San Benito has four placers, including Josh Ramirez, Enrique
Lucatero, Geo Coelho and Steven Borba
GILROY
For a tournament that is considered tougher than the upcoming Central Coast Section Championships, and for a team that was without three of its top wrestlers, San Benito High certainly held its own at Mid Cals last weekend.
Despite not having a single champion, the Haybalers still walked away with a sixth-place finish among 67 teams at the two-day tournament, third among CCS teams, and had four placers out of the 12 wrestlers that competed.
“I guess ultimately happy,” San Benito head coach Brian DeCarli said on Saturday night. “If you had said coming in without a 119 and a 125 and two of your better kids and still placing sixth out of 67 teams …
“But then looking back and reflecting on the last couple of days, we left some wins out on the mat that we could have had. Maybe they wouldn’t have necessarily improved our position at all, but it still could have improved our placings.”
Without a single champion, however, San Benito had difficulty cracking the top five. But without 112-pounder David Bazan (who was “groggy” after being slammed to the mat during a match last weekend), without 119-pounder Junior Davila (hand) and without Morris Stevens (shoulder) at 125 pounds, sixth place didn’t seem so bad after all.
The ‘Balers’ 154.5 points placed them ahead of Kingsburg (144.0), Spanish Springs (140.5) and Monterey (134.0), among others at Mid Cals, while Selma, the third-ranked team in the state of California, snapped host Gilroy’s three-year reign at the tournament when it compiled 261.5 points to earn the Mid Cal crown.
The Mustangs were runner-up with 248.5 points and edged section rival St. Francis by the slimmest of margins, just 3.5 points.
Josh Ramirez was the lone finalist for San Benito. Wrestling at 147 pounds, down from his usual 152 pounds, Ramirez went all the way to championship before losing to San Lorenzo Valley’s Cody Rodebaugh.
Undergoing a “trial run” at the lower weight class, Ramirez lost by a 7-3 decision in the 147-pound final.
“The kid he wrestled is No. 2 in the state at 142 pounds,” DeCarli said. “And supposedly that was his toughest match this year.
“[Ramirez] wrestled well, but we kind of put ourselves in a bad position by getting cradled. And those three points ended up being [the difference].”
Rodebaugh built a 5-0 lead before Ramirez scored an escape and then a takedown. He nearly had a near-fall of his own, but Rodebaugh pulled out.
Although Ramirez has been rather dominant at 152 pounds this year, at least locally, DeCarli feels he’ll have a better chance at state at the lower weight class.
Ramirez agreed.
“Yeah, I think so. I’m stronger than a lot of 152 pounders, but I think at 147 I’ll be even stronger,” Ramirez said. “At the beginning (of the tournament) I was a little tired, a little weak, maybe I was dehydrated. But at the end of the day I was feeling good.
“But [Rodebaugh] was a good wrestler. He was surprisingly strong, but man, I think I could have got him. There were little tiny things that if I could have fixed them it would have been my match. It was just the cradle.”
Ramirez deemed the “trial run” at 147 a success, nonetheless.
Ramirez’ teammate, Enrique Lucatero, finished in third place at 162 pounds when he won by an 18-2 technical fall over Leigh’s Sebastian Chene.
It was Lucatero’s semifinal match against Monterey’s Tyler Edwards that coaches were talking about afterward, though. Lucatero had previously lost to Edwards by a 13-4 decision at 171 pounds at the Coast Classic earlier in the year, and only lost 3-2 on Saturday.
“From 13-4 to 3-2, that’s a pretty good improvement,” DeCarli said. “When you lose a match you lose a match, and there’s never an easy way to get over it. But you can take solace from the fact that we’ve improved quite a bit, and maybe next time win that match by 4-3.
“He’s definitely getting better and it’s showing.”
Although he’s not making any excuses, Lucatero said during his first bout with Edwards he was “a little injured” with rib and knee ailments.
“This time I was in better condition,” Lucatero said. “There were two takedowns I should have had … I’m happy with improving, but I definitely wanted to win. One takedown, either way, won the match.”
While injuries were part of the back story for the ‘Balers, Geo Coelho took his name off the disabled list last week at the William C. Overfelt Wrestling Classic in San Jose, where he placed seventh.
On Saturday at 137 pounds, Coelho placed eighth.
“I wanted to do better than that, but I wasn’t seeded so I was happy I placed,” said Coelho, who was out for seven to 10 days with an ankle injury. “And (Mid Cals) is definitely up a level from Overfelt.
“It’s too bad we didn’t have our other guys. I would have liked to have seen how we would have done with our full lineup. But what happens, happens.”
Steven Borba also placed eighth at 142 pounds.
With all of their regular season tournaments now complete, the ‘Balers will turn their attention to the Tri-County Athletic League. On Wednesday, No. 4 San Benito will visit No. 3 Palma, where the ‘Balers are expected to have Junior Davila back in the lineup.
“It’s gonna be a dog fight for us,” DeCarli said, “because we’re still banged up.”
