Sunday, February 12, 2012

Monday, Mar. 08, 2010

Hartman, Klette punch tickets to CIF state wrestling championships

Story Tools

tool name

close
tool goes here

STOCKTON -- Los Baños High senior Greg Hartman (145) and junior Kendal Klette (103) will both be competing in today and Saturday's CIF State Championships at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.

Hartman went 5-1 at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Tournament at the Stockton Arena on Friday and Saturday and finished in third place.

Hartman's only loss of the tournament was in the semifinals against the state's No. 1 ranked Tyler Johnson of Vacaville High.

After the loss, Hartman went on to win both of his matches on Saturday to win the section's bronze medal.

"(State) was the goal," Hartman said. "Feels as good as I thought it would.

"I wanted to place in the top three (at Masters). There's a lot of tough guys here, but placing at state is my ultimate goal. I'm trying to make it a reality."

Last year Hartman went 0-2 at the state tournament. This year, the reigning Division I South champion will look to make it to the staircase of placers on Saturday night.

"Greg really has a lot of momentum in the postseason," Los Baños head coach Josh Adams said. "He really has only lost to the number one guy in the state.

"(Hartman) is very confident going into (today) and he has a great strategy prepared for tough matches ahead."

Klette qualified for state after finishing fourth at the Masters.

Klette has had an unbeilable postseason run thus far, considering he didn't wrestle at all during the regular season because of a shoulder injury.

Klette took second at the Central California Conference Tournament and then followed it with a second-place finish at the divisional tournament the following week.

Klette took second place at both tournaments to Turlock's sophomore Garrett Fortado, who went on to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters title on Saturday at the Stockton Arena.

Klette's loss on the first day was against Victor Trujillo of Bella Vista, which was considered an upset according to the section rankings. Klette won two more matches on Friday to make it to the second day.

On Saturday, Klette defeated Kris Kreifels of Downey High 16-1 after pinning him the previous week at the divisionals.

Klette then took out Merced's Meng Xiong to officially punch his ticket to the state tournament.

His work wasn't done, however.

Klette went on to beat Johnothan Costa of Escalon High to get to the third-place match, which he lost against none other than Trujillo of Bella Vista, 11-2.

Both of Klette's losses were against Trujillo -- one on Friday and the other during the bronze-medal match on Saturday.

"Kendal is striving to get better and better each weekend," Adams said. "He is beating guys that are ranked above him and moving very well on the mat.

"Kendal has a very tough first match, but he is prepared and looking forward to the challenge ahead."

Los Baños' 119-pound junior Jorgie Munoz was the third wrestler from Los Baños to make it thorugh to the second day of the tournament.

Edduardo Madriz, Arnold Lopez, Marco Dicochea and Andres Quintero were all eliminated by Friday evening.

Munoz lost his first-round matchup on Friday, and then followed that up with three straight consolation bracket wins to stay alive and come back on Saturday.

Munoz was eliminated during his first match on Saturday, which was a 3-1 loss against Mark Ocampo of Rodriguez High of Fairfield, who went on to place fifth and move on to state.

"Munoz lost a heartbreaker match (Saturday) that would have put him in contention to qualify for state," Adams concluded. "He came up short of his goal there, but I'm extremely proud of his accomplishments this year including beating great wrestlers when we needed it in duals.

"Jorge will remember the feeling of disappointment from Masters and harness it as motivation for training in the offseason."

To contact John-Joel Griffiths, e-mail jgriffiths@losbañosenterprise.com or call 826-3831 ext. 565.