The San Diego Section qualified a total of 98 wrestlers to the upcoming state championship tournament Thursday through Saturday in Bakersfield: 56 in the boys field and 42 in the girls field.
Olympian High School hosted the boys Masters state-qualifying tournament last Friday and Saturday while Eastlake High School hosted the girls Masters state-qualifying tournament on Saturday.
Both high profile events included qualifiers from the preceding four divisional tournaments in each gender field.
The 24-bracket boys field ended with the top four place-finishers punching their ticket to the state meet while the 16-bracket girls field saw the top three place-finishers advance to state.
It was an elite showcase.
Ladies first
The Grossmont Conference had eight girls finish among the top four wrestlers in their respective weight classes, with four advancing to the state meet.
State qualifiers include Angelica Murguia (second, 170 pounds) and Emily Lucatero (third, 110 pounds) from Steele Canyon, El Capitan’s Sadie Robbins (third, 115 pounds) and Granite Hills’ Savanna Gomez (third, 115).
Robbins is believed to be El Capitan’s first girls state qualifier.
Poway, longtime boys section power, repeated the girls team title this year with three weight class champions and seven state qualifiers. The Lady Titans racked up 183 points to best six-time running Division I section champion Olympian with 123.5 points.
Brawley, another longtime boys power, finished in third place with 104 points in a tight battle with Mira Mesa (fourth, 103 points). Steele Canyon finished fifth among the 55 scoring teams with 87 points while Helix Charter placed 11th with 42 points. Grossmont finished 15th with 34 points while Granite Hills was 17th with 31 points — just ahead of Santana in 18th place with 30.5 points.
It was a very competitive field with 15 points separating 12 teams.
The girls who wrestled tough and made the awards podium but just missed the state cut with four-place finishes included Monte Vista’s Alexa Malinis (100), Helix’s Mia Green (110), Grossmont’s Makyra Redmond (145) and Steele Canyon’s Jala Price (235).
“Overall, the Grossmont Conference showed an incredible amount of growth and strength this season,” tournament director and Steele Canyon coach Trevor Keifer said. “With the addition of girls conference champions, we can expect it to see improvements every season.”
As for Steele Canyon?
“I’m so incredibly proud of this team,” Keifer added. “I was aiming to be a top-seven school and we finished strong in fifth place. I had a feeling we would send at least one to the state tournament, so having two girls punch their ticket made the day even better.
“The team this year has been one of my stronger ones and we look forward to building on this growth for next year. But first we are still chasing state medals for the girls who are going.”
Steele Canyon won the Grossmont Hills League dual meet championship while Santana won the Grossmont Valley League dual title.
Boys story
The boys Masters tournament featured 11 East County state qualifiers — eight from runner-up Granite Hills, two from Valhalla and one from Helix Charter.
Granite Hills had two Masters champions: Cash McClurg (106 pounds) and Ames-Michael Hoevker (144). The Eagles had four finalists overall. Silver medalists included Emilio Escobar (120) and Aiden Chur (157).
Additional state qualifiers include David Daniels (third, 150), Jovanni Mansour (third, 190), Steven Gomez (third, 215) and Travin Shahbaz (fourth, 285).
Valhalla’s two state qualifiers include Marcelino Nona (second, 175) and Ivan Rivers (third, 126).
Helix had one state qualifier: J.J. Martinez (fourth at 215).
Granite Hills’ Elias Pedroza (113) and Uriah Hawkins (132) just missed state with fifth-place finishes while Helix’s Isaiah Boelk finished sixth at 175 pounds.
Hoovker is now a two-time Masters champion after winning last year’s 138 title. He’s ranked fifth in the state.
Chur, who is ranked seventh in the state, finished second at 150 last year. Escobar, who is ranked 10th in the state, finished third at 120 last year. McClurg, a first-time Masters champ, is ranked eighth in the state.
Poway is ranked second in the state while Granite Hills is ranked 13th and Brawley 14th.