MID CALS
TEAMS (67 TEAMS)
1 – Selma, 261.5
2 – Gilroy, 248.5
3 – St. Francis, 245.0
4 -Turlock, 173.5
5 – Centennial, 171.5
6 – San Benito, 154.5
7 – Kingsburg, 144.0
8 – Spanish Springs, 140.5
9 – Monterey, 134.0
10 – Dos Palos, 122.5
11 – Palo Alto, 121.0
12 – Prospect, 120.5
13 – Oak Grove, 120.0
14 – Livermore, 114.5
15 – Gunn, 110.5
INDIVIDUAL
105 – 1, A. Cisneros, Selma; 2, C. Lampert, Spanish Springs; 3, P. Rodriguez, Oak Grove; 4, K. Obien, Independence; 5, K. Klette, Los Banos; 6, A. Le, Seaside; 7, G. Navarrete, Dinuba; 8, J. Yanez, Gilroy.
114 – 1, C. Pack, Quincy; 2, W. Fox, Gilroy; 3, N. Nguyen, Saratoga; 4, T. Pearson, Spanish Springs; 5, A. Gonzalez, Gilroy-B; 6, J. Yamat, Silver Creek; 7, J. Munoz, Dos Palos; 8, J. Nguyen, Andrew Hill.
121 – 1, J. Delgado, Gilroy; 2, F. Garcia, Turlock; 3, AJ Valles, Selma; 4, J. Barajas, St. Francis; 5, R. Coloma, St. Patrick/St. Vincent; 6, M. Ruiz, El Diamante; 7, R. Thompson; 8, B. Santana, Prospect.
127 – 1, M. Gonzalez, Gilroy; 2, B. Kastl, St. Francis; 3, S. Perez, Hoover; 4, N. Mazza, Archbishop Riordan; 5, D. Jankovich, Roseville; 6, D. Vasquez, Pitman; 7, D. Tablit, Centennial; 8, T. Spencer, Liberty of Madera.
132 – 1, J. Mendoza, Selma; 2, A. Olivares, Oak Grove; 3, A. Fraser, Livermore; 4, A. Quenga, Overfelt; 5, C. Boontjer, Foothill; 6, R. Perez, Hoover; 7, R. Balajadia, Gilroy; 8, B. Lozada, Terra Nova.
137 – 1, S. Hicks, Centennial; 2, N. Cano, St. Francis; 3, N. Zarate, Selma; 4, S. Takagi, Prospect; 5, B. Tuico, Vallejo; 6, B. Kannel, Livermore; 7, L. Maciel, Kingsburg; 8, G. Coelho, San Benito.
142 – 1, N. Escalera, Selma; 2, A. Ballard, Centennial; 3, M. Phanthavong, Granite Hills; 4, A. Sanchez, Livermore; 5, M. Mendoza, Everett Alvarez; 6, N. Gizzo, Liberty of Madera; 7, D. Gorman, Gunn; 8, S. Borba, San Benito.
147 – 1, C. Rodebaugh, San Lorenzo Valley; 2, J. Ramirez, San Benito; 3, V. Aboytes, Gilroy; 4, J. Maschio, Monterey; 5, K. McFate, Roseville; 6, G. Hartman, Los Banos; 7, C. Post, Gunn; 8, S. Baniani, St. Francis.
154 – 1, C. Padilla, Pitman; 2, A. Tirado, Kingsburg; 3, J. Lozano, Selma; 4, K. Venell, Prospect; 5, H. Gomez, Dos Palos; 6, S. Touba, Junipero Serra; 7, M. Ramos, Hoover; 8, T. Raisch, St. Francis.
162 – 1, P. Sheehan, Palo Alto; 2, T. Edwards, Monterey; 3, E. Lucatero, San Benito; 4, S. Chene, Leigh; 5, M. Thalin, King’s Academy; 6, G. Tyler, Kingsburg; 7, S. Adams, Quincy; 8, E. Schoenborn, Centennial.
173 – 1, J. Lucchetti, Terra Nova; 2, C. White, Spanish Springs; 3, J. Gutierrez, Turlock; 4, Z. Blumenfeld, Gunn; 5, J. Rivera, Prospect; 6, J. Jackson, St. Francis; 7, T. Wood, Modoc; 8, M. Alvarez, Cupertino.
191 – 1, T. Mobley, Turlock; 2, I. Fernandez, Monterey; 3, W. Eleazer, Aragon; 4, A. Yen, Saratoga; 5, W. Jackson, Kingsburg; 6, F. Garcia; 7, J. Subia, Oak Grove; 8, D. DeAlba, Junipero Serra.
217 – 1, D. Meulman, St. Francis; 2, J. Wood, Modoc; 3, R. Mayorga, El Camino; 4, M. Delgado, Turlock; 5, M. Aufderheide, Livermore; 6, J. Cannon, Granite Hills; 7, J. Morales, Oak Grove; 8, S. Brasil, Mount Pleasant.
287 – 1, R. Segovia, Silver Creek; 2, L. Barragan, Gilroy; 3, C. Tozer, Valley Christian; 4, D. Berry, Vallejo; 5, P. Park, Gunn; 6, M. Torres, Modoc; 7, M. Lohr, Pacific Grove; 8, L. Enos, Dos Palos.
