This year’s high school state wrestling championships Feb. 26-28 at Dignity Health Arena in Bakersfield produced 21 San Diego Section medalists — 13 among boys grapplers and eight among girls.
Poway, with 229.5 points, dominated the local boys field with 11 medal-winners (top eight place-finishers) and two weight class champions en route to a runner-up finish behind team champion Buchanan (288.5 points).
Granite Hills fleshed out the section’s honor roll with two medalists: Cash McClurg (third place at 106 pounds) and Ames-Michael Hoevker (sixth place at 144 pounds).
No other section team advanced a wrestler to the awards podium, creating elite company for the two East County mat men. The Eagles finished 13th in the team standings with 57.5 points.
Poway’s state champions included Bailey Holman (157) and Mario Carini (175).
The Titans’ horde of state medalists also included Dom Dotson (third. 190), Mick Moylan (third, 215), Rene Cordero (fourth, 120). Jack Malinconico (fifth, 132), Matt Orbeta (fifth, 138), Diego Valdiviezo (fifth, 144), Mason Conrite (fifth, 165), Carlos Valdiviezo (seventh, 150) and Julius Villamil (eighth, 113).
McClurg, seeded eighth, recorded a 7-0 decision over Reedley’s Aiden Talavera (seeded fifth) in the bronze medal match while Hoevker, seeded fourth, dropped a 4-1 decision to Poway’s Diego Valdiviezo (seeded fifth) in the pair’s fifth-place match.
McClurg lost to top-seeded Michael Bernade of Clovis in the quarterfinals while Hoevker came up short against Valdiviezo in the quarters. Both East County mat men advanced through the consolation wrestlebacks from there to claim their career-defining state medals.
weight class to give Granite Hills two state medalists.
The so-called “blood round” is where the match winner is assured of a state medal. McClurg recorded a 21-3 technical fall over Gilroy’s Roman Fonsesca while Hoevker scored a clutch 4-2 win over Esperanza’s James Ruiz to reach the awards stand.
Quarterfinalists included Granite Hills Aiden Chur (seeded seventh at 157), Brawley’s Justin Torres (seeded fifth at 138) and Adam Avila (seeded seventh at 215) and Imperial’s Noah Larios (seeded fifth at 285).
None advanced to the ensuing semifinals.
In the blood round, wrestlers falling short of a medal included Poway’s Wyatt Carnrite (106), La Costa Canyon’s Shane Ito (113), Granite Hills’ Emilio Escobar (120) and Chur (157), and Brawley’s Torres (138), Avila (215) and Daryn Leon (190).
Escobar lost 5-1 to Poway’s Cordero while Chur lost 8-5 to Los Angeles Birmingham’s Roman Arakelyan.
For the most part, it was tough going for San Diego Section wrestlers. But the state tournament remains much more of a meat-grinder than the section’s already tough Masters tourney.
Brawley, which finished third bhind Granite Hills at Masters, finished 22nd at the state meet with 33.5 points while La Costa Canyon (fourth at Masters) was 48th with 16.5 points and Imperial (seventh at Masters) was 53rd with 13 points.
Rancho Bernardo (sixth at Masters) finished in a tie with Valhalla (eighth at Masters) for 69th place with nine points. Carlsbad (ninth at Masters) finished 78th with 8.5 points while Vista (19th at Masters) was 84th with eight points.
Following were Cathedral Catholic (125th, five points), Ramona (154th, three points), Escondido (161st, two points) and Mt. Carmel (161st, two points).
Girl power
Buchanan duplicated the boys team championship in the girls tournament with 147.5 points ahead of runner-up Marina (109 points). Poway was fifth with 97.5 points while Brawley and Rancho Bernardo tied for ninth with 43.5 points.
There was a big drop off from there: Carlsbad tied for 41st with 25 points.
“Overall, we had an OK year on the girls side,” said Steele Canyon coach Trevor Keifer, who also acts as the section’s girls wrestling director. “I was hoping that we would bring home around 15 medals to get a shot at gaining an extra qualifier. We medaled eight, which kept us safe from losing one. Hitting 13 medals the last two years made me optimistic.” The section had five semifinalists and three advanced to the finals, but no champions. Silver medalists included Poway’s Ava Ebrahimi (120), Brawley’s Camille Torres (130) and Rancho Bernardo’s Mary Snider (155).
Snider lost a 2-0 match in the finals while Torres lost 3-0 to begrudgingly go down.
