After the first day of the CCCAA State Championships, the Cerritos College wrestling team has advanced four to the semi-finals with six still alive. The Falcons, who are competing at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, ended the first day in sixth place with 42.5 team points, with six of their seven entries still active in the tournament. The second day of the championships will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, and the four semifinalists are just two wins away from state titles.

After the first day, Sacramento City College leads the tournament with 89.5 team points, while Fresno City (70), Palomar (60), Mt. San Antonio (57.5) and Santa Ana (56.5) lead the Falcons.

Freshman Dustin Kirk (Elsinore HS), seeded #2 at 125 pounds, won his lone match and will be joined in the semis by sophomore Greg Barrera (Northwest, TX HS) at 133 pounds, 149-pound freshman Keanu Tom (Los Alamitos HS) and 285-pound freshman Robert Chism (Downey HS), who is just several weeks removed from being a unanimous all-conference center on the Falcon football team and is competing in just his second tournament of the year.

After receiving a bye in the first round, Kirk held off Albert Landeros of Sacramento City College, 6-5 and will now take on Fresno City College's Arnulfo Olea, who he has defeated two out of three times this season. He posted wins over Olea in the championships of the Santa Ana Tournament and the semi-finals of the Fresno City Tournament, but was defeated in the finals of the Lassen Tournament. As for Barrera, he opened with a 13-7 victory over Anthony Sakoaka of Sacramento City and then had to come back from a 6-2 first period deficit against Connor Pollock of Cuesta College before posting a 16-12 victory. He will now be squaring off against Alex Perez of West Hills College for the first time this year.

Tom received a bye in the first round at 149 pounds after coming in second place at the Southern California Championships and recorded a 9-7 win over Monet Goldman of Skyline College to advance to the semi-finals. He will take on top-seeded Martine Sandoval of Fresno City for the second time this year, with Tom losing in the championships of the Santa Ana Tournament earlier in the season. The biggest surprise of the tournament has to be Chism, who didn't compete in a match this year until last week. At the state championships, Chism pinned Buddy Barraza of Chabot College in 5:53 and then pulled out a late 4-2 win over NorCal #2-seeded Travis Smith of Modesto Junior College. In the semis, Chism will take on SoCal champ Dereck Lee of West Hills, who pinned Chism last week in the semi-finals.

Those that are still alive in the consolation rounds include 141-pound freshman Eric Ambriz (Temescal Canyon HS), who lost his first match and then recorded a 16-8 major win over Carson Homuth of Modesto. He will open tomorrow against #2-seeded Adrian Gomez of Fresno City from Northern California. Freshman Jeremiah Gerl (Downey Calvary Chapel HS), who was seeded #2 from SoCal, was upset, 5-2 in his opening match, but rebounded with a hard-fought 6-5 win against Juan Rosales of West Hills. He will take on Nathan Rodriguez of Mt. San Antonio College in his first match of the day. The only Falcon to be eliminated on the first day was 165-pound freshman Maxwell Kumashiro (Los Alamitos HS), who dropped both of his matches.

For complete results, go to: www.trackwrestling.com