Juarez upset win highlights CCC championships

When the whistle blew Atwater junior Johnny Juarez was just as confused as everybody.

The Falcons’ 152-pounder didn’t know whether he’d won or loss until he saw his coaches jumping up and down in his corner.

Juarez and Merced’s Romeo Medina were both in precarious positions with their backs on or near the mat. The referee ruled Medina’s shoulders were on the mat for two seconds and awarded the win and the 152-pound championship to Juarez at the Central California Conference championships on Thursday at Atwater High.

“When the whistle blew I didn’t know if I was pinned or he was pinned,” Juarez said. “My coaches were going crazy so I started going crazy. I looked over at the Merced coaches and they looked iffy so I figured I had won.”

Merced coach Clayton Schneider protested the call with the referee but the decision stood. The Merced coaches felt Medina had Juarez on his back for close to seven seconds prior to Medina rolling onto his shoulders.

It was a huge win over a defending section champion for Juarez.

“We went hard at each other and we kind of hurt each other when we went face to face,” Juarez said. “He got my legs and I thought I was pinned. I was on my back thinking I’ve can’t stay here. I’ve got to get up for my coaches. I was able to get my hips up and work something. It went really fast.”

Golden Valley’s Jacob Perry and Turlock’s Brady Egleston found themselves in a similar situation in their 126-pound final. Egleston tried to lock in a cradle on Perry and Perry tried to do the same on Egleston.

Ultimately, it was Perry getting the reversal points and three near-fall points to take a 5-0 lead at the end of the second round.

“That’s something I always do,” Perry said. “If you try to get me in the cradle, I’m going to try to get you in the cradle. I could hear coach (Chopper) Mello yelling, ‘No. No. No. You don’t want to do that.’ But I knew I could get it.”

Perry fought through a knee injury to defeat Egleston 7-1 to win his first CCC title.

“It feels amazing,” the Golden Valley senior said. “I’ve worked so hard for four years to get this. The first three years I wasn’t able to get one but this year I finally did.”

Perry and the Cougars had a great start to the tournament as Golden Valley landed eight wrestlers in the finals and took a three-point lead over Pitman into the final round.

The Pride rebounded, going 6-0 in the finals to win the team title with 210.5 points. Golden Valley and Buhach Colony tied for second with 189.

Isaiah Perez (113 pounds), Adam Velasquez (120), Angel Velasquez (132), Lorenzo Lewis (138), Gilbert Valadez (145) and Cristian Clement (170) all won titles for Pitman.

“That’s pretty good,” Lewis said. “I wasn’t expecting us do that. We came out as a team and wanted to show everybody we’re the best team. Our team is pretty tough.”

Buhach Colony had a strong performance, taking home three individual titles in Brandon Mendoza (106), Francisco Velasquez (160) and Jay Johnson (195).

Mendoza went into his final round of his championship match against Golden Valley’s Criselio Rivera tied 4-4 and was able to get three near-fall points for the win.

“I knew I had to do something to get points because he was on bottom and had the advantage,” Mendoza said. “If I let him up I was going to have to work twice as hard to get a takedown. I knew I had to turn him and it set up perfectly for a tilt.”

The top four in each division advance to next week’s Division I-AA championnships at Del Oro High in Loomis.

This story was originally published February 12, 2015 at 10:56 PM with the headline "Juarez upset win highlights CCC championships."