Brackets
Team Scores

Highlighted by a pair of individual state champions, the Cerritos College wrestling team came in second place at the CCCAA State Championships over the weekend at Fresno City College. The Falcons finished the two-day event with 136 team points, which was well off the pace of Fresno City College, who won their fourth state title after accruing 1186 team points. In all, the team had five All-Americans and placed all 11 entries, which was a team best in school history. When the team won the state championship in 2015, they had 10 place winners.

At 125 pounds, freshman Jonathan Prata (Downey HS), who entered as the #1-seed from Southern California, avenged his only loss of the season with a 3-2 win over Fresno City College's Mario Moreno. At the CCCAA Team Dual State Championship three weeks earlier, Prata (pictured, left) suffered his only loss of the season, 5-2. Taking on Moreno in the finals, the match was tight through the first two period, as Prata trailed, 1-0. Taking the down position to start the third period, Prata was able to get Moreno's legs and scored a two-point reversal to take the lead. Although Moreno was able to escape with :24 seconds remaining to tie the score at 2-2, Prata received a point for riding time, which came in the third period after his reversal.

"I knew after I lost to him earlier, I had to put in the cardio necessary to be strong in the third period," said Prata. "I wanted to get some redemption for the loss to him and I worked hard to improve my cardio and it paid off. When the clock ran out, I was thought to myself that it was good to be back. I was a CIF and Masters Meet champion in high school, so it feels good to win a championship at the college level."

Head coach Donny Garriott felt the loss to Moreno was a bit of a blessing in disguise. "It forced him to clean up on things he had been doing," stated Garriott. "But he worked hard, improved where he needed to and it paid off for him. He really earned it."

Fighting back from injuries earlier in the season, freshman 141-pound Isaiah Mora (Esperanza HS) turned the corner at the right time and parlayed that into a state championship. After winning the Southern California championship to earn the #1-seed Mora faced off with a nemesis in the finals at the state tournament. Handing him two of his seven overall losses of the season, Rio Hondo College's Christian Espinoza was his final hurdle to reach the top. Trailing early, Mora turned the tables before the end of the first period and strung together an escape, takedown and two-point near fall for a 5-2 lead after the first three minutes. An escape point, followed by a takedown early in the second period gave him what appeared to be a comfortable 8-2 lead, only Espinoza wasn't finished. He scored a reversal and two-point near fall of his own to close the score to 8-6 with just the third period remaining. An Espinoza escape three seconds into the third made it a one point match, with both wrestlers aware that the next takedown could earn either of them the championship. Mora held off every advance from Espinoza and scored a takedown in the final second to secure the title.

"I knew he was a funky wrestler, so my approach was to establish a position on him that was more toward my strengths," said Mora, (pictured, left). "When he got the score close, I just tried to stay composed. I wanted to keep the pressure on him and when he was fighting for that last chance to score, he left himself open and I was able to score on it."

"Isaiah had a plan from the beginning of the season that was halted due to his injury" said Garriott. "The hard part was finding that middle ground of how we were training and then stick to it. When he beat the Fresno guy in the state team duals, it reaffirmed to him that what we were doing was working."

It appeared as though the Falcons would have a third state champion, as freshman Hamzah Al-Saudi (Palisades HS) was awarded what all thought were the championship-winning takedown points with :10 seconds left to defeat Fresno City's Jack Kilner, giving him a 2-1 win. But when the alternate official told the lead official that he didn't think the hold was sufficient, the points were taken off the board and Al-Saudi was forced to deal with a 1-0 loss.

"The assistant referee didn't think he (Hamzah) had the takedown with enough reaction time," said a heated Garriott. "That's very subjective, and to take that away from Hamzah is a horrible decision made by the officials. He secured both legs and went to the hip. That's a takedown. Hamzah did a great job in the match after losing to him pretty badly a few times earlier in the season."

Below is a breakdown of the Falcon wrestlers at the state championships:

125 Pounds - Jonathan Prata (STATE CHAMPION)
133 Pounds - Stefano McKinney - 3rd Place (All-American)
133 Pounds - Andres Gonzales -7th Place
141 Pounds - Isaiah Mora (STATE CHAMPION)
149 Pounds - V'ante Moore - 7th Place
157 Pounds - Larry Rodriguez - 3rd Place (All-American)
165 Pounds - Drake De La Cruz - 7th Place
174 Pounds - Bryan Samayoa - 7th Place
184 Pounds - Angel Verduzco - 6th Place
197 Pounds - Hamzah Al-Saudi - 2nd Place (All-American)
285 Pounds - Randy Arriaga - 6th Place