GILROY—Four years and 64 pounds separate Christopher wrestlers Riley Siason and Alex Garcia, but they still sparred with one another heading into Saturday’s 5th annual Bert Mar Tournament finals.
To an outsider, it looks like a mismatch. The senior Garcia could easily dominate the 106-pound freshman Siason, but instead gives his younger counterpart some tough practice. Surprisingly, Siason does the same for Garcia. So for Christopher coach Alecxis Lara, it’s no surprise both claimed first place at their home tournament.
“They train year round and they are two just dedicated wrestlers,” Lara said. “We’re a very close bunch, but they’re some of our hardest workers. They’ve got a great relationship.”
Both Siason and Garcia, who wrestles at 170, were named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestlers in the lower and upper weight classes, respectively. Teammate Adam Mena (145) and Gilroy’s Joseph Delgado (113) joined them in taking first in their weight classes. Live Oak’s Adam Mito placed second at 152, while Christopher’s Jacob Myers took third.
The Cougars combined for 126 points to take third out of 30 schools at the tournament. Dos Palos, which had six wrestlers in the finals, took first with 216.5 points and Alisal finished second with 126.
Siason was the first South County wrestler to earn some hardware, easily beating San Leandro’s Jake Vergara 10-4 in the finals. The Christopher freshman displayed excellent control of Vergara’s legs, making it difficult for him to escape. Siason scored a few takedowns on his opponent to gain a dominant lead and slammed Vergara on the mat once more before time ran out for the win.
Siason said he wants to be the second Cougar—after 2014 grad Jimmie Lopez—to win four Bert Mar titles and credited his success to staying focused.
“It was fun, but I’m trying to control the match more,” he said noting he’s toned down his physicality. “My coaches just told me to relax and stay in control the whole time.”
Siason earned his finals berth by avenging a loss to Alisal’s Enrique Zavala in the semifinals. Zavala beat the Cougar in the semis a week earlier at the Apple Cider Classic in Watsonville. This time, Siason shut him down him 3-0.
Like Siason, Garcia cruised to a 13-5 win over Iosefa Papalagi from Antioch to win back-to-back Bert Mar titles. Papalagi took a 1-0 lead early with an escape, but an aggressive Garcia quickly got the takedown and a couple escapes of his own to lead 5-2 after the first period. The 6-2 Papalagi had a clear height advantage, but that didn’t intimidate Garcia. He scored takedown after takedown and never let his opponent out of reach for the rest of the match.
While Garcia made the win look easy, he said Papalagi did catch him off guard early.
“He attempted to switch at first when I got a double, which kind of froze me up for a second,” Garcia said. “ A second later I knew what I needed to do, so he couldn’t stop me.”
Garcia won by fall in the opening round and notched a 19-4 major decision over Leonard Cruz from George Washington in the quarterfinals. He secured his place in the championship with a quick pin of Alisal’s Nate Dalerio in the semis.
Mena took on Dos Palos wrestler Chance Benadum in the finals. Benadum was the first to score on an escape in the second period, but Mena got a takedown as time expired to lead 2-1. He kept Benadum facedown on the mat and gave him nowhere to go. Mena was unable to get the pin, but scored a three-point near fall to win 5-1.
Mena won his first round and quarterfinal matches by pin. He advanced to the finals after shutting down Galileo’s Patricio Israel 12-0 in the semis.
“Our wrestlers tend to wrestle up for this tournament; they do pretty good with the home crowd,” Lara said. “All three of them (Siason, Mena and Garcia) were wrestling excellent today and made very few mistakes.”
Gilroy’s Joseph Delgado was the lone Mustang competing at Bert Mar and rounded out the South Country champions. Delgado scored an early takedown on Dos Palos’ Jesus Armenta, but the pair was neck and neck for the rest of the match. An escape improved Delgado’s lead to 3-0 in the third, but Armenta scored a late takedown to put him in a position to win. The Mustang freshman was able to hold off his opponent for a 3-2 victory.
“I had to keep wrestling hard and not get overwhelmed,” Delgado said. “(I was thinking) either I’ve got to score or I’ve got to prevent him from scoring. I wasn’t too satisfied from when he took me down, but I still won the match.”
Live Oak’s Mito took second for the second year in a row but wasn’t hanging his head. He trailed 6-2 midway through the third, but scored an escape and a big takedown to get within a point. The Acorn lost 6-5, but said he can only improve from here.
“He was really good at defending shots, but I should be better at taking shots. That’s definitely something I’m going to work on with my coaches,” Mito said. “Any type of tournament and competition helps. Experience is the best way to learn.”
Mito dominated his quarterfinal match from the start and almost pinned his Cesar Chavez opponent at the end of the second period to lead 7-1. He took down his opponent twice in the final frame to win 12-2. He faced El Camino’s Alec Goff in the semis and kept him facedown for almost the entire bout—only letting him up when the buzzer sounded—to win by an 11-3 decision.
Christopher’s Myers was one match away from making it an all-South County final at 152, but lost 18-7 to the eventual champion, Nathan Pimental from Dos Palos in the semifinals. He had to wrestle back to finish third, beating Goff in the consolation bracket.
Gilroy, Christopher, Sobrato, San Benito and Live Oak will all compete in Gilroy High’s MidCal Tournament, which kicks off at 9 a.m. Friday. The tournament features more than 90 teams from around the state and will help wrestlers gauge themselves for the Monterey Bay League and Central Coast Section competitions, Lara said.
“Our kids are wrestling good, so we’re hoping to ride this little bit of positivity we’ve got and it’ll help us going into that tough Mid Cals tournament,” the Cougar coach said. “We’re going to need every bit of preparation. It looks like they already have that little bit of extra confidence with their wins heading into that tournament.”
Notes: The Bert Mar Champion of Champions Award was renamed the “Tomas Gutierrez Jr. Champion of Champions Award” after a long-time supporter of Gilroy-area wrestling. Gutierrez passed away from cancer a few weeks. Lara said Christopher was able to present Gutierrez with a replica of the award before his passing. Bellarmine’s Isaiah Palomino took home the award.
Bert Mar, who Lara called the “Godfather of wrestling” was in attendance for the tournament. Mar holds a national record for 29 undefeated seasons while coaching wrestling at South Valley Middle School.
106: 1st- Riley Siason, Christopher
113: 1st- Joseph Delgado, Gilroy
4th- Deen Agustin, Christopher
126: 7th- Mario Anchando, Christopher
145: 1st- Adam Mena, Christopher
152: 2nd- Adam Mito, Live Oak
3rd- Jacob Myers, Christopher
170: 1st- Alex Garcia, Christopher
220: 7th- Morgan Smith, Live Oak
