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Palo Alto senior Cade Creighton captured the 182-pound title at Saturday’s Central Coast Section Championships in Watsonville.
St. Francis sophomore Bryce Luna also brought home a title, winning at 120 pounds. Senior Ryan Luna came close to a three-peat, losing in the championship round at 132 pounds in helping the Lancers finish third as a team.
All three wrestlers advance to the CIF State Championships, which begin Feb. 26 at Mechanics Bank in Bakersfield.
They will be joined by Palo Alto’s Max Felter (170), Mountain View’s Jack Hecht (160) and Lancers Diego Barajas and Matthew Luna.
Felter and Hecht each reached the championship round while Barajas (106) and Luna (132) had to win their third place matches to advance.
Creighton and Bryce Luna each won their first CCS titles. Creighton placed second at 160 pounds in 2020 and fourth at 145 pounds in 2019. The CCS meet was canceled last season.
Creighton, who will compete for Cal Poly in the fall, recorded pins in his first three matches and then beat Palma’s JC Escutia 7-0 in the semifinal. Creighton beat Los Gatos senior Sergiy Nyzhnyk, 5-2, in the final.
Luna, who received a first-round bye, recorded a technical and pin to reach the title match, where he out-dueled Gilroy junior Daniel Glenn, 6-3.
Hecht recorded two pins and won two decisions before falling to Riordan’s David Aberoutte in the title match.
Felter opened with a pair of pins, recorded a major decision and then beat Serra’s Enzo Cappabianca 11-6 in the semis. He dropped a 1-0 decision to Los Gatos’ Danii Gorshkov in the final.
Girls wrestling
Menlo-Atherton senior Alexia Bensoussan repeated as CCS champion, pinning Evergreen Valley’s Alana Washington at 4:38 to earn the 131 title.
Bensoussan, who won at 121 in 2020, earned M-A’s 14th individual title in the 12-year history of CCS girls wrestling.
Evergreen Valley ended M-A’s four-year reign as CCS team champions, outscoring the Bears 180 1/2 to 120. Alisal placed third with 110 points.
Bensoussan, who recorded three pins and won a 12-7 decision in the tiebreaking round, will be joined by four teammates at the state meet.
Girls begin wrestling Thursday morning at 9 a.m. while the boys start at 1 p.m. The championship round begins at 6:15 p.m. Saturday.
They will be joined by Palo Alto’s Ella Jauregui (126) and Woodside’s Alison Richter (189).
M-A’s Kiely Tabaldo, who won the 101 crown in 2020, fell to Sobrato’s Nyla Valencia, who won the 106 title two years ago, in the finals of the 111 division, 5-4.
Tabaldo recorded three pins before running into Valencia.
Alex Lujan reached the championship round of the 170 division with three pins before being pinned by Salinas’ Mariela Rodriguez.
Kayla Melcher (126) and Zoe Zehnder (160) each placed fourth to earn a spot in the state meet.
Jauregui reached the final round with two pins and a technical fall, which included a near fall, before losing 4-2 to Gilroy’s Jennifer Soto.
Richter recorded a pair of pins and a 6-1 decision to reach the championship round, where she was pinned by Fremont’s Ariana Var Rodriguez
By Rick Eymer
By Rick Eymer
By Rick Eymer