SAN JOSE—One point separated Eric Loredo from a state berth. And the result was devastating.
A visibly upset Loredo graciously shook hands with Palo Alto’s James Giaccia following his 4-3 loss in the third-place match of the 126-pound division in the Central Coast Section Tournament last Saturday at Independence High School.
Loredo quickly rushed away from the mat to collect his thoughts following the final match of his high school career.
“The hard thing is that sometimes it’s easier to accept when it’s not a close match like that, when it comes down to that last second,” San Benito coach Brian DeCarli said. “Those are so close, you can’t get any closer. When you come up that short, man it’s hard to take.”
Loredo made a perfect run through the first day of the tournament. He opened with a forfeit win over Wyatt Atchley of San Lorenzo Valley before beating Bellarmine’s Dominic Mercado by a 15-3 major decision. He continued his success with a 4-2 decision over Joshua Aceves from Fremont of Sunnyvale to earn his spot in the semifinals.
Loredo was handed his first loss by eventual 126-pound champion Jesse Vasquez of Gilroy in the semifinals. The senior kept his dreams of state alive with a narrow 5-4 win over Jordan Auen from Oak Grove, scoring an escape in the final seconds.
“He wrestled well. I’m just really proud of everything he’s done for all four years,” DeCarli said. “Obviously you always want to finish winning, but he had a good tournament. Unfortunately he was just short by one point.”
Senior teammate J.J. Melo also reached the podium for San Benito, finishing fifth in the heavyweight division. Melo was pinned by Wilcox wrestler Jonathan Pohahau—who went on to finish second—in his opening bout, but went on to record four consecutive victories by fall.
Like Loredo, a single point decided Melo’s chances at state. The senior faced a total mismatch in the consolation semifinals as he took on Overfelt’s Lai Saechao. Melo towered over his stout opponent but was edged bt Saechao, 2-1, sending him to fight for fifth place instead of third place.
As he’d done four times previously, Melo pinned his opponent, North Salinas’ Braulio Elias, at 3:28 to take fifth place.
Emotions ran wild for Balers sophomore Michael Camacho in his final match. The 182-pound wrestler ended the season with a 5-3 sudden victory loss in the consolation bracket.
Camacho took on Terra Nova’s Leo Grabowski and the contest was chippy from the get-go. Grabowski scored a quick takedown and pulled Camacho back into the circle as he tried to get out of bounds. T
Camacho escaped and answered by slamming his opponent to the mat for the takedown to take a 3-2 lead. Grabowski escaped to tie the match at 3-3 at the end of the second.
Neither was able to score in the third or overtime periods, sending the match to sudden victory. Grabowski scored a quick takedown and immediately began celebrating, but was quickly silenced as Camacho landed a right hook to his opponent’s face, drawing a flagrant misconduct penalty and an ejection from the tournament.
“Sometimes it’s just competition, it’s the heat of the battle,” DeCarli said. “Michael is a great kid and he just didn’t react the best.”
Gilroy claimed its 13th straight CCS title, breaking the record it set last year with 282 team points. The Mustangs had six individual champions—Nick Aguilar (106), Jesse Vasquez (126), Alex Felix (132), Mark (170) and Matt (195) Penyacsek and Noe Garcia (220)—and Christopher had one with Alex Garcia taking the 160-pound crown. Live Oak’s Adam Mito claimed the 145-pound crown.
Gilroy also broke the record for having the most wrestlers in the finals with nine.
“This feels amazing because this was supposed to be our down year, our rebuilding year,” Gilroy coach Greg Varela said. “If someone would’ve told me that we were going to break the record the year after Nikko (Villarreal), Paul (Fox), Victor Olmos, Lupe (Jimenez) and all those guys are gone, I would’ve been like ‘No, we’ll be good, but not that good.’ For that to happen for these kids, it’s their mark. It’s their time.”
San Benito’s Adrian Valdez (120) and Ismael Medina (138) both went 1-2 in the tournament. Kevin Casillas (106), Christian Aguilar (113) and Miguel Puga (195) all finish 0-2.
