At first glance, Gilroy’s third-place finish Saturday in the
Overfelt Classic is not that impressive.
At first glance, Gilroy’s third-place finish Saturday in the Overfelt Classic is not that impressive.
After all, this is a tournament the Mustangs won last year. And yet, when one takes into account who wasn’t competing for Gilroy, the team performance starts looking much better.
Only eight GHS wrestlers competed and one – Austin Gubrud – was so ill that he was sent home. Of the other seven, six finished in the top four. Jesse Delgado, Ethan Ogle and Hunter Collins were all weight champions. Andres Barragan was runner-up.
College Park, one of the North Coast Section favorites, emerged as the top team with 223.5 points. Damonte Ranch of Reno, Nev., ., was second at 220.5 followed by Gilroy, 167.
Interestingly, Ogle, who won his first tournament, was harder on himself than his coach.
“I wrestled tentatively,” said Ogle, the 160-pound champion. “I was not really confident. It will be a good test this weekend (at the Mid Cals at Gilroy).”
Ogle pinned Trevor Perrigo of Harbor in 1:40, then won by decision over Raul Rauda of South San Francisco, Shon Stubee of College Park and Paul Kim of Cupertino.
“He’s doing a great job,” GHS coach Armando Gonzalez said of Ogle. “He’s been wrestling very well for us.”
Delgado got his third tournament title at 103. The Mustang freshman was so overpowering that he pinned four straight opponents – Cameron Tognetti of King City, Kyle Anderberg of St. Francis, Jose Ruiz of Watsonville and Al Quenga of Overfelt – in the first period. The pin of Quenga was noteworthy because the Overfelt wrestler is ranked second in the Central Coast Section at 103. Delgado was beating Quenga 11-3 when he pinned him.
Collins was merely happy to get back on the mats after sitting out the last two weeks to rest an ailing shoulder. He pinned three of four opponents.
“It was good to get back to wrestling,” Collins said.
Collins won by first-period fall over Marhall Darr of Archbishop Mitty, Ryan Drebin of Palo Alto and Drew Meulman of St. Francis in the final. The 171-pound Collins also won by major decision over Wade Vance of Hillsdale, 16-3. Meulman, a freshman, practiced with Gilroy during his middle school years.
Barragan won by decision over Gurbaksh Sohal of Los Gatos, then pinned Justin Kirksey of Lincoln and Drew Toney of St. Francis. In the final, Barragan was behind John Hall of Palo Alto before the eighth-ranked 215-pounder in the state turned the Gilroy senior over on his back.
Chris Krough, 130, and Travis Sakamoto, 140, were Mustangs who finished fourth. Krough, wrestling in his first tournament since recovering from a knee injury, had a 31-second fall and won two major decisions. Sakamoto went 4-1 and didn’t get a chance to wrestle for third because of the five-match rule in the tournament.
