O’Donnell Gym was packed to the gill-roys for Wednesday night’s
annual grudge wrestling meet between Gilroy and Hollister high
schools. Mustangs fans had the first and final roars of the match
as Gilroy demolished the Balers 54-7.
O’Donnell Gym was packed to the gill-roys for Wednesday night’s annual grudge wrestling meet between Gilroy and Hollister high schools. Mustangs fans had the first and final roars of the match as Gilroy demolished the Balers 54-7.
It was surely won of the widest margin of victories ever over a Haybaler wrestling team by any team. It also broke a three-year Hollister win streak over the Mustangs in dual meet.
It was also the third defeat to Gilroy in nine seasons for Baler head coach Matt Olejnik. The other two, though, were one-point cliffhangers. This was a completely different story.
“Gilroy’s has three or four top wrestlers,” said Olejnik. “They are a good team, but this may be the worst Hollister team we’ve had. If last year’s Hollister team would have wrestled this year’s Gilroy team, it would have been an even match. We had a few close matches that we could have won tonight. If we had, we might have been more competitive.”
“This was a great win for us,” said Gilroy coach Armondo Gonzles. “The final score was not indicative of how close it was. Hollister has a great program and Matt is a great coach. I have nothing but respect for him and their program.”
The Balers won two matches: at 135 pounds and at heavyweight. At 135, Octavio Lucatero – ranked first in the Central Coast Section by a wrestling Web site – tangled with highly-touted Gilbert Guttierez of Gilroy in arguably the best match of the evening. Guttierez defeated the Balers’ Adam Baxter last year at 135, which inspired Lucatero.
“I dedicated the match to Adam,” he said.
The pair spent the first period probing each other, with neither wrestler wanting to make a mistake. The first two minutes ended scoreless.
“I respected him,” said Lucatero. “I didn’t want to do anything stupid. I had to wrestle smart.”
Lucatero trailed 2-0 in the second period before an escape. Right before the buzzer, Lucatero stole a takedown on an unsuspecting Gutierrez to go up a point. Lucatero chose down to begin the third period. Gutierrez never let him up, but, with 29 seconds left in the match, referee Ron Harris slapped a one-point penalty on Gutierrez for stalling, giving Lucatero a 4-2 lead. Gonzales immediately came over to Harris near the scorer’s table and demanded an explanation. The point stood as did the score.
Lucatero’s three points for the decision made the score 5-3 Gilroy, meaning the Mustangs went on a 49-4 run the rest of the night.
Gonzales was duly impressed with Lucatero’s effort.
“Lucatero beat one of our top guys,” he said. “He wrestled a great match. I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw these two wrestlers in the CCS final.”
At heavyweight, the Balers’ Tito Flores spent the bout sitting on the Mustangs’ Jose Albarron. Albarron, normally a 215-pounder, had a serious weight disadvantage as Flores scored a 15-3 major decision for four points in the team scoring.
The Balers were in a few other matches. Alex Diaz lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to Andrew Rauss at 140 pounds. Diaz came ever-so-close to winning, but Rauss wouldn’t let him kick his hand off Diaz’s leg, which would have enabled Diaz to score the winning two points with a takedown.
At 171 pounds, Francisco Aviles fought the Mustangs’ Danny Melendez to the limit, but Melendez prevailed 9-7. Aviles was ahead for a few seconds in the first period by a score of 5-2, but Melendez countered quickly to reel off five straight points before the end of an action-packed first period.
“Next time I wrestle him I’ll try harder,” said Aviles. “I’ll get him the next time.”
That could come in the Tri-County Athletic League finals at Hollister on Feb. 15.
At 215 pounds, Shawn Donnelly was tied 2-2 at the start of the third period in his match with the Mustangs Ryan Renault, but Renault won a close 6-3 decision.
Here are the results of the remaining matches:
130 – Chad Haygood (G) won by technical fall over Anthony Sunseri.
145 – Collen Rosenberg (G) won by major decision over Trevor Guerra.
152 – Miguel Maldonaldo (G) defeated Robbie Johnson 6-2.
160 – Martin Serrano (G) pinned Nick Carpenter at 1:22 in the first period.
189 – Mark Zabala (G), ranked No. 1 in the CCS, won by forfeit.
103 – John Gurich (G), ranked 3rd in the state, defeated Joe Verissimo 17-10.
112 – Adin Duenas (G) pinned Chris Mora at :52 in the first period.
119 – Armondo Gonzales, Jr. (G) major decisioned Jamie Driskill 16-6.
125 – Danny San Juan (G), a transfer from Oak Grove, pinned Brent Kelsey at :14 in the third period.
The Balers are at the Overfelt Tournament this weekend.
JV score: Baler head coach John Kiesewetter remained perfect over Gilroy with a thrilling 40-33 win.
Baler winners: John Bourbon by pin at 103; Chris Uribe by pin at 125; Martin Barocio major dec. at 135; Gilbert Perez by pin at 140; Jacob Driskill by major dec. at 152; Kyle Horn by tech. fall at 160; Jason Wilkerson by pin at 189; Josh Mahan by dec. at heavyweight.
