Through two championship rounds at the annual CIF State Wrestling Championships, six of the seven local wrestlers in the field won their opening matches Friday morning at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
None of the seven wrestled in the morning’s first round, meaning each began his respective tournament in Round 2.
Christopher’s Jimmie Lopez (106 pounds) shook off an early 4-0 deficit and built a 10-4 lead before pinning Meng Xiong (Merced) at the 5:06 mark of the third period.
Gilroy High’s Victor Olmos (120) wasted little time in getting through his first opponent, Stuart Malm of Righetti. Olmos ended the match by fall at 1:32 of the first period.
Also in the early stages of Day 1, Paul Fox (126) defeated Cameron Bailey (Vacaville) by major decision, 12-3, Nikko Villarreal (132) handled Issac Bertalotto (Turlock) by second-period fall, Willie Fox (145) prevailed with a major decision, 10-2, over Kai Loechler (Vacaville) and Jose Lara (285) decisioned Mark Trevino (Corcoran), 8-4. Freshman Jesse Vasquez was eliminated from competition, going 0-2 in his state meet debut.
“Jesse had the freshman jitters, but he had a solid season,” GHS head coach Greg Varela said. “The rest of the boys are wrestling very aggressively with a lot of confidence.”
After the two Championship rounds, Gilroy is in sixth place with 26 points. Defending champ Clovis is in first with 78.5 points.
Championship Round 3 is slated to start at 3:30 p.m. The last rounds of the day – Championship Round 4 and Consolation Round 4 – are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Check back tonight for the next update. Follow sports editor Josh Weaver on Twitter for up-to-the-minute results.
