Nineteen East County mat men and mat women qualified for last weekend’s state wrestling championship tournament at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield.
Three came home with special hardware: gold, silver and bronze state medals.
Granite Hills senior Collin Guffey won his 165-pound weight class while Eagles team-mate Abram Cline placed third in his 113-pound weight class.
Monte Vista’s Olivia Davis, a repeat San Diego Section Mas¬ters champion, placed second in the 140-pound girls field.
For Guffey, it was a lifelong dream finally realized after placing runner-up at 152 pounds last year. He recorded a tight 3-0 decision over St. John Bosco’s Joseph Antonio to run his unbeaten season record to 51-0.
Cline defeated Del Oro’s Siraj Sidhu by a 4-2 decision to claim this year’s bronze medal.
It’s obviously a big deal for the Granite Hills wrestling program, and for East County overall with six schools represented at the state tournament to spread around the talent.
Overall, Granite Hills qualified 12 wrestlers for this year’s state tournament – 10 boys and two girls. The Eagles were eighth among boys teams.
Besides Guffey and Cline, other Granite Hills state quali¬fiers on the boys side included Emilio Escobar (106 pounds), Jayson Suetos (126 pounds), Aidan Chur (132 pounds), Devon Wells (144 pounds), Sergio Porras (150 pounds), Ryan Carroll (157 pounds), Junior Bumanglang (175 pounds) and Joseph Smith (215 pounds).
Helix Charter’s Ja’Kar Carter (190 pounds) and El Cajon Val¬ley’s Enrique Hernandez (285 pounds) joined the 12-deep East County boys field in Bakersfield.
State qualifiers on the girls side included Santana’s Sierra Fahn (125 pounds), Granite Hills’ Kyli Stanley (130 pounds), Steele Canyon’s Kayala Hopkins (130 pounds), Monte Vis¬ta’s Olivia Davis (140 pounds), Granite Hills’ Lucia Ledezma (140 pounds), Santana’s Amber Spencer (145 pounds) and El Cajon Valley’s Honey Orduno Rivas (235 pounds).
That’s an impressive list of seven female East County state qualifiers.
Davis advanced to the final with a 9-7 win over Redwood’s Luana Stathopoulos. The Lady Monarch’s championship run ended, however, with a 9-5 setback to Northview’s Faith Bartoszek for the gold medal.
Big dog
Poway once again led the section boys in the toughest tournament of the season as the Titans compiled a new state meet record 290.5 points and medaled 11 wrestlers, pushing seven into the finals and winning three individual state crowns.
It was Poway’s first state title since 2009 and fifth all-time to snap Buchanan’s seven-year strangle-hold at the top.
Champions for Poway included senior Elias Navida (132 pounds), junior Angelo Posada (175 pounds) and senior Robert Platt (215 pounds). Posada improved to 31-0 while Platt avenged his only loss of the season with an escape in overtime to improve to 22-1.
Titans earning silver medals included freshman Arseni Kikiniou (106 pounds), Edwin Sierra (113 pounds), Paul Kelly (138 pounds) and Laird Root (150 pounds).
Girl power
Two section girls won individual state titles: Poway’s Alexandra Valdiviezo (120 pounds) and Brawley’s Delarie Juarez (145 pounds). It was the first time the section had two female state champions in one year.
Juarez, a junior, remained undefeated at 29-0 while Valdiviezo improved to 30-2.
Davis is 35-3. La Costa Canyon’s Alexandra Perez, another silver medalist, is 42-2.
The section set a record with 13 girls medalists at this year’s meet.
