Team finished strong after starting the day in fifth place
When the San Benito High wrestling team took to the mats on the
final day of competition in last Saturday’s Central Coast Section
championships at Overfelt High in San Jose, the Balers stood alone
in fifth place.
Team finished strong after starting the day in fifth place
When the San Benito High wrestling team took to the mats on the final day of competition in last Saturday’s Central Coast Section championships at Overfelt High in San Jose, the Balers stood alone in fifth place.
By the end of the day San Benito High had locked up a second-place finish – thanks to one of the strongest efforts that head coach Matt Olejnik had ever seen in his 14-year-stint at San Benito High.
“I feel great about what we accomplished,” Olejnik said. “That was the best team effort that we have ever had since I’ve been here – even better than the three times that we won it all.
“There were times when we were in fourth, fifth, even sixth place but we stepped it up and took care of business. It was a great win for us.”
Courtesy of their score of 151, the Balers finished second to perennial powerhouse Gilroy, which captured an unprecedented sixth CCS title in a row via its team total of 249.5.
Olejnik considered the event a win since no school heading into the tournament believed it had a chance at overtaking the Mustangs – it was literally described as a battle for second.
The key to the Balers’ ability to rack up points and climb up the leader board on the second day of competition came as a result of the solid efforts of the six Baler wrestlers that stood in the top eight in their respective weight classes after the first day of competition – the prerequisite for advancing to the finals.
Once there, four of the six made it all the way to the tournament finals while the other two advanced in the consolation bracket. The match that pushed the Balers past third-place St. Francis was the 16 points that senior Buddy Barraza earned for beating Gilroy’s Jess Rogers in the semifinals. The 16 points allowed the Balers to beat the Lancers by 11 and fourth-place Los Gatos by 16.
“That was really the one that pushed us over the top,” Olejnik said.
The three other Baler wrestlers that finished second at CCS were Junior Davilla (112), Josh Ramirez (145) and Fernando Lucatero (152).
Davilla lost to Gilroy’s Jesse Delgado by pin, Ramirez lost to St. Francis’ Dominic Kasti and Lucatero lost 16-5 to Los Gatos wrestler Geoff Doss.
As a result of their finishing in the top four at CCS, all four of them will now compete this weekend in the state championships in Bakersfield.
The two Balers that finished fifth in the tournament and just missed qualifying for the state meet were 160-pounder Enrique Lucatero and 171-pounder Manny Tovar.
“The beauty of coaching is that you set goals in the beginning, then you go through some peaks and valleys,” Olejnik said. “To finish second was the best that we could have done. We just didn’t have the firepower to compete with Gilroy, but we all came together as a team when we needed to.”
