Friday, Dec. 23, 2011

GV shines in LB tourney

Los Banos takes fourth in second edition of Morning Star Invite

For as long as there has been a Morning Star Wrestling Invitational in Los Banos, Golden Valley has been its champion.

The Cougars won the second annual event with 194 points, but heavyweight Aaron Sanchez was the school's only individual champion after a second-round pin of LB's Bryce Howard in the title match.

"It's pretty neat. We lost a lot of seniors last year," Golden Valley coach Chopper Mello said. "To do it again is neat when you don't expect to do it again."

GV's strength was its depth -- 12 Cougars medaled (the top six in each weight earned medals).

"That's kind of what we did last year, although we had more champions," Mello said. "To do it with one champion says something about your team."

Sanchez already had the advantage against Howard after the Los Banos senior thought they were out of bounds. Sanchez realized there was no whistle and hopped on Howard for the takedown to go up 3-1.

Howard had to go aggressive to get points back, and Sanchez caught him off balance to put him on his back.

"My goal was to wear him down, keep finding angles, and keep working him," Sanchez said. "I figured I could wear him out. I've been watching him all day."

Dos Palos placed second with 147 points, while Union Mine (145), host Los Banos (139) and Buhach Colony (136) rounded out the top five.

Howard was the only Tiger to make it to the title match in any weight -- LB crashed and burned for the most part in the quarterfinals. Riko Quintana (103), Jimmy Felix (132) and James Robledo (138) were the others from the host school to make it to the semifinals.

Dos Palos also boasted a single champion in 145-pounder Nathan Pimentel, who pinned Bret Harte's Justin Barnes in the championship.

"I schedule a little different than a lot of coaches -- we gradually increase the challenge as we go through," DP coach Frank Lemos said. "This is a good precursor to the events we attend in January. We get a lot of matches, and we see a lot of folks we won't see. To me, variety of competition is good."

Merced High, which finished eighth in the standings (117.5 points), had a single champion in 106-pound senior Meng Xiong, who worked his way to a 6-3 win over Bret Harte's Caleb Storey in the championship.

"I always wanted to be first, so I just did everything my coach told me," Xiong said. "It's my last year, so I'll try to do everything I can to go to state."

Two schools tied for the most individual championships -- Gilroy (seventh place, 117.5 points) had Jesse Vasquez at 113 pounds, Leif Dominguez at 120 and Aaron Gonzalez at 145, while Union Mine had Colin Hustrulid at 126, Sean Tow at 152 and Mitchell Woods at 170. Trevor Smith of Ripon, Tanner Sherrow of Bret Harte, Jacob Pedraza of Hanford West and JT Goodwin of Bear Creek also took home gold.

Enterprise reporter David Witte can be reached by phone at 388-6565 or by e-mail at sports@losbanosenterprise.com