San Benito wrestling took second place at the Tri-County
Athletic League Championships Saturday with a score of 233
Every tournament comes with highs and lows, but for the San Benito High wrestling squad, taking second place at the Tri-County Athletic League Championships Saturday in Gilroy was nothing to feel bad about.
If anything, it should give the Haybalers a sense of strength going into the Central Coast Section Championships in two weeks.
Seven wrestlers in the finals, three individual champions and cutting into the distance between itself and league powerhouse Gilroy can do that for a program.
“We knew beating Gilroy would be hard, but we definitely thought second place (was possible),” 152-pound ‘Baler Fernando Lucatero said.
San Benito took second with a score of 233, edging third-place Palma by eight points. The ‘Balers trailed only Gilroy, which finished in first with a score of 268.5. It is the sixth-straight year Gilroy has won the TCAL title as a team, making Gilroy the only school to win a TCAL title in wrestling since the league was formed in 2002.
Lucatero was one of three San Benito champions, as well as 103-pounder David Bazan and 145-pounder Josh Ramirez.
The victories are something that should help each wrestler as they prepare for sections and possibly state.
“I want to take CCS and then hopefully place in the state meet,” Ramirez said. “But it’s going to take a lot of work.”
The result of hard work was evident considering that San Benito will have 13 of 14 weight classes represented at CCS.
Bazan won his finals match with Salinas’ Justin Montgomery in a 11-5 decision. Lucatero and Ramirez won their championships by repeating their victories from earlier in the week during a dual meet with Gilroy. Lucatero overcame Tim Caspary for a 13-3 decision and Ramirez won a very physical 7-2 decision over Travis Sakamoto.
Other wrestlers that qualified for the finals were Junior Davila, Zach Rodriguez, Morris Stevens and Manny Tovar.
“We were looking for about four or five champions, but we had some really tough losses,” ‘Balers assistant coach Pat Dunn said.
Stevens had the closest defeat, losing an extremely close match in overtime to Gilroy’s Rodney Balajadia, 4-2. Davila fell short in his comeback bid against the state’s No. 1 ranked 112-pound wrestler, Gilroy’s Jesse Delgado, losing a close decision 12-7.
Rodriguez and Tovar were pinned in their matches by Gilroy’s Martin Gonzalez and Hunter Collins, respectively.
San Benito coach Matt Olejnik was not present due to a school invoked suspension for one event, but will be back for the CCS meet.
“They wrestled well,” Dunn said. “We’ve had a couple disappointments, but overall the kids have done what we were expecting.
“As a group they’ve done very well.”
