East County wrestlers excel at weekend mat events

Courtesy photo The Santana High School boys wrestling team displays the third-place trophy it captured at last weekend’s Monte Vista Invitational.

Granite Hills High School’s wrestling team captured 13th place out of 48 teams that competed at last weekend’s Temecula Battle for the Belt boys wrestling tournament.

The Eagles brought 10 wrestlers to the regional draw event. Sophomore Collin Guffey finished third in his 132-pound weight class to improve to 26-5 on the season.

Five Granite Hills mat men finished with 2-2 records at the tourney: Geo Fraser (126 pounds), Jayson Suetos (138), Zach Waterhouse (145), Keagen Kroeger (152) and Carson Boehm (170).

Guffey finished 6-1 in seven matches, scoring three pins, one technical fall and one major decision. He lost, 8-2, to Calvary Chapel’s Yoshi Funakoshi in the quarterfinals but avenged that with a 3-1 decision over Funakoshi (11-5) in the third-place match.

Brian Nero (132) and Javier Sanchez (160) both finished 2-2 on the mat for Steele Canyon, which placed 37th in the team standings.

Purple Nation

Santana High School’s wrestling program recorded a great day of competition on Saturday, Jan. 15, as the boys team competed at the Monte Vista varsity tournament and the girls team competed at the Queen of the Beach tournament at Mar Vista High School.

The Sultans finished third out of 22 teams at the Monte Vista Invitational, notching seven place-winners: one first place, one second place, one third place, one fourth place, two fifth-places and one sixth place.

The school’s girls team brought three wrestlers to the Mar Vista tournament and finished with two place-winners: one second-place finish (Amber Spencer, 139 pounds) and one third-place finish (Samantha Trujillo-Mata, 145 pounds).

Assistant coach Scott Ullsperger said the program’s coaching staff is proud of the teams’ achievements so far this season.

“We’re so very proud of the hard work and dedication we get from our athletes on a consistent basis,” Ullsperger said on a Facebook post. “With six more weeks left, there is more to accomplish. I look forward to the opportunity to cheer each of them on.”