SGV/Whittier Prep Sports Zone: WRESTLING Notebook - Jan. 4th 2024

Northview and Walnut boys and girls wrestling programs turned in top performances.

Northview HS team photo after their performance at the Blackwatch Tournament. (RT Tolentino - Photo)

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The road to the CIF State Wrestling Championship began to heat up on both the boys and girls sides last weekend.

On the boys side, Sonora High School hosted its annual Tournament of Champions last weekend with St. John Bosco winning the team points race with 272 points with Fountain Valley (258) securing second place and Poway (216) taking third place.

Several area wrestlers won individual titles. San Marino’s Ryder Yoshitake showed that he is back in top form with a narrow 3-2 win over Jayson Victoria of Granada High in the 133-pound final. Bishop Amat’s Gianluca Munoz took seventh place in the same weight class.

Bonita’s Tristan Fernandez continues to make tremendous inroads as he pinned Christian Acosta-Stoeber in the first period of the 150-pound final.

Other individual placers included La Mirada’s Anthony Mason (7th at 120 pounds), La Serna’s Brandon Buzzard (8th at 132), Mikel David Uyemura (3rd at 157), and Sonora’s David Baxter (3rd at 215 pounds).

Another big tournament that included several powerhouse programs was the Blackwatch Tournament at Upland High School. In the team race, Walnut captured the team points race with 229 points with Birmingham (219.5) and Northview (211.5) finishing second and third respectively. Santa Fe also had a big performance as they finished in fourth place (169.5).

Northview, Walnut, and Damien combined for four individual wrestling champions. Marcus Tolentino notched his first tournament title with a 14-0 win over Reggie Fernandez of San Gorgonio in the 106-pound final. Viviano Gutierrez had little trouble dispatching Walnut’s Brently Macamay with a 17-5 win in the 144-pound final.

Walnut’s Ronnie Ramirez made quick work of Northview’s Jovanni Evangelista in the 120-pound final with a first-period pin 47 seconds into the match. Damien’s Caden Arellano, one of the better two sports athletes in the area (starts on the football team) showed that he could be a possible state qualifier as he pinned Yorba Linda’s Santiago Salas late in the first period of their 215-pound final.

A ton of area wrestlers earned medals from the tournament; the results can be found on Trackwrestling.com.

In girls wrestling, there were two huge tournaments last week that provided fans with a glimpse of what might be happening at the state tournament.

In the Inland Empire, the annual Queen of the Mat tournament brought in some of the top programs in the western US to Corona Santiago High School for the two-day tournament. In the team points competition, Walnut finished in second place with 168 points. Corona took top honors with Santa Ana taking third place.

Two area wrestlers took individual titles, and both were from Walnut. Two-time state champion Anaya Falcon pinned Hamilton’s Olivia Lopez in the first period of their 107-pound final. Immediately following that match, teammate Deandra Meza connected on a head-and-arm throw on Tesoro’s Sophia Cornish and pinned her in the first period of their 112-pound final.

Glendora’s Samantha Sachs, who was heavily favored to win the 127-pound weight, suffered a second-period loss via a pin to Downey’s Christian Osorio. Sachs is spending this week at a developmental camp at the United States Training Center in Colorado.

The other big girl's tournament was the Lady Blackwatch Tournament which was held at Upland High School. In the team point race, Northview easily captured first place with 287 points with Chino (126) taking second and La Quinta (120) finishing third.

The Vikings had seven wrestlers win gold medals at the event. They included Ryleigh Hayes (100), Samantha Rivera (115), Ysabella Hinojosa (120), Samantha Felix (125), Mia Hooper (130), Faith Bartoszek (140) and Trinity Palumbo (145).

This week’s action includes the Nogales Super Boys Wrestling Tournament that takes place on Thursday and Friday at Nogales HS.