East County will be well represented on the mat at this weekend’s state championship meet in Bakersfield with 16 qualified wrestlers — 12 boys and four girls.
Granite Hills head coach Jesse Sheard was hoping to make an impact at last weekend’s San Diego Masters state-qualifying tournament at Christian High School in El Cajon for a large contingent traveling to the Central Valley venue with a bead on placing at the state meet as a team.
He may have gotten his wish with 10 Eagles heading to Bakersfield as state qualifiers from the boys tournament.
Included in the bunch are seven Masters finalists and two weight class champions.
“They’re up there with the best of Granite Hills,” Sheard said. “They’re among the top ones who have ever been here.”
The top four place-finishers in each weight class in the boys tournament qualified to wrestle at the state meet while the top six placers in each weight class received medals.
Junior Ames-Michael Hoevker captured an 11-7 back-and-forth match from Poway’s Matthew Orbeta to win the 138-pound gold medal while Junior Bumanglag claimed a tight 3-2 decision from Poway’s Gunnar Neal at 175 pounds.
Silver medalists among the Eagles’ finalists included Damian Arreola (113 pounds), Laronz Fraser (144 pounds), Aiden Chur (150 pounds), Ryan Carroll (157 pounds) and Estevan Sanchez (215 pounds).
Bronze medalists included Emilio Escobar (120 pounds) and Uriah Hawkins (126 pounds) while Jovanni Mansour placed fourth (190 pounds).
Escobar shut out Torrey Pines’ Carter Bolt by a 7-0 decision while Hawkins out-pointed Tri-City Christian’s Cade Johnston in a high scoring 13-11 match.
Arreola came up short by a 10-8 decision to Poway’s Rene Cordero while Chur lost a 10-4 bout against Poway’s Carlos Valdiviezo. Carroll dropped a 16-1 technical fall to Poway’s Bailey Holman while Fraser and Sanchez both lost by pins to Poway mat men in the finals.
Additionally, Damian Jones (132 pounds) and David Daniels (165 pounds) both placed fifth to give Granite Hills 12 grapplers standing atop the award stand.
Hoevker (41-4) received the tourney’s outstanding middle weight award after recording three pins (two first-period falls) in four matches. He pinned Southwest El Centro’s Diego Villa in 1:17 in his first match and dispatched St. Augustine’s Braeden Steele in 1:10 in his second match. Hoevker, the top seed in the division, pinned Mt. Carmel’s Tyoh Tran in 2:47 in the semifinals.
“My goal is to be a state champion and, honestly, to be the best in the world,” Hoevker said unabashedly. “I started out (in the final) with my attacks that worked well and gave up some stalling points. I came in expecting to win.”
Bumanglag was seeded second in his weight and wreaked havoc on the mat with three consecutive pins to reach the final. He opened with a 1:47 fall against Scripps Ranch’s Isaiah Castillo, then pinned Rancho Bernardo’s Dax Curry in 1:22. The Eagle mat warrior pinned Mt. Carmel’s Iyland Calvo in 3:58 in the semifinals.
“So far, it’s going pretty good,” said Bumanglag, who is making his second trek to the state meet. “Last year I had a little burp in that I took second at Masters. This year I bounced back. I’m looking to place top four at state. California is a little different. It’s the only state with one champion for each weight class.”
Fraser used a pair of pins and a 14-3 major decision to reach the championship round while Carroll finished with two pins on his finals journey.
Neal is the son of former San Diego Cavers wrestling superstar Stephen Neal, who would go on to win two NCAA national wrestling championships at Cal State Bakersfield, a world championship in freestyle wrestling and three Super Bowl championship during a 10-year career with the NFL New England Patriots.
The elder Neal, who went 156-10 in four All-American seasons at CSU Bakersfield and also won a Pan American gold medal, helped present awards at last weekend’s Masters.
The Valhalla Norsemen, runners-up at the preceding Division II section championship tournament, recorded two state qualifiers, one Masters finalist and four Masters medalists.
Junior Marcelino Nona emerged with a runner-up finish at 165 pounds while senior Victor Gosswiller finished third at 215 pounds.
Nona and Gosswiller, both gold medalists at the preceding Division II tournament, each recorded two pins at Masters.
Other Norsemen medal winners included Zachary Haggar (fifth place, 190 pounds) and Ivan Rivers (sixth place, 132 pounds).
