GILROY — The Bert Mar Invitational has been in exsistence for four years and Christopher’s Jimmie Lopez has walked away a champion each time.
Lopez, a defending Central Coast Section Champion, finished first in 113 lb. weight class at the Bert Mar Invite Jan. 18 at Christopher High. He was joined in the winners circle by teammates Felipe Duenas (106) and Alex Garcia (160). Lopez is the first four-time tournament champion.
“Jimmie is just an animal, he’s on a whole other level,” Cougars coach Alecxis Lara said. “He’s just taking care of business, doing what he does best and just wrestling aggressive in all three positions — top, bottom and on his feet. He’s on track for where we want him to be.”
Christopher is happy to have Garcia — who is ranked No. 14 in the state and No. 2 in CCS — back in the lineup. Garcia missed the first half of the season, but Lara said hasn’t missed a beat otherwise. He was voted the Outstanding Upward Wrestler and the Champion of Champions for the tournament after beating defending CCS champion Bryan Battisto from Harbor by a major decision.
“He beat him up pretty good,” Lara said. “He’s also wrestling very aggressive. He missed the first half season, but now he’s shown to us that he has not fallen behind and he’s on track also to make a great impact at this point in the season.”
Duenas, a freshman, continues to shine and Lara said is wrestling more confidently and aggressively than any rookie he’s ever seen.
The trio were three of the Cougars’ six wrestlers to finish in the top 5. Senior Raul Meza and sophomore Tobias Mendoza took home a second place finishes in the 132 and 138 lb. classes, respectively. Navi Pannu finished fifth in the heavyweight class.
Christopher, as a team, was third out of 23 schools which attended the tournament.
“The kids have been working real hard, but I think the No. 1 thing I would say is their conditioning,” Lara said. “In Mid-January, a lot of the teams are starting to get in shape. I think we’re one notch ahead of everybody else as far as conditioning goes.”
Christopher will join 80 other schools at the Mid-California Wrestling Tournament today and Saturday at Gilroy High. Competition kicks off at 9 a.m. each day.
“There’s always room for improvement,” Lara said. “Some of the individuals need to work on being more dominate in the top-bottom position. We need to be better mat wrestlers.”
