Mustangs have pieces in place to make another run in section and
state playoffs
Gilroy – Success for the Gilroy High School wrestling team is not measured in how well it does in the Tri-County Athletic League or Central Coast Section.
It is measured by how well the Mustangs do on the state and even national level. Yes, Gilroy wrestling has grown that big during Armando Gonzalez’s 10 years as head coach. After all, GHS is the four-time defending TCAL and CCS champions.
Don’t expect a drop-off this season or any time soon. The names change but it seems there are always others to fill in the gaps.
It begins this year with junior Hunter Collins and sophomore Martin Gonzalez. Coach Gonzalez calls Collins “the best (wrestler) I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with.”
Collins finished second in the state last year at 171 and will try to get past nemesis Louis Bland of Modesto Central Catholic, also a junior and the two-time defending champion. Collins finished eighth in the state as a freshman at 160. This past summer, he was second in the nationals in freestyle wrestling in Fargo, N.D.
Gonzalez was the highest placing freshman in Gilroy history last year when he was fifth in the state at 103. He won a national tournament in Reno, Nev., last summer. He will be wrestling at 119 this year.
Senior 112-pounder Nico Naranjo was fourth in the state as a sophomore and finished sixth in the Reno Tournament of Champions his freshman year.
The rest of the starting lineup includes freshman Jesse Delgado, 103, a three-time U.S. national champion and ranked top 3 in the state; senior Rudy Maldanado, 125, a returning state qualifier; senior Kris Krough, 130, a returning state qualifier; freshman Vincent Aboytes, 135; junior Travis Sakamoto, 140; senior Austin Gubrud, 145, a state qualifier as a sophomore who was injured last year; sophomore Fabian Larado, a junior varsity league champion whose toughest competition are workouts with Collins; junior Ethan Ogle, 160; senior Andres Barragan, 189, a returning section champion; junior Jesse Rogers, 215, a transfer from North Monterey County; and senior heavyweight Chaz Guerrero, a first-year varsity starter.
It’s a typically strong GHS lineup with the potential to better last year’s fourth-place state finish. As usual, most meets will be away from Gilroy but Gonzalez added a home dual meet with perennially strong Santa Ana on Dec. 30.
“You never know how the season will go,” said Gonzalez, who is assisted by Mike Koester, Greg Varela and Dan Locksin. “Our hopes are high. We feel we have one of the best teams we’ve ever had here. We feel we can eclipse what we did last year.”
If so, that would continue a trend over the last four years in which Gilroy has gone from 13th to 11th to sixth to fourth in the state.
“This year, we hope to be top three,” said Gonzalez, mentioning defending champion Buchanan and Poway as teams to watch. “We have put ourselves in an elite league with 10 schools (throughout the state) who we meet every week in our schedule. We allow the CCS and league to take care of itself.”
