Win over Live Oak Tuesday one of many season successes
Judging from the way the Gilroy High wrestling team is pinning
and dominating its opponents this season, the goal of winning a
Central Coast Section title may be too conservative.
Judging from the way the Gilroy High wrestling team is pinning and dominating its opponents this season, the goal of winning a Central Coast Section title may be too conservative.
In the past few weeks, the Mustangs have won the 28-team Bay Area Invitational tournament at Castro Valley High School, finished second in the 48-team Coast Classic tournament in Scott’s Valley and won the Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno-an event with 96 schools.
“This year our goal is to win league, CCS and, hopefully, win some state medals,” said Gilroy Coach Armando Gonzalez after watching his team dismantle Live Oak 54-21 in the league opener Wednesday night at home.
Currently, the Mustangs are ranked No. 1 in the CCS and looked worthy of the ranking against the Acorns.
But next Wednesday they’ll find out just how valid the title is when they go up against San Benito High School, last year’s CCS champions.
“They’re fifth in CCS right now,” said Gonzalez. “We’re going to need to wrestle to our potential. This will be the first time since I have been coaching here that we’ll probably be the favorite. But you can forget about the rankings for that meet. When we get together, we both get in there and get after it.”
For the Acorns, the headline after Wednesday night’s contest could have read, “What a difference a year makes.”
Last season Live Oak finished second to San Benito in both league play and CCS. But this season, first-year head coach Ron Nichols has to guide a squad that lost five outstanding wrestlers to graduation last May.
“Overall, I feel pretty good about our program even though we lost,” Nichols said. “That’s a heck of a team in Gilroy. They’re mature and well-practiced. But we were extremely respectable and still getting better. I think we’ll do well this year.”
While Gilroy did dominate the match, Live Oak had solid performances in several weight classes and managed to win four matches.
Live Oak’s Alejandro Dominguez beat Gilroy’s Spencer Silva in the 103-pound class.
Live Oak also did well in the upper weight classes. At 160 pounds, the Acorns’ Dan Wahl pinned Nick Fortino. Live Oak’s Chris Horner also dominated his 171-pound match against Vincent Sanchez. Junior Mike Sanchez took the heavyweight match for Live Oak when he pinned Gilroy’s Jose Albarron.
Gilroy won the other 10 matches in the event. Gilroy picked up forfeit wins at 112 pounds, 130 pounds and 135 pounds. Christian Javier won his 119-pound match for Gilroy. Armando Gonzalez (130), Gilbert Gutierrez (140), Andrew Rauss (145), Martin Serrano (152), Mark Zabala (189) and Ryan Reunald (215) also picked up wins as the Mustangs rolled to victory.
Next Wednesday, the Acorns will square off with North Salinas at home, a match up that Nichols is looking forward to.
“I think we’ll do well. How well? We’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “We wrestled really hard against Gilroy and I really like what I see so far.”
