San Jose
– Winning never gets tiresome. Just ask Gilroy High wrestling
coach Armando Gonzalez.
San Jose – Winning never gets tiresome. Just ask Gilroy High wrestling coach Armando Gonzalez.
“No way,” Gonzalez said after the Mustangs’ drive for five ended with yet another Central Coast Section title at the Dungeon at Overfelt High School.
“It’s awesome, a dream come true. I set my sights on doing this years ago. I never thought it would happen, that we would be the only team to win five straight titles.”
The outcome was never in doubt, especially after Gilroy virtually wrapped up the title Friday by sending seven wrestlers to the semifinals.
Jesse Delgado and Hunter Collins lived up to their top seeds by winning at 105 and 173, respectively. Andres Barragan came up a point short at 191. Martin Gonzalez and Jesse Rogers also finished second. Nicolo Naranjo and Travis Sakamoto finished third. All seven qualified for the CIF state meet this weekend at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
Gilroy wasn’t able to equal last year’s point total but its 237.5 was more than 80 points ahead of runner-up Los Gatos (157). Oak Grove (108.5), St. Francis (108) and Palma (100.5) were the only other teams to even reach triple digits.
Collins was easily the most dominant wrestler in the tournament, pinning all five opponents. It was the first time the three-time CCS champion had pinned every opponent, although he scored as many points last year when one of his foes defaulted because of injury.
“I don’t go out there trying to get pins all the time,” Collins said. “If they happen to develop, that’s great. My first goal is to wrestle. I work and if (pins) are there, I’ll go for them.”
Collins was equally happy that six of his teammates will join him for the trip to Bakersfield.
“It’s always great when the team qualifies a lot,” Collins said. “It not only gives us more of a chance but also gets us noticed (by) colleges. It’s always fun to get away.”
That’s an experience Delgado will get for the first time. And yet, the “Little Man” hardly handles himself on the mat like a freshman.
“It’s pretty cool, pretty exciting,” said Delgado, reflecting on the Mustangs’ fifth straight title and seventh overall. “Some of us wrestled pretty good, others didn’t wrestle our best.”
Delgado, though only a freshman, sets the bar high for himself. He was happy to win his first CCS title but feels he could have wrestled better.
“I could have been a little more aggressive,” Delgado said. “I did what I had to do. I need to wrestle better at state.”
Of the three runners-up, the most disappointed had to be Barragan, who lost by a point (3-2) in overtime to top-seeded and No. 3 ranked John Hall of Palo Alto – an opponent he beat in OT in last year’s CCS final.
“It’s really hard to open him up, to move him around,” Barragan said. “I have trouble scoring on him. This (one-point loss) makes me want to work even harder.”
His sentiments were echoed by Martin Gonzalez, who lost for the third time (7-4) to Andre Gonzalez of Silver Creek.
“I wrestled well until the finals,” said Martin Gonzalez, who finished second last year at 103. “You fall five points behind a wrestler like him and it’s tough to catch up.”
Even though Rogers was pinned in the first period in the final, he was pleased with a second-place finish. He wrestled a smart match in the semifinals to slip past No. 2 seed Ryan Gardner (4-3) of Valley Christian.
“I did what they (coaches) asked me to do (against Gardner),” Rogers said. “I wrestled better than last week. It’s great to be part of this team.”
Coach Gonzalez was pleased by the team’s performance but especially happy with what juniors Rogers and Sakamoto did.
“Jesse was 1-2 last year at CCS, so this was great for him,” Gonzalez said of Rogers. “He made huge gains. We developed a strategy and he played it out. He did everything we asked of him.
“This was a breakout tournament for Travis. I’m very proud of what he’s accomplished. He’s wrestled over and above his means during the last month.”
