Gilroy
– There were no wild celebrations Saturday by any of the nine
individual Gilroy champions in the Tri-County Athletic League
tournament at Bob Hagen Memorial Gym.
Gilroy – There were no wild celebrations Saturday by any of the nine individual Gilroy champions in the Tri-County Athletic League tournament at Bob Hagen Memorial Gym.
There was no whooping and hollering when the team results were announced. After all, this was the Mustangs’ fifth straight TCAL title, so they’ve been here, done that before. And it’s just another means to an end for Gilroy as it prepares to try and make it five straight Central Coast Section titles.
“I’m happy,” GHS coach Armando Gonzalez said. “We scored almost 300 points, which in a tournament this small is tough. We got 13 of 14 (wrestlers) qualified for CCS.”
It was better than merely qualifying. All 13 wrestlers made it to the final round so they were qualified before they wrestled their last match. Leading the way was Nicolo Naranjo, who won his fourth TCAL title but who wasn’t even sure a month ago that he would be wrestling as he tried to get his academics in order.
“I’m real happy to be back,” said Naranjo, the 127-pound champion who is up two weight classes. “They (opponents) are a little bigger, but it doesn’t seem like much of a difference so far.”
On the other side of the spectrum was Travis Sakamoto, getting his first TCAL title at 142.
“It feels good,” he said. “Everyone is wrestling real well. Hopefully, we can break our scoring record at CCS.”
Not everyone wrestled great, even among the individual champions. Jesse Rogers showed a lot of heart, nearly getting pinned in the final seconds of his 217-pound final with Hunter Baird of Palma, and then recovering in overtime with a takedown that earned him an 18-16 win.
“I ran out of gas,” admitted Rogers, who watched a 16-11 lead vanish in the final seconds in regulation. “I need to start running more in the morning. I thought I was done. I’m glad time ran out (in regulation) and I was able to get him with a shot in overtime.”
Gilroy’s 294 points easily outpaced runner-up San Benito with 210.50. In fact, the Mustangs’ nine individual champions was almost twice as many as the five combined by the other TCAL teams. Naranjo and Sakamoto both believe this team may even be better than last year’s squad.
True, Armando Gonzalez, Jr., and Adin Duenas are gone. But freshmen lightweights Jesse Delgado and Rodney Balajadia are already wrestling at a high level.
“I think we’re a little better than last year,” Naranjo said.
“Getting everyone to CCS except one person is great,” Sakamoto said. “I expect us to do well there again.”
It was Sakamoto who summed up the attitude of the Mustangs.
“This is just TCAL, two matches and you’re done,” the junior 142-pounder said. “CCS is a lot tougher. You can wrestle as many as seven matches.”
Delgado, 105; Balajadia, 114; Martin Gonzalez, 121; Naranjo; Rudy Maldonado, 132; Sakamoto; Hunter Collins, 173; Andres Barragan, 191; and Rogers were the GHS individual champions. Vincent Aboytes, 137; Austin Gubrud, 147; Ethan Ogle, 162; and Chaz Guerrero, 287, were runners-up.
Delgado (32-2) had two pins in under one minute. Collins (34-1) won his third straight TCAL title.
The top four wrestlers from each weight class advance to the CCS tournament Friday at Independence and Saturday at Overfelt. The top four at CCS advance to the state tournament a week later in Bakersfield.
