The Granite Hills High School wrestling team continues to gain momentum as the season quickly heads into postseason competition.
“Our goal for CIF is to get all 14 wrestlers qualified for Masters,” said Granite Hills head coach Jesse Sheard, whose team wrapped up an undefeated league dual meet season to win its fifth league championship. “For Masters our goal is to get a handful of kids qualified for state. We have two weeks until CIF; we are going to fix some things and get ready to compete.”
The Eagles finished fourth as a team at last weekend’s two-day 58th annual Holtville Rotary Invitational — second best behind Rancho Bernardo among San Diego County teams in the 31-team field. The Broncos led the tourney with 307 points, followed by Imperial Valley power Brawley with 202 points in second place and KOFA Yuma with 187.5 points in third place.
Granite Hills tallied 172.5 points to place ahead of tournament host Holtville, which finished fifth with 141.5 points.
Sophomore Collin Guffey continued his breakout season after finishing in first place in his 134-pound weight class. He was among seven Granite Hills mat men overall who earned place-finishes at the long-standing event.
Devon Wells (128), J.J. Suetos (140) and Zach Waterhouse (147) all finished third in their respective weight classes while Camren Carmickle (115) and Geo Fraser (128) both placed fifth. Ryan Carroll (122) finished sixth.
Guffey, who finished 4-0 in the tournament with three pins, recorded a 4-1 decision over Rancho Bernardo’s Marcus Caro in the championship round.
In a trio of third-place matches:
•Wells posted a tight 1-0 decision over Rancho Bernardo’s Brayden Concepcion.
•Suetos recorded a 7-0 decision over St. Augustine’s Blaze Ackerman.
•Waterhouse pinned Canyon Crest Academy’s Jonathan Saenz in 3:27.
Waterhouse finished 5-1 with four pins, including two in the first period.
Wells finished 5-1 in six matches with three pins.
Suetos finished 4-1 with two pins.
In fifth-place matches:
•Carmickle won by a 16-0 technical fall over KOFA’s Jose Moreno.
•Fraser won by a 4-0 decision over KOFA’s Jose Minjivar.
Carroll lost by a 3-1 decision to Santana’s Jessie Hernandez in his medal-round match.
Fraser notched five wins, including two falls, in seven matches.
Carmickle racked up three pins and one technical fall in six matches.
Carroll had three pins in six matches, including two in the first period.
Besides Granite Hills, seven other East County teams competed in Holtville. Helix Charter (74 points) finished 10th in the team standings while West Hills (73.5 points) finished 11th. Santana (68 points) tied for 14th place while Steele Canyon (65 points) finished in 16th place.
Mountain Empire (51 points) finished 20th while El Capitan (36.5 points) finished 22nd. Monte Vista (33 points) finished 25th.
Monte Vista’s Zahi Davis captured the 147-pound title with a 5-2 decision over Carlsbad’s Octavius Parker. Davis finished 4-0 with two pins (3:27 and 1:24), one major decision (17-6) and one minor decision.
West Hills’ Ryder Dearborn (162) and Lance Briseno (287) both placed runner-up in their respective weight classes while Helix’s Jayden Avila (222) also recorded a second-place finish.
Dearborn surrendered an 18-6 loss by major decision to Rancho Bernardo’s Ryan Badgett in the championship round to finish the two days of wrestling with a 4-1 record that included three pins (1:38, 1:54 and 2:33) and one technical fall (15-0).
Briseno lost by an 8-4 decision in his finals match to Oceanside’s William Montano while Avila dropped his finals match by a 0:53 fall to San Marcos’s Mathias Sorenson.
Briseno finished 3-1 with two first-period pins (1:35 and 1:18).
Avila advanced to the championship round on the strength of four consecutive pins, including two in the first period.
Third-place medalists included Steele Canyon’s Brian Nero (134) and Mountain Empire’s Larry Clark (197).
Nero recorded a 12-3 major decision over Vista’s Jacob Quiroz to finish 5-1 in the tournament with two technical falls and two major decisions.
Clark posted a 6-3 win over KOFA’s Casey Kinell to finish 4-1 in five matches with three pins.
Santana’s Hernandez, who previously captured his weight class at the Jan. 15 Monte Vista tournament, placed fifth at 122 pounds with a 3-2 record.
El Capitan’s Riley Jones finished fifth at 108 pounds following a 6-4 win over Olympian’s Samuel Costa. Jones finished with a 5-2 record that included two pins, one technical fall and one major decision.
Helix’s Troy Nguyen finished sixth at 154 pounds with a 4-3 record that included a pair of pins.
Steele Canyon’s Javier Sanchez finished sixth at 162 pounds while Mountain Empire’s Chaz Ennis was sixth at 222 pounds.
Sanchez finished 4-3 with four pins, including three in the first period (0:51, 1:16 and 1:34).
Ennis finished 4-3 with three first-period pins (0:15, 1:11 and 1:20) and one injury default win.
Purple Nation
Santana recorded seven place-finishers at January’s Monte Vista Invitational: senior Jessie Hernandez (first, 122), senior Joshua Dulin (second, 287), sophomore Gavin Clark (third, 197), senior Blake Johnson (fourth, 172), freshman Michael Gans (fifth, 108), freshman Gage Malott (fifth, 154) and freshman Daniel DiCroce (sixth, 222).
Silver lining
Grossmont’s Jacob Barnes placed second at 115 pounds at the San Pasqual Invitational on Jan. 22 and recorded another runner-up finish at the Escondido Cougar Classic on Jan. 29. Barnes collected three pins between the two tournaments.
