GILROY—Last year, Christopher’s Alex Garcia went home a Mid-California Classic runner-up. Not this time.
The Cougars senior took home the 160-pound championship, beating Chico’s John Leal 3-1 in overtime Saturday at Gilroy High School.
“It feels good. I could’ve worked harder,” Garcia said. “I could’ve won by more. I could’ve done a lot more things. There were just mistakes and I have to fix those in the future.”
Live Oak’s Adam Mito, who wrestled at MidCals for the first time, also went home a champion. He edged Pitman’s Gilbert Valdez 3-2 for the 147-pound crown.
Gilroy took home the team title with 232 points for the second straight year, despite having no champions. Senior Matt Penyacsek and freshman Nick Aguilar were it’s highest finishers, taking second at 195 and 108, respectively. Of the 14 weight classes, the Mustangs claimed eight Top 8 places in seven—including two at 197.
“It says a lot about these guys because last year was such a senior-heavy team. This year it’s such a freshman-heavy team. For them to pick up the team victory is very, very encouraging about where they’re headed,” Mustangs head coach Greg Varela said. “It’s encouraging that we did so well, but with no champions, they’re not satisfied, I’m not satisfied. It’s bittersweet.”
Garcia and Leal were locked in a 1-1 tie heading to overtime, each scoring their point off escapes. With just 12 seconds left on the clock, Garcia slammed Leal onto the mat to score a takedown and win the match. But even with sweat pouring off his face, Garcia said he could’ve worked harder to secure the ‘W’.
“I just knew that if I kept pressuring him going forward, he was eventually going to break and I’d get a shot off,” the Cougar said. “I could’ve won by a lot more. I could’ve went through and demolished him, but I didn’t so I just have to work harder moving forward.”
Mito’s match was just as close. The Acorn trailed 1-0 heading into the third, but notched an escape for the equalizer. He scored a takedown with 25 seconds left to take a 3-1 lead and had Valdez in a cradle, but the Pitman wrestler wiggled out for the escape. Mito was able to hold him off in the final seconds for the win.
“(I was thinking) ‘woah I got his leg, now I have to finish him’,” Mito said. “That guy was tough at hand fighting. I just knew I had to wear him down and make him make mistakes so I can capitalize off of them.”
This was the first year Live Oak competed at MidCals since coach Dean Nguyen took over the program. Based on what he saw in the finals and through the tough two-day tournament, Nguyen said the sky is the limit for his 147-pounder.
“I think he’s a tough wrestler and I’m expecting him to go down to state this year,” the Acorn coach said. “Some guys wrestle to their strengths and tonight he wrestled tough and finished on top.”
Gilroy’s Penyacsek, though 14 pounds underweight for his class, held his own with Austin Flores from Clovis North—the No. 12 wrestler in the nation in his division. Flores scored a quick takedown, but Penyacsek escaped to cut the lead to 2-1. The Mustang took bottom position to start the second and notched another escape to tie it 2-2 heading into the third. A quick escape and a stalling penalty put Flores ahead 4-2, but Penyacsek scored a massive takedown to even it up at 4-4. With the clock dwindling down, Flores broke free of Penyacsek for the escape and won 5-4.
“He’s wrestled Flores before and they’ve gone back and forth so many times,” Varela said. “I wish he would’ve gotten the ‘W’ for his senior year MidCals, that’s the way everyone wants to go out, but I’m proud of him and hopefully he can make some adjustments.”
It was the first time Penyacsek was wrestling up at 195 and though he said it was challenging, he made it look easy. Penyacsek won three matches by pin, including his semifinal bout with Jay Johnson of Buhach Colony.
“It’s pretty hard; it was different,” he said, noting he wants to remain at 195. “Guys are a lot slower. It’s a lot harder to take them down because their legs are so heavy.”
Freshman Aguilar was also wrestling underweight, but made Dinuba’s Isaiah Perez work for the 10-4 victory. Perez jumped out to a 4-0 lead with a takedown and 2-point nearfall. Aguilar answered with a reversal and quick takedown to tie the match at 4-all at the end of the second. Perez scored a reversal and nearly had Aguilar pinned, but the Gilroy wrestler avoided it and made his opponent settle for the nearfall instead.
“He’s been mistake-free through all of his matches, but tonight he made some mistakes that cost him,” Varela said. “If he was bigger, I don’t know if those mistakes would’ve cost him as much. It’s better he learns here than in CCS.”
Gilroy’s Joseph Delgado (115), Alex Felix (134) and Tony Andrade (184) all finished third. Felix was half a second shy of a triple overtime with the eventual champ Anthony Mora from Clovis West, but Mora got loose for the escape to win 5-4.
“I thought time was up, but it wasn’t,” Felix said. “It just shows that I should train harder. I was pretty tired out there and I didn’t really want to be tired. I just have to go harder in practice.”
Gavin Melendez, 122, and Noe Garcia, 197, both took fourth place for the Mustangs. Victor Daza, a 140-pounder, placed sixth.
Gilroy was wrestling with only half its team as its been struck by the injury bug. A first place finish at MidCals without the full team is a good sign, Varela said, but also means there’s a lot to work on with league, Central Coast Section and state finals just around the corner.
“I’m excited. You’re not sure what’s going to happen,” Varela said. “We’ve got a long way to go. We did good, but we’ve got to do great heading into CCS and state. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
See how your favorite local wrestler did at the 2015 Mid-California Classic:
GILROY
108: Nick Aguilar, 2nd
115: Joseph Delgado, 3rd
122: Gavin Melendez, 4th
134: Alex Felix, 3rd
140: Victor Daza, 6th
147: Angel Carabajal, 2-2
184: Tony Andrade, 3rd
197: Matt Penyacsek, 2nd
Noe Garcia, 4th
222: Micheal Lasquette, 2-2
CHRISTOPHER
108: Riley Siason, 2-2
115: Deen Agustin, 0-2
128: Mario Anchando, 0-2
147: Adam Mena, 0-2
160: Alex Garcia, 1st
184: Raymond Tapia, 1-2
197: Antonio Gomez, 2-2
222: Collins Okoronkwo, 1-2
