The Balers took ten wrestlers to North Monterey County on Friday
and managed to still finish first place in the team
competition.
In the first match, San Benito defeated Foothill of Sacramento,
38-31. In the quarter finals against Aptos, San Benito won
40-28.
The Balers beat Edison High of Stockton 37-33 and then beat
Fallbrook of San Diego in another close contes
The Balers took ten wrestlers to North Monterey County on Friday and managed to still finish first place in the team competition.
In the first match, San Benito defeated Foothill of Sacramento, 38-31. In the quarter finals against Aptos, San Benito won 40-28.
The Balers beat Edison High of Stockton 37-33 and then beat Fallbrook of San Diego in another close contest.
Alejo Velasquez came up with a big one-point win in the finals to help secure the win.
“We were giving up 24 points per dual match,” Olejnik said. “If we would have got pinned in two more matches, we would have been out of the race. We really didn’t have any margin for error.”
Alex Diaz (145), Alejo Valasquez (160) and Tito Flores (Hvy) all finished with 4-0 records for the Balers. Chris Mora (119), Chris Uribe (130), Evan Rodriquez (140), Nick Carpenter (152), Kyle Horn (171) and Matt De La Rosa (215) all finished with 3-1 records, Olejnik said.
In Cupertino, the Balers had five guys place. Heavyweight Flores pinned his opponent from Los Gatos to avenge a loss to him earlier in the year in the Silicon Valley Tournament.
Diaz lost in the quarterfinals to De La Salle.
Against a wrestler from Bellarmine who had defeated him twice this year, Diaz was tied 5-5 before pinning him in the third period.
Diaz lost 2-1 against the grappler from Homestead to finish in fourth place.
San Benito’s Octavio Lucatero was out during both tournaments with a throat infection, but he is expected to dominate at 140 pounds against Gilroy.
Velasquez finished sixth in Cupertino after having to default with a sore elbow.
“If we would have had both those two guys in the lineup, we could have finished third,” Olejnik said.
