After the first round of the CCCAA State Championships at West Hills College, the Cerritos College wrestling team sits in second place with 12 points. The Falcons, who have eight entries in the state championships, saw two of their wrestlers receive byes, while all eight will compete in the evening session today. Only Mt. San Antonio College, with 17 points, is ahead of Cerritos after the first round.

The morning session opened with freshman Gabe Ballesteros (Mesa, AZ HS) opening with a 7-2 decision over Abor Adilov of Sierra College and will take on top-seeded Silverio Esparza of West Hills College, with the winner advancing to the semi-finals. Sophomore 133-pound Rudy Delgado (North Torrance HS) needed 5:00 to pin Dominic Cesena of Shasta College to set up his match against Travis Robbins of Sierra. The winner moves on to the semi-finals. At 141 pounds, freshman Michael Behnke (Arlington HS) got off to a great start with a pin over Shasta College's Ryan Blyleven and takes on Anthony Rubio of Chabot College.

The day continued with freshman Eddie Rogers (Martin Luther King HS) pinning the #3-seed from Northern California, Zack Grove of Skyline College in 3:30 at 157 pounds and will now face #2-seeded from Southern California, Alexander Cruz of Mt. San Antonio. Leading 6-2 in his 184-pound match, sophomore Kyle Pivovaroff (West Torrance HS) posted a 7-6 win over Matt Dakin of Sacamento City College after earning a point for riding time at the end of the match. He will now take on Southern California champion Kenneth Breaux of Mt. San Antonio College. Sophomore heavyweight Weston Hawkins (Edison HS/North Iowa Area CC) closed out the morning session with a 3-1 victory over Travis Smith of Modesto College. The #2-seeded Hawkins will now face Shasta College's Mike Branson, the #2-seeded wrestler from Northern California.

Sophomore 174-pound Tyree Cox (Lancaster HS) and freshman 197-pound Tyler Smith (Marina HS) each earned byes in the first round and will wrestle in their first matches of the tournament in the evening