The seedings have been determined for the Tri-County Athletic
League wrestling tournament, which will be held at Hollister High
on Saturday.
The seedings have been determined for the Tri-County Athletic League wrestling tournament, which will be held at Hollister High on Saturday.
The Balers had only one No. 1 seed – junior Octavio Lucatero at 135 pounds. Lucatero is expeted to meet Gilroy’s Gilbert Gutierrez, seeded second, in the finals. Lucatero defeated Gutierrez 4-2 in their dual-meet match, a real dandy.
“That will be one of the best matches of the day,” said Baler head coach Matt Olejnik.
The tournament begins with weigh-ins at 8 a.m. Doors open at either Mattson Gym or O’Donnell Gym at 8:30 a.m. Bouts begin at 10 a.m.
The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds receive an automatic bye. Not all weight classes will field six wrestlers; some field five, while one or two field four. The top four wrestlers were seeded. The top four placers head to the Central Coast Section meet Feb. 22 at Independence High in San Jose.
As expected Gilroy, the favorite to win CCS, dominated the top seeds. The Mustangs have the top seed in nine of the 14 weight classes.
“This is the best team we’ve had since I’ve been with the program at Gilroy,” said Mustangs assistant Mike Koester, who filled in at the seeding meeting for an ill Armando Gonzales.
The Mustangs’ top seeds are John Gurich (103 pounds), Adin Duenas (112), Armando Gonzales (119), Danny San Juan (125), Chad Haygood (130), Callen Romsberg (140), Andrew Rauss (145), Mark Zavala (171), and Jose Abboron (215).
Palma is next with three top seeds – Ernie Varela (152), Mark Boutwell (160) and Luke Lippincott (189).
That leaves the heavyweight division, which may have a twist, so to speak. Alvarez football star Charles Saguil, headed to either New Mexico Highlands or Sac State on a ride, transferred to Salinas three weeks ago and has been conditioning hard and challenging what would be the top seed in Christian Quintero. Whoever wins today’s challenge match will be the Cowboys representative on Saturday.
The top match of the day could be between San Juan and defending CCS champ Marcus Pettis of Salinas. The Balers Brent Kelsey, who took Pettis to overtime before losing in a dual match this season, is seeded third. Kelsey was third in the Monterey Bay League last season.
Other seeded Balers include Joe Verissimo, second at 103’s; Daniel DiSalvo, fourth at 112 pounds; Jamie Driskill, third at 119; Anthony Sunseri, second at 130; Alex Diaz, second at 140; Trevor Guerra, third at 145; Robbie Johnson, third at 152; Nick Carpenter, third at 160; Ryan Dunn, third at 189; Shawn Donnelly, second at 215; and Tito Flores, second at heavyweight.
“The team is ready,” said Driskil, fourth in the league a year ago. “We should do pretty good, but we need to get pumped up.”
“We’ll be competitive,” said Olejnik. “We should have six, seven, maybe eight guys in the finals. We’ll qualify, virtually everbody for CCS. That’s the goal. If you want to win a section title you have to get everybody in. Gilroy’s going to be tough to beat. They’re pretty loaded. We’re going to have our hands full.”
The Balers’ Alejo Velasquez would have been seeded at 160 pounds, but was a late scratch because of a swollen left hand.
