During Saturday’s Apple Cider Tournament in Watsonville, the San Benito wrestling squad ended the weekend with one of its best finishes of the year. The Balers took four top-3 finishers, and a pair of consolation championships on their way to a second place finished out of 33 teams.
Wrestling in the 106-pound bracket, Eric Loredo took home the Balers lone championship, defeating Pacific Grove’ s Martin San German 7-2. Simon Coelho, wrestling at 160 pounds, gave the Balers their second-best finish. Coelho took second for the Balers, losing to Brandon Lefore of Sobrato by a 6-3 decision.
San Benito’s Elijah Riddle (120 pounds) and Tim Castillo (182 pounds) finished in third place in their respective brackets. After falling in the semifinals, Castillo took third place with a pin 59 seconds into his match with Gunderson’s Tasean Clark.
Riddle also took third place after winning by decision over Alisal’s Rico Huerta.
After losing their first match of the day, Patrick Ippolito (126 pounds) and Melo (220 pounds) won their consolation brackets. Ippolito clinched the title after defeating Bellarmine’s Dominic Mercado. Melo defeated North Salinas’ Nico Alvarez to earn the victory.
The wrestling team returns to the mat at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Anzar basketball
The Anzar girls basketball team lost its third game in a row Monday, falling to Richmond’s John F. Kennedy High School 53-37 in San Juan Bautista.
Tera Reed led the Hawks with 24 points in the losing effort.
“I was very pleased with the performance as it shows improvement,” head coach Tracy Carpenter said.
