San Benito stays on a roll, wins North Coast Classic
San Benito made it three straight tournament titles Saturday as the Haybalers topped the 200-point mark for the second straight week and won the North Coast Classic at Eureka High.
Junior Davila (112 pounds) and Fernando Lucatero (160) both won their weight class and 13 of San Benito’s 14 wrestlers placed in the top-four.
“All in all, it was a good tournament,” coach Matt Olejnik said. “We wrestled some good competition.”
In addition to Davila and Lucatero, three other ‘Balers advanced to the finals with Enrique Lucatero (145), Josh Ramirez (154) and Manny Tovar (189) placing second.
Ramirez lost in the finals to Phoenix of Oregon’s Nick Amuchastegui, who is the defending state champion and bound for Stanford on scholarship next year.
“(Amuchastegui) breezed through everybody,” Olejnik said. “(Ramirez) wrestled him pretty tough.”
Seven ‘Balers took home third place honors.
Senior Luis Barocio, seeing his first action since separating his shoulder three weeks ago at the Sierra Nevada Classic in Reno, Nev., took third at 135 pounds.
Also finishing third were: Armando Lerma, a junior wrestling his first tournament this season; freshman Tim Christensen, who was making his varsity tournament debut; Gio Coelho (125), Jesus Seguro (130), Sammy Ramirez (171) and Ryan Cowell (215). Heavyweight Buddy Barraza finished fourth.
After finishing third and fifth the past two years in the tournament, this year was a breakthrough for San Benito – much like its past two tournament titles when it won the Silicon Valley Challenge Cup and the Jim Root Wrestling Classic.
“These are tournaments we’ve been going to the last couple of years and have been average in where we place,” said Olejnik, whose team beat out Phoenix-Oregon 236-184 to take first in the 20-team tournament.
“We have a lot of confidence. But the kids know that our real test will be this weekend at the Mid-Cals,” Olejnik said of the tournament Friday and Saturday at Gilroy High that will serve as the top competition for San Benito this season outside of the state championships. “Everything else we’ve done to this point won’t mean a hell of a lot if we fall on our face.”
Other weight class champions were Phoenix’s Luke Amuchastegui (119), Shye Tourville (125) and Noah Berman (171), Del Norte’s Andrew Walker (103 pounds), Jake Young (189), Roger McCovey (215) and Sherman Norton (heavyweight), Gold Beach’s Brandon Harding (130), Central Valley’s Roger Perkins (135), Arcata’s Trent Stevenson (140) and West Valley’s Justin Zacharias (145).
