The Granite Hills High School wrestling team continues to soar to face off the 2023-24 winter sports season. Just how high the Eagles dare to climb will be determined at this weekend’s Doc Buchanan Invitational at Clovis High School.
The Jan. 5-6 tournament is ranked among the nation’s toughest; national rankings are likely forthcoming for top place finishers.
Granite Hills enters the tournament ranked seventh among teams in California while senior Collin Guffey is ranked first in his 165-pound weight class in the state.
Where will the Eagles land? It should be exciting to find out.
“The kids are determined to learn every day, to push themselves harder than they would in a match to get better,” Granite Hills head coach Jesse Sheard said. “Their progress is so much fun to watch.”
The Eagles are formidable this season. The reigning Division II section champions came away with six gold medalists and two silver medalists at December’s El Cajon Invitational.
Gold medalists included Emilio Escobar (106 pounds), Abram Cline (113 pounds), Sergio Porras (138 pounds), Devon Wells (144 pounds), Ryan Carroll (157 pounds) and Guffey.
Overall, Granite Hills had nine wrestlers listed in the state rankings at the end of the 2023 calendar year: Guffey (first), Cline (second), J.J. Suetos (10th), Wells (11th), Carroll (13th), Geo Fraser (15th), Porras (17th), Junior Bumanglag (21st) and Escobar (39th).
Alpine’s Guffey is once again the face of East County wrestling in 2023-24, and rightly so.
He placed fifth in the state in 2022 and second last season; he has been nationally ranked each year: No. 21 at 113 pounds as a freshman, No. 17 at 132 pounds as a sophomore, No. 5 at 152 pounds as junior, and currently No. 6 at 165 pounds as a senior.
He placed runner-up at last year ’s Doc B tournament. Weight class winners receive oversize cowboy hats.
Guffey pinned his opponent in 2:26 in the Eagles’ 72-3 dual meet victory at Helix Charter High School on Dec. 21.
Granite Hills won five of the seven matches contested on the mat by pins (two in the first period) and another by technical fall.
The Eagles won the junior varsity boys dual 52-24 on the strength of seven pins.
The Eagles will host Valhalla on Jan. 11 in a league dual meet before competing in the Battle for the Belt tournament Jan. 12-13 in Temecula.
Granite Hills will host North County power Rancho Bernardo in a high-profile non-league dual meet on Jan. 17.
The annual Holtville Invitational is Jan. 26-27. The Eagles will close out their league schedule with a dual meet at West Hills on Jan. 25 and by hosting Steele Canyon on Feb. 1.
The San Diego Section girls divisional championship meet is scheduled Feb. 3 while the boys CIF divisionals are Feb. 10.
The combined boys/girls San Diego Section Masters tournament is Feb. 16-17, followed by the state championship meet for both genders Feb. 22-24.
“I think it will be a very good year if we wrestle our best,” Sheard said. “We want to perform well at CIF, Masters and state.”
