McCluskey McCluskey (February 25, 2004)pins down a title

Paly senior earns his first crown, trip to CIF State Meet

by Keith Peters

James McCluskey had mixed feelings when he walked off the mat following his victory in the 275-pound division finals at the Central Coast Section Wrestling Championships on Saturday night at Independence High in San Jose.

McCluskey was happy with his five wins in two days, four pins leading up to a 4-1 decision over Alex Balogh of Watsonville in the finals. Any feelings of elation, however, were tempered by the fact two of his teammates just missed joining him for the CIF State Meet, March 5-6 in Bakersfield.

"When I won, I was happy," McCluskey said, "but it wasn't the kind of feeling I had expected."

McCluskey was pulling for fellow seniors and captains Adam Dexter and Max Pinto, both of whom put themselves in position to finish among the top three and qualify for the State Meet.

The fourth-seeded Dexter won his first three matches before dropping a 7-6 decision to Todd Walker of Del Mar in the 160-pound semifinals. Dexter held a 6-4 lead, which dwindled to 6-5 as time apparently ran out. Before the official was alerted that time had expired, Walker was awarded two points for a take down and was declared the winner.

That dropped Dexter into the match for fifth place, which he lost to Monterey's Travis Edwards, 2-1.

The unseeded Pinto had the unenviable task of wrestling his first match at 171 pounds against top-seeded Mark Zabala of Gilroy. Pinto suffered a pin at 4:17 and fell into the consolation bracket. There, however, Pinto won six straight matches - decisioning Gunn senior and fourth-seeded Will Keller, 4-2, to reach the third-place match.

Pinto's amazing streak, however, came to an end there in a 7-4 loss to third-seeded Angel Gonzalez of Greenfield.

That left it up to the top-seeded McCluskey, who had won his first four matches with impressive pins ranging from 1:05 to 3:10. McCluskey, still unhappy with how his teammates had fared, took his frustration out on Balogh in the 275-pound finals. McCluskey grabbed a 4-0 lead and held it until finally allowing a point in the third period. McCluskey improved to 26-1 this season with his first CCS title in any sport.

"It was good, definitely fun," McCluskey finally admitted. "I didn't even think I'd win CCS this year. I just thought I'd be in the top three."

McCluskey's effort mirrored last season, when he produced four pins. The only difference was that McCluskey finished fourth in 2003 to just miss a state berth.

He made sure that didn't happen again by dominating his younger opponents. Of the top four seeds in his division, only one (Balogh) had any CCS experience.

McCluskey's effort, along with those of Pinto and Dexter, helped Palo Alto finish in a tie for 11th with 70 points. The Vikings were just 2 1/2 points out of 10th, points likely lost when 103-pound freshman Jonathan Leape suffered a hand (tendon) injury during practice the night before the opening day of CCS. He was unable to compete.

Still, Paly assistant coach David Jones praised the efforts of his wrestlers. Of the five SCVAL teams entered at CCS, the Vikings were the No. 3-scoring squad. It was the fifth year in a row that Paly finished among the top 25.

Also gaining important points for Paly were junior Fernando Shahpouri (115), junior Gianni Rosas (125), sophomore Amir Shahosseini (133), junior Richie Nole (142) and senior Rudolfo Rios (157).

Gunn was led by Keller's 4-2 record and fifth place at 171 pounds and a ninth-place finish and 3-2 mark by junior Adam Juratovac at 275. Other Titan wrestlers competing were Chris Gumbrecht (103), Kiyoshi Kawano (112), James Thomas (145), Derrick Brooks (152), Ross Raffin (189) and Juan Cativo (215).

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