East County had 19 Masters medalists overall. El Cajon Valley’s Jayden Parks pinned Imperial’s Levi Mincher in 1:36 to place fifth in his 215-pound weight class while Grossmont’s Alexander Resico (144 pounds) and West Hills’ Weston Druckerman (165 pounds) both departed the gym with sixth-place medals.
Parks, the Division III individual champion, had three first-period pins in the tournament.
Jones posted an 11-3 major decision over Rivers while Daniels decisioned Druckerman, 2-0, in all-East County medal matches.
Besides Hoevker, other Masters outstanding wrestlers included Poway 120-pounder Edwin Sierra (lower weight) and Poway 215-pounder Angelo Posada (upper weight), both four-time Masters champions.
Ladies first
Girls wrestling continues to grow within the San Diego Section, specifically within the Grossmont Conference.
“We’re had a huge growth in talent,” said Steele Canyon coach Trevor Keifer, who serves as one of the chief advocates of girls wrestling in the section. “Teams have grown in size. Teams that were small in the past are now big. We’ve got a lot more quality coaches on board.
“The Grossmont Conference has pulled together with six to eight teams with at least eight to 10 weight classes filled. We’ve had enough girls to have our own conference tournament.”
The ladies from Steele captured both the Grossmont Hills League title and conference championship while Santana won the Grossmont Valley League title.
“Our Grossmont girls have progressed a lot. I expect that to continue. The quality in San Diego overall is very good. At state, we could hit double digits in medals again. We had 13 last year.”
The top four girls place-winners received medals at this year’s Masters while the top three place-finishers qualified to compete at this weekend’s state tournament.
The Grossmont Conference advanced seven wrestlers to medal matches, with four advancing to the state meet.
Santana’s Amber Spencer keyed the conference’s mat women with a gold medal showing in her 145-pound weight class while Granite Hills’ Lucia Ledezma finished with the silver medal at 140 pounds.
Bronze medalists included Steele Canyon’s Reika Proctor at 105 pounds and Marina Gonzalez at 155 pounds.
Fourth-place medalists included Granite Hills’ Jayselle Suetos (105 pounds), Grossmont’s Makyra Redmond (155 pounds) and Steele Canyon’s Izabelle Vazquez (235 pounds).
As a sign of growth, there were all-East County matchups in bronze medal matches. Proctor pinned Suetos in 3:25 while Gonzalez pinned Redmond in 2:29.
Steele Canyon had three medalists while Granite Hills had two medalists.
Ledezma, the No. 2 seed, dropped a 9-6 decision to Rancho Bernardo’s Mary Snyder (top seed) to finish runner-up in her weight class while Spencer was simply the division’s class act.
Spencer is a returning state medalist after finishing eighth in her weight class at last year’s state tournament — the first state placer at the Santee school since 1995.
She entered this year’s Masters ranked seventh in the state; the top eight place-winners in Bakersfield earn medals.
She could be a two-time state medalist if everything falls into place.
“It feels good to go back again,” said Spencer, who was seeded first in her weight class. “I want to get another state medal. It’s crazy. I just want to do my moves, do my thing, go for the pin.”
The Lady Sultan standout reeled off three consecutive pins after a first-round bye to claim her first Masters title after two runner-up finishes. She pinned Valley Center’s Krista Ghosh in 4:27 in the quarterfinals, then pinned Mira Mesa’s Isabel Manalansan in 3:47 in the semifinals to advance to the championship match.
Spencer recorded a 3:04 fall against Rancho Bernardo’s Maisen Vesco in the championship round to make history.
She takes an impressive 30-1 record into the state meet.
“She’s been laying the foundation for the program at Santana,” girls coach John Sardella said. “She’s setting records and breaking records. She’s a coach’s dream. She’s a special athlete.
“She’s a very hard worker. She’s more than just the MVP of the team, She’s started a legacy. We’ll see if we can bring home another state medal.”
Longtime boys wrestling power Poway showed it can master girls wrestling as well by winning the team title with 173 points and six state qualifiers (five Masters champions). Five-time CIF champion Olympian spread its wings in second place with 108 points and three state qualifiers (two Masters champions).
Brawley finished in third place with 107.5 points (just a half-point out of second) with three state qualifiers. San Marcos, with four state qualifiers, was fourth with 95 points.
Outstanding wrestlers included San Marcos’ Briana Ross at 115 pounds (lower weight), Torrey Pines’ Ruby Julien Newsom at 130 pounds (middle weight) and Olympian’s Natalia Righellis at 155 pounds (upper weight).
