individual championships.
The other division champions were Buhach Colony’s Lilly Sanchez (103) and Najeh Russo (162), Patterson’s Lexie Capote (108) and Mariam Balumbu (133) and Atwater’s Zoey Brown (113).
The girls will return to Central Valley on Friday and Saturday for the South Regional Girls Wrestling Tournament with a chance to earn a berth to the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Tournament.
