With the season starting to close in on preparation for the state championships, the Cerritos College wrestling team performed well at the Fresno City Open on Saturday. The Falcons, who are ranked #1 in the state, had two individual champions and three others reach the finals. This Saturday, the team will travel north to compete in the Simpson College Duals.

Winning individual championships were sophomore 141-pound Richard Pocock (California HS), as well as 197-pound freshman David Van Weems (Corona Centennial HS). Reaching the finals were freshman Wyatt Gerl (Downey Calvary Chapel HS) and 149 pounds, sophomore Kevin James (Redondo Union HS) at 157 pounds and freshman 285-pound David Zavala (Lakewood HS).

For Pocock, he was seeded #1 and received a bye in the first round before pinning his next two opponents, Cyril Maravilla of Cal Baptist University in 1:44 and then Devon Silva (Sacramento City College) in 1:33. In the championship match, Pocock shut out Hunter Minton of Sacramento City, 7-0. As for the #3-seeded Van Weems, his day started with a pin over Raphael Madrigal of Rio Hondo College in 2:03 and then received a disqualification win in the semifinals. He capped off his day with an 11-8 victory over #1-seeded Westley Ruffer of Lassen College.

In the largest field of the tournament, #3-seeded Gerl received a bye in the first round and then pinned Cole Pennick of Shasta College (1:29) and Jon Hernandez of Sacramento City College (5:55) in the quarterfinals. His semifinal match was a 5-0 shutout of #2-seeded Dean Esquibel of Fresno City, but suffered a 7-5 loss to top-seeded Dylan Martinez of Fresno City. Seeded #1 at 157 pounds, James posted big shutout wins over Jovonny Gonzalez (FSU Club), 16-0 and Keshawn Franklin (Sacramento City), 11-0 in his first two matches. An injury against #4-seeded Daniel Larman (Sacramento City) in his semifinal match prevented James from competing in the finals.

At 285 pounds, Zavala entered the tournament seeded #1 and picked up three wins to reach the championship match. He opened his day by pinning Raul Rocha (Fresno City) in 1:24 and then handed Zak Levatino of Cal State Bakersfield a 9-1 decision. Zavala advanced to the final when his semifinal opponent was forced to drop out due to an injury and then came up short in a 4-0 decision against #3-seeded Jarrod Snyder of Cal State Bakersfield.

Also at 157 pounds, sophomore Dylan Moreno (Downey HS) came in as the #2-seed, but lost to eventual champion Greg Gaxiola of Cal Baptist. He won one more match before suffering a 10-6 loss in the third place match to finish in fourth. Freshman Kennith Kirk (Elsinore HS) was seeded #1 at 165 pounds, but was defeated in the semifinals be eventual champion Slater Johnson of Cal Baptist. He responded with a 15-4 win in the consolation round and finished by pinning Jacob Alcobedas of Rio Hondo in 6:15 to come in third place. Freshman Bryant Vasquez (Fountain Valley HS) also reached the semifinals at 184 pounds before losing to the eventual champion. Just like Moreno, he won his next match, but was defeated in the third place match, 11-3 by Kalan Hastey of Sacramento City. At 197 pounds, freshman Angel Barajas (John Glenn HS) dropped his first match, but won his way through the consolation round to compete for third place, where he was pinned by Andrew Ramos of Rio Hondo, who defeated him in the opening round.