Despite sitting in sixth place after the first day of the
Central Coast Section Championships, the San Benito Haybalers are
down to their final four wrestlers after a difficult day on Friday
saw nine wrestlers eliminated from competition.
SAN JOSE
Despite sitting in sixth place after the first day of the Central Coast Section Championships, the San Benito Haybalers are down to their final four wrestlers after a difficult day on Friday saw nine wrestlers eliminated from competition.
“It’s on par with how the season has been,” San Benito head coach Brian DeCarli said. “We had a great first round, then in the second round we had six straight losses.”
Two wrestlers who haven’t lost are Junior Davila and Zack Rodriguez.
The No. 1 Davila at 119 pounds and the No. 5 Rodriguez at 130 pounds — San Benito’s only two seeded wrestlers entering the two-day tourney — remain alive in their respective championship bracket and sit in the semifinal round entering Saturday’s competition. Balers Eric Henry (3-1) at 135 pounds and Tim Christenson (4-1) at 145 pounds are also alive, but sit in the consolation bracket after each suffered a single defeat on Friday.
Davila (3-0), who has won each of his three matches by either pin or tech fall, will open the final day of the CCS Championships against sophomore Kevin Convissar of Homestead. Convissar was unseeded entering the tournament, but upset 4-seed Tanner Heath of Aptos in the quarterfinals by a 7-5 decision.
Rodriguez (3-0), meanwhile, upset No. 4 Andy Kreidle of Los Gatos in the quarterfinals by a 5-4 decision and will now face top-seed Jorge Barajas of Saint Francis in the semifinal round.
Henry, at 135 pounds, won his first two matches before falling to No. 1 Blake Kastl of Gilroy by fall (:56). The San Benito senior will open Saturday’s competition against Cupertino junior Garun Arustamov.
Christenson, the TCAL champion at 145s, won his first match before falling to No. 2 Adam Pilkington of Bellarmine by fall (5:23). Christenson then won three straight matches in the consolation bracket, and will open Saturday’s competition against Gilroy’s Adam Rosso.
Gilroy, which is seeking to earn its eighth straight CCS championship, currently sits in first place after Friday with 132 points, slightly ahead of second-place Saint Francis with 116 points.
San Benito is in sixth place with 70 points, while Alisal is ninth with 54.5 points.
Saturday’s matches will begin at 9 a.m. at Independence High School in San Jose, with the championship finals slated for 7 p.m.
