Braced by 10 individual weight class champions and 12 finalists, the host Granite Hills boys wrestling team captured the team title at Saturday’s sixth annual Granite Hills Invitational on campus.
The Eagles out-pointed the conpetition in the 25-team field with 320.5 points, well ahead of runner-up Perry (Ariz.) with 197.5 points points and third-place Mira Mesa with 189 points.
Individual champions for the host team included David McClurg (113 poiunds), Emilio Escobar (120 pounds), Damian Arreola (126 pounds), Uriah Hawkins (132 pounds), Ames-Michael Hoevker (150 pounds), Aidan Chur (157 pounds), Anthony Stanley (175 pounds), Jovanni Mansour (190 pounds), Steven Gomez (215 pounds) and Travin Shahbaz (285 pounds).
Also winning weight class titles at the season-opening event were Monte Vista’s Christopher Garcia (106 pounds), Perrty’s Jace Briquelet (138), Mira Mesa’s Ricate Guro (144) and Southwest El Centro’s Julian Cordova (165).
Guro (lower weight) and Gomez (upper weigtht) earned honors as the tournament’s outstanding wrestlers.
Hoevker and Gomez both finished with four pins on the day but Gomez got the nod with most pins in least time.
Hoevker, a sixth-place state medalist last season, has higher hopes for this season.
“My goal is to be a state champion,” he said. “I’ve started out hot but I need to keep it going throughout the season.”
Granite Hills wrestlers finishing second in their weights included Elias Pedroza (113) and Jackson Kartchner (175).
A pair of Grossmont wrestlers made the finals. So Kyaw (144) and Vincent Malero (165) both of whom finished second.
El Cajon Valley’s Jayden Parks finished second at 215 pounds.
Monte Vista placed fourth in the team standings with 123 points while Grossmont was sixth with 81.5 points, Santana was ninth with 73.5 points, Granite Hills-B was 11th with 59 points, El Cajon Valley was 14th with 51 points, Mountain Empire was 16th with 40 points and Christian was 22nd with 27 points.
Bronze medalists included West Hills’ Gerald Eganhouse (120) and Mountain Empire’s Weston Kowalski (157). Finishing fourth were Monte Vista’s Carlos Agular (132) and Daygo Rios (175), Santana’s Logan Gooch (138), Jordyn Gillissie-Hicks (1440) and Jacob Hixson (190) , Granite HIlls-B’ Kayson Kroeger (157) and ECV’s Aiden Dixon (285).
