BOYS WRESTLING
By GABRIEL RIZK
STAFF WRITER
HEMET Host Hemet High left Saturday’s Mountain Pass League individual finals with a meet-best seven champions and 10 CIF qualifiers, which matched San Jacinto for the most in the league.
That showing came two days after the Bulldogs defeated Perris Citrus Hill to clinch their second straight league dual crown.
The last time the Bulldogs sent a team this large to the CIF-SS individual finals, they won the Eastern Division meet in 2015. It’s a fact not lost on Bulldogs senior 145-pounder Issiah Burkes, who was a member of that squad.
“We still have stuff to work on, but our ultimate goal is to win CIF again,” said Burkes, who was unanimously voted league MVP Saturday. “We won it two years ago and I feel like we have a pretty solid team to win it this year. ”
Along with Burkes’ win over Citrus Hill’s Carlos Mejia, the Bulldogs got titles from Nick Herrick (113), Roy Garcia (120), Jose Ferrusca (132), Paul Gonzalez
(152), Zack Meyer (160) and Giovanni Valencia-Baxter
(195).
The top three wrestlers from each weight class earned automatic qualification to the Northern individuals, which will take place Feb. 17-18 at Grand Terrace High.
Beaumont qualified nine, including 220 champion Dennis Hernandez, Citrus Hill qualified six and Hemet Tahquitz advanced two.
West Valley is sending four wrestlers on, but three of them are champions –
Manuel Cavillo (126), Angel Romo (138) and Shawn Montgomery (170) – which tied the Mustangs for second in the title tally with San Jacinto. The Tigers got title wins from Gian Facio
at 106, Angel Escolero at 182 and Alejandro Alba at 285.
Facio entered the third period of his title match against Citrus Hills’ Sebastian Cruz tied at 2 and fell behind on a reversal with 20 seconds left. He made his escape with 10 seconds on the clock and scored a winning takedown with a few ticks left.
Herrick wrestled well over the first two periods in his finals match against Beaumont’s Julian Aguiano, building an 8-2 lead, before finishing it by pin 13 seconds into the third.
Garcia defeated David Sanchez of Beaumont, 11-8, and Calvillo held off a late
rally by Vincent Rodriguez
of San Jacinto to win, 8-4.
Ferrusca scored the quickest fall of the day, pinning San Jacinto’s Rafael Martinez with 35 seconds left in the first period after scoring two near falls.
Romo also did his damage against Anthony Desvigne of San Jacinto early, nearly pinning him in each of the first two period before hanging on to win, 8-3.
Gonzalez had his hands full with Citrus Hills’ Steve Dourseau, who wrestled Gonzalez to a 2-2 tie with five seconds left only to see Gonzalez wriggle out with a winning escape, 3-2.
Meyer turned up the pressure on San Jacinto’s
Jesse Loera with a reversal and near fall in the third to salt away a 13-5 win.
Montgomery entered the third period tied at 2 with Beaumont’s Donny Ortega, but ended up pinning him with 56 seconds left.
There was no182 final, as Escolero won by default, but the 195 was action packed. Valencia-Baxter was taken down by San Jacinto’s Arturo Ojeda quickly, but escaped, then pounced on Ojeda after a stumble and pinned him.
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