This year’s high school state wrestling championships Feb. 26-28 at Dignity Health Arena in Bakersfield produced 21 San Diego Section medalists — 13 among boys and eight among girls.
Poway, with 229.5 points, dominated the local boys field with 11 medal-winners (top eight place-finishers) and two weight class champions en route to a runner-up finish behind team champion Buchanan (288.5 points).
Granite Hills fleshed out the section’s honor roll with two medalists: Cash McClurg (third place at 106 pounds) and Ames-Michael Hoevker (sixth place at 144 pounds).
No other section team advanced a wrestler to the awards podium, creating elite company for the two East County mat men. The Eagles finished 13th in the team standings with 57.5 points.
Poway’s state champions included Bailey Holman (157) and Mario Carini (175).
The so-called “blood round” is where the winner is assured of a state medal. McClurg recorded a 21-3 technical fall over Gilroy’s Roman Fonsesca while Hoevker scored a clutch 4-2 win over Esperanza’s James Ruiz.
“Overall, we had an OK year on the girls side,” section girls tournament direcgtor Trevor Keifer said. “I was hoping that we would bring home around 15 medals to get a shot at gaining an extra qualifier. We medaled eight, which kept us safe from losing one. Hitting 13 medals the last two years made me optimistic.”
The section had five semi-finalists and three advanced to the finals, but no champions. Silver medalists included Poway’s Ava Ebrahimi (120), Brawley’s Camille Torres (130) and Rancho Bernardo’s Mary Snider (155).
Snider lost a 2-0 match in the finals while Torres lost 3-0.
“The blood round really hurt,” Keifer said. “We had 10 with a shot at the podium, but only three prevailed. The bright side is that of the 42 qualifiers from San Diego, 28 of them are underclassmen, which bodes well for next year.”
