Metro mat men gear up for league finals

The Metro Conference’s array of wrestling talent will gather Saturday, Feb. 4, at Montgomery High School to vie for both individual and team titles.

It should be a spirited show based on the results of last weekend’s tournament competition across San Diego and Imperial counties.

Close to home, the South Bay Invitational took place last Saturday at Otay Ranch High School, Chula Vista led the parade of local mat squads with a fourth-place team finish ahead of Otay Ranch (fifth), Hilltop (sixth), Sweetwater (10th),
Montgomery (11th) and Olympian (14th) in the 15-team field.

Hilltop’s Marc Nunez won the 108-pound title while CV’s Anthony Ortiz captured the 122-pound championship, Sweetwater’s Francisco Herrera won the 140-pound title, Otay Ranch’s Axell Perez claimed the 147-pound division and Montgomery’s Andrew Villagomez won the 222-pound championship.

Runners-up included CV’s Ezekiel Rocha (115 pounds) and Guy Almeraz (128 pounds) and Otay Ranch’s Sithara Diunugala (154 pounds) and Jonathon Wu (172 pounds).

Third-place medalists included Hilltop’s Kazu Tsukamoto (122 pounds), Sweetwater’s Joseph Fonseca (134 pounds), Sweetwater’s Guillermo Gonzalez (172 pounds), Hilltop’s Chris Gomez-Dominguez (197 pounds), Chual Vista’s Joshua Rodriguez (222 pounds) and Chula Vista’s German Contreras (287 pounds).

There was even more success for South County grapplers at last weekend’s two-day 31-team Holtville Rotary Invitational (Jan. 27-28) as six Metro mat men advanced to the finals.

Three Mater Dei Catholic wrestlers captured individual weight class championships: Aaron “Mateo” Olmos (162 pounds), Uriel Beristrain (172) and Thomas Schmitt (184).

Two Eastlake wrestlers finished second in their respective weight classes: Ben Martinez (122 pounds) and Michael Johnson (147 pounds).

San Ysidro’s Pablo Perez placed runner-up in his 172-pound division.

Olmos, ranked fourth in the state at 28-4, recorded four pins and a 15-6 major decision in his five trips to the mat to continue his charge into the postseason. He pinned second-seeded David Lipscomb of Steele Canyon in 5:35 in the championship round.

The 172-pound final proved to be an all-Metro match-up as Beristain, the second-seeded wrestler in the weight class, posted a 7-3 decision over top-seeded Perez.

Beristain (23-8) rode a string of four consecutive pins to meet Perez in the title bout while Perez had recorded pins in his three preliminary-round matches.

Schmitt, seeded third in his weight class, defeated Rancho Bernardo’s True Stewart in the championship round. Schmitt edged second-seeded Greg Sandoval of Escondido by a tight score of 4-3 in the semifinals while Steward had eliminated top-seeded Tanner Murphy of Madison in the semifinals.

Schmitt (18-8) topped Stewart by an 8-1 decision in the final.

Rancho Bernardo, with nine finalists and six weight class champions, cruised to the team title with 314.5 points — well ahead of second place Brawley’s 248 points.

Mater Dei Catholic finished fifth in the team standings with 136 points.

Overall, seven Metro teams took the drive to Imperial County to participate in the tournament. Eastlake finished seventh with 107.5 points while Olympian placed 10th with 97 points, San Ysidro placed 11th with 91 points, Mar Vista placed 18th with 55 points, Bonita Vista placed 22nd with 34 points and Castle Park placed 27th with 15 points.

Mat attack
At the Jim Londos tournament earlier in January, Eastlake recorded a second-place team finish behind team champion Poway while Montgomery placed 16th and Southwest placed 19th in the 23-team field.

For the runner-up Titans, Johnson won his 145-pound weight division whie Martinez finished second at 126 pounds, Kevin Moyna finished second at 152 pounds, Richard Corpus finished second at 195 pounds and Sergio Carzoli finished second at 285 pounds. Montgomery’s Villagomez finished second at 220 pounds.