Mustangs Place Fourth at State’s; Four wrestlers find way to
podium
Bakersfield – A high school English teacher would have called the string of events foreshadowing.
At the time, the Gilroy wrestling team just saw them as bad breaks.
Early Saturday, the final day of the CIF State Wrestling Championships, junior Nico Naranjo and senior Adin Dueñas lost two separate matches by a grand total of two points. Then senior Armando Gonzalez was pinned with one second left in double overtime. Naranjo’s loss knocked the returning fourth-place state finisher out of medal contention. Dueñas’ (135) and Gonzalez’s (140) losses stopped them one step short of the finals.
Three matches that could have gone either way went against Gilroy.
“This year, the wrestling gods just aren’t with us,” said head coach Armando Gonzalez after watching Dueñas and his oldest son in their matches, which happened almost simultaneously on mats next to each other at Rabobank Arena. “We won many of those last year.”
The wrestling gods didn’t have any mercy on the Mustangs later that night either. The impact of the close losses showed itself during the finals. Central Coast Section foe Fremont, which had three wrestlers in the finals to Gilroy’s one, overtook the third-place team spot when Greg Crane won Fremont’s third state title of the night at 160 pounds. The Mustangs wouldn’t get any more points, ultimately finishing fourth in the state with 91 points – two points behind Fremont (93).
Buchanan won the team title (134.0), followed by Poway (126.5) in second place.
“We just feel so empty. We’re not happy at all ,” said coach Armando Gonzalez, whose team had spent much of the season ranked third in the state. “There were too many close calls that didn’t go our way.”
Though fourth wasn’t what the Mustangs wanted, it was still the program’s highest team finish in school history. And sophomore Hunter Collins became Gilroy’s first individual finalist since Kordell Baker won the 138-pound weight class in 1987. The Mustangs also had better individual finishes overall than last year, with Armando Gonzalez and younger brother Martin Gonzalez (103 pounds) both taking fifth, Dueñas finishing third and Collins second in the state at 171.
The disappointment was apparent on the faces of the Gilroy wrestlers, who watched the last few finals matches and the medal ceremony while sitting stoicly and quietly together in the stands.
“I’m all right,” said senior 215-pounder Daniel Gamez. “Could be better.”
After his loss, Dueñas bounced back to win his next two matches comfortably to take third place. Armando Gonzalez lost in his next match, but rebounded to win the fifth-place match.
“They say the hardest thing to do is to come back to place third,” Dueñas said. “I would have much rather been in the finals, but no worries… One is good.”
In the championship semifinals – the winner of which moved on to that evening’s final – Dueñas gave Chris Drouin of the Southern Section’s Chaparral all he could handle. The two wrestlers battled out most of the match on their feet and were even 1-1 in the third round. But with 1:34 left to wrestle, Drouin got Dueñas off his feet and brought him down for the takedown and the 3-1 lead. Dueñas scored on an escape with under a minute to go and attempted to circle Drouin for the takedown in the final 40 seconds, but ultimately fell to the second ranked wrestler in the state 3-2.
“I tried to circle, circle, circle,” said Dueñas, whose strategy was to stay off the mat with Drouin. “But he ended up with the takedown and that was the match.”
Dueñas predicted Drouin, who beat Armando Gonzalez last year in the semifinals, would finish the day the 135-pound champ.
“He’s ranked No. 2 (in California), but I think he’s going to win for sure,” Dueñas said. “He’s really good.”
The senior’s prediction didn’t happen, but was close. Drouin lost in an 8-7 thriller to hometown favorite Elijah Nacita of Bakersfield in the final.
While his older brother was trying to end his high school career with a state medal, unranked Martin Gonzalez was trying to end his first year with one. He successfully ended his season on a high note, becoming the highest-placing freshman Gilroy High has ever had.
“That little stud, he surprised us all,” said coach Gonzalez about his youngest son, who has placed in state tournaments every year since he began participating at nine years old. “He’s never been shut out of a state tournament. He always shows up for the big show.”
Martin Gonzalez lost to Pierre Bondoc in a 1-0 decision Friday in the quarterfinals, but won two in a row in the consolation bracket before getting pinned by David Chaidez of the Central Section’s Foothill. That dropped him into the fifth-place match, which he won with just seconds left on the clock. Martin Gonzalez and Nick Outumuro of the Southern Section’s Covina were tied at two when Martin scored on an escape and a reversal just before the buzzer.
“Anything in the top eight would have been fine with me,” Martin Gonzalez said. “I’m just happy to place…It’s really exciting to be here with my brother.”
Earlier, Martin had watched his older brother Armando go into double overtime in his semifinal match against Shad Manigault of the Southern Section’s Northview.
Armando Gonzalez got his only two points of the match on a takedown in the first period. After that, the Fresno State-bound senior was mostly on the defensive, which didn’t put him in a position to score points. Manigault escaped twice – once in the second period and again in the third period to tie the score 2-2 – sending the match into overtime.
The match remained a stalemate until 16 seconds remained in the second overtime. Manigault got Armando Gonzalez into a cradle. The four-time CCS champ couldn’t fight off the attack and Manigault turned Armando Gonzalez up on to his shoulders and pinned him with one second remaining.
“I was really nervous in overtime,” Martin Gonzalez said. “I was just really sad. After he lost, I felt like crying.”
Manigault later pinned Barrett Abel of Union Mine in the 140-pound final for the state title.
The unemotional face of Armando Gonzalez didn’t show what how much of a letdown not making the finals was, but his performance next match did. He lost 9-3 to Joe Cisneros in the consolation semifinals before beating Brian Alves 7-1 in the fifth-place match.
“It was so devastating (for Armando) to not be in the finals,” his father said. “He just didn’t want to do it.”
Although it’s the end of the road in their high school careers, Armando Gonzalez and Dueñas are by no means finished wrestling. Both will be teammates at Fresno State next year.
“Going into senior year, I was hoping to be a state champ and I fell short…but you can’t look back,” said Dueñas.
Added Collins, “Team-wise, I felt everyone gave their all and I can’t ask for more than that.”
The Mustangs sent a record seven wrestlers to the state tournament. And head coach Armando Gonzalez expects Gilroy to have even greater representation next year with potentially nine or ten state qualifiers. Gilroy will have six state placers returning, and a strong freshman class coming in.
“We’ll come back even hungrier next year,” Armando Gonzalez said.
