The El Capitan High School wrestling team hit some pretty high notes in 2023-24. The Vaqueros won their first league dual meet championship in two decades and qualified seven mat men for this weekend’s San Diego Masters state-qualifying tournament at Southwest El Centro High School.
It’s been a most pleasurable season for head coach Justin Duggie, a proud El Capitan alumnus.
“It’s been absolutely fantastic coaching at my alma mater,” said Duggie, a 2015 ECHS graduate.
A former Division III individual champion and three-time Masters qualifier, Duggie has coached in the Vaqueros program for nine years, the last three years as head coach.
“It’s an honor to coach here,” said Duggie, who followed his older brother Nathan, a 2010 Vaquero alumnus, onto the mat. “The year after I graduated, they offered me the position. My goal was to build the program into something it could be proud of. Our program had been so small. When I took over three years ago (as head coach), we had 10 kids. Now we have 70 and are league champs.
“I’ve never seen a team grow so close in such a short period of time as our team. We have a lot of support now from the parents and the school.”
The Lakeside school is still making its share of noise in post-season competition.
El Capitan finished sixth deep in the 20-team Division III tournament field. The Vaqueros advanced four wrestlers to the semifinals and one — junior 126-pounder Riley Jones — made it to the championship round.
Jones (30-9) finished second in the division field following a 21-6 loss by technical fall in the finals to Brawley’s Diego Arias (23-8). Jones finished 3-1 on the day with two pins and a 10-4 decision over Escondido’s Liam Balker in the semifinals.
“This is the first time I’ve made it to the semifinals and finals, it’s super cool,” Jones said.
Other semifinalists included Russell Henzie (132 pounds), George Spears (138 pounds) and Caiden Sarff (heavyweight).
Henzie (21-14) finished fourth while Spears (23-11) finished fifth. Sarff (13-9) placed sixth in his weight class.
The top six place-finishers at the Division III tournament advance to the Masters tournament with the seventh-place finisher serving as an alternate in that weight class.
The Vaqueros’ list of Masters qualifiers include the four semifinalists plus Marlon Ames (fifth, 190 pounds). Seventh-place alternates include Aaron Altamirano (175 pounds) and Gavin Ames (215 pounds).
Zane Harvey (106) just missed qualifying for Masters by placing eighth.
Altamirano and Marlon Ames both recorded three pins on the day.
El Capitan also had two girls qualify for Masters — Destiny Jahnig (100 pounds) and Lillian Kohler (115 pounds) — from the Division II finals at Santana High School the preceding week.
Hungry like the wolf
West Hills led the five East County teams at the Division III tournament with a fifth-place finish — four points ahead of El Capitan. The Wolf Pack finished with six Masters qualifiers and one alternate. Bryan Minsky (22-16) pulled off an upset win in the semifinals over second-seeded Braeden Steele of St. Augustine at 132 pounds. Minksy went on to place second in the weight following a 16-0 loss by technical fall to Brawley’s Evan Velez (36-6).
Other Masters qualifiers for West Hills include Weston Druckerman (third, 157 pounds), Dylan Blackwood (fourth, 144 pounds), Jonathan Chisamore (fifth, 175 pounds), Preston Cortez (fifth, 285 pounds) and Lelynd Mesina (sixth, 150 pounds). Gerald Eganhouse (120 pounds) finished seventh as an alternate.
Riley Skomowski (190) placed eighth despite wrestling up a weight class.
Minsky finished the tournament with four pins while Mesina and Blackwood each had three pins.
“We have such a young team,” Wolf Pack coach Mike Proctor said. “If you told me before the tournament that we’d have six Masters qualifiers, one in the final, and one alternate, it would have been hard to believe. These kids have worked so hard, I’m so proud of the team.”
Parade of champions
El Cajon Valley also had its day in the sun with three Masters qualifiers and the lone East County weight class champion (Enrique Hernandez at 285 pounds) at the Division III tournament.
Hernandez (25-5) finished 4-0 with two pins, a 9-1 major decision over West Hills’ Cortez in an all-East County semifinal and a gutsy 9-8 decision over Escondido’s Deangelo Pollard in the championship round.
Besides El Cajon Valley’s Hernandez, East County reaped six weight class champions at last Saturday’s CIF finals.
Granite Hills’ Collin Guffey (42-0) remained undefeated on the season at 165 pounds after defeating Poway’s Aliaksandr Kikiniou by a 7-0 decision at the Division I tournament at San Marcos High School.
Guffey was among nine Eagles to advance to the championship round but the lone Granite Hills wrestler to win in the duel against Poway, ranked No. 1 in the state and fourth in the nation.
The Titans (415 points) flexed their collective muscle with eight wins in the nine finals matchups (two by pins, two by minor decision, one by major decision, one by technical fall and two by forfeit)
Abram Cline made it close with a 1-0 loss to Edwin Sierra at 113 pounds while Ryan Carroll lost 7-1 to Jack Estevez at 157 pounds.
Runners-up also included Emilio Escobar (106 pounds), Jayson Suetos (126 pounds), Layronz Fraser (138 pounds), Sergio Porras (150 pounds), Junior Bumanglag (175 pounds) and Joseph Smith (215 pounds).
Third-place finishers for Granite Hills included Damian Arreola (120 pounds), Aiden Chur (132 pounds) and Devon Wells (144 pounds).
Jovanni Mansour placed seventh at 190 pounds while Jacob Polak placed ninth at heavyweight for the runner-up Eagles (293 points).
Poway swamped the field with 14 finalists and 12 weight class champions.
Helix Charter finished ninth in the team standings as Ja’Kar Carter grabbed a third-place finish at 190 pounds and Kingsley Frank (165 pounds) and Ahlijah Davis (215 pounds) both placed sixth in their weights to pace the Scotties.
Division II individual champions included Valhalla’s Marcelino Nona (157 pounds) and Victor Gosswiller (190 pounds), along with Grossmont’s Jacob Barnes (132 pounds).
Nona recorded a 13-3 major decision over Mt. Carmel’s Kevin Cheeseman while Gosswiller pinned San Pasqual’s Oscar Sanchez in 2:36 to key the Norsemen (193.5 points) to a meteoric second-place finish in the team standings behind division champion Mira Mesa (214 points).
Barnes out-pointed Mira Mesa’s Christopher Tran by a 6-2 decision.
Valhalla’s Nathanial Anderson finished runner-up at 165 pounds.
Gosswiller marched to his gold medal with three pins.
Christian’s Damian Jones claimed the Division IV individual championship at 120 pounds while second-place finishes went to Christian’s Landon Bedsole (126 pounds) and Mt. Miguel’s Ty Pope (144 pounds).
