GILROY
–– San Benito wrestler Octavio Lucatero could be almost
unstoppable.
Lucatero (27-2) continued the tradition set by his two older
brothers to win the Mid-Cal Classic held over the weekend in
Gilroy. Not many if any teams can claim that distinction of
brotherly success
GILROY –– San Benito wrestler Octavio Lucatero could be almost unstoppable.
Lucatero (27-2) continued the tradition set by his two older brothers to win the Mid-Cal Classic held over the weekend in Gilroy. Not many if any teams can claim that distinction of brotherly success.
In the final, Lucatero was up 5-1 against Shasta High’s Lenny Marandino in the 140-pound weight class before his opponent came back to tie it at 5-5. Late in the second period, Lucatero was almost able to record a takedown.
With about 30 seconds to go, Marandino allowed a release, looking for the quick takedown. But it didn’t pay off, and Lucatero won 6-5.
“It comes down to confidence at this point in the year,” said Baler coach Matt Olejnik. “He’s been second most of the year. It is good for him going into league and section. Once you get into big tournaments, you got to be on the winning end of one-point matches.”
Lucatero dominated his early matches. In the semifinals against St. Francis’ Kevin Cunningham, Lucatero won a close match despite not scoring many points.
The Balers finished 11th as a team with the 10 wrestlers who competed in the prestigious meet of 48 teams. Four of the eight Baler wrestlers who made it to the second day placed.
“We really wrestled well the second day,”Olejnik said. “Once we get some of the guys healthy and back in the lineup, we should be a pretty good force.”
The Balers had three sixth-place finishers. In the 152-pound class, Nick Carpenter lost in overtime of the third-place match to Gilroy’s Miquel Maldonado, the eventual third-place finisher.
Carpenter had what could have been a takedown in overtime but finished it out of bounds. But right after the whistle, Maldonado found an ankle to take down Carpenter for the win.
Carpenter, who had already medaled in the meet, forfeited the last match to try to stay under 40 matches this season.
Heavyweight Tito Flores beat an opponent from Bellarmine to advance to the medal round. Flores had a tough match against second-place finisher Bryan Whetstone from Turlock and finished sixth place.
“The heavyweights was a pretty good class,” Olejnik said. “He wrestled very well and wrestled smart.”
In the 215-pound class, Matt De La Rosa beat wrestlers from Gilroy and Half Moon Bay en route to a sixth-place finish.
Chris Uribe at 130, Kyle Horn at 171 and Evan Rodriquez at 135 advanced to the Saturday competition but lost in the first round.
Alex Diaz at 145 went 1-2. Ryan Dunn at 189 lost his first match to fifth-place finisher Daniel Hanson of Madera then lost his next match as well.
Bob Glashan at 112 and Anthony Sandoval at 125 also lost their first two matches of the tournament.
The Balers (19-3 in dual meets) will face North Salinas Wednesday. The Viking varsity team doesn’t have a full team, but the JV team is expected to be competitive.
“If that is the case, we may wrestle some of our younger varsity guys down so they can get some experience.” Olejnik said. “We should be able to finish in the top two or three in the section. We are going to really push it hard down the stretch to see if we can peak at the right time.”
