Bakersfield
– It wasn’t the start Gilroy had hoped for Friday in the CIF
State Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena.
Bakersfield – It wasn’t the start Gilroy had hoped for Friday in the CIF State Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena.
The good news is there is still today and that four Mustangs are in the running for medals.
Hunter Collins has already locked up a medal in the 171-pound weight class, where he is assured of no worse than sixth. Jesse Delgado, Martin Gonzalez and Andres Barragan are all one win away from medaling, but they will need to get that win in their first matches today to clinch medals.
As expected, Poway and Buchanan are 1-1 in the team standings with 72 and 70 points, respectively. Buchanan is one of four Central Section teams in the top 10.
Gilroy stood 10th in the team competition through Championship Round 3 and Consolation Round 3 with 32 points. And yet the Mustangs were still in position for a top-5 finish as they trailed fifth-place Bakersfield by 6 1/2 points.
“It was a very tough first day,” GHS coach Armando Gonzalez said. “My big four wrestled as well as I hoped. When (three of them) lost, they were all able to bounce back.”
Collins didn’t need a bounce back as he wrestled his way to a return match with No. 2-ranked Louis Bland in the semifinals. The two wrestled for the 171-pound state title last year, but ranked No. 2 and 3, they were seeded to meet in the semifinals.
“I’ll go out there and wrestle as hard as I can,” Collins said of his matchup with Bland, who beat him 8-5 last year. “This what I wrestle for, to get these big matches.”
As for his opening-day wrestling, Collins was harder on himself than anyone else was.
“I did all right,” he said. “The second match is not what I wanted. I was down after the first period. After that, I got my head right for my quarterfinal match and started wrestling, not thinking so much.”
Collins was down 2-0 to Rico Altamirano of Tokay, but he wound up winning 10-2 after two near falls. And he dominated Peter Pelle of Granada before gaining a 9-4 win.
Perhaps an indicator of what was to come for the five-time Central Coast Section champion Mustangs came in their first lightweight bout when No. 1-ranked Delgado was dominating Chad Thornack of San Jacinto only to get caught in a cradle and pinned early in the third period. It was Delgado’s first loss to a California wrestler this year.
Delgado battled his way back, however, with four straight wins to set up a medal match with Marc Collier of East Bakersfield.
“It was pretty tough,” Delgado said of the loss to Thornack. “I had a pretty low feeling. I couldn’t stay down. I had to wrestle back and do my best. The second match (16-4 decision over Steve Elizalde) got me going. I’m one away from placing.”
Martin Gonzalez was thinking the same at 119. His loss to No. 2 seed Marcus Orono of Santa Fe was especially heartbreaking because it came in overtime. Gonzalez, who had lost earlier in the season to Orono, appeared to have executed a foot hook and cradle at the end of the overtime period but wasn’t awarded the points, and he lost 3-1.
“I felt I got robbed but it’s all right,” said Gonzalez, who finished fifth last year at 103. “The one in the morning (today) is the big one. You want to get to Day 2 and I did that.”
Barragan was pinned by No. 4 Rudi Burtschi of Oakdale in his second match, but came back with a vengeance to avenge an early-season loss to Sean Hill of Poway, and then defeated Freddy Duerr of Montgomery.
“That win (over Hill) was a big one that boosted my confidence,” Barragan said. “I thought I wrestled well but I can do better. Hopefully, I will wrestle twice as hard (today).”
Nicolo Naranjo (125), Jesse Rogers (215) and Travis Sakamoto (140) did not make it to the second day. Naranjo, who won his first match by first-period fall and later won a consolation match, just missed as he dropped a 1-0 decision to Trevor Machado of Oakdale in the fourth round of consolations. Rogers went 1-2 and Sakamoto was 0-2.
Wrestling continues at 9am today. Championship semifinals are at 9:30.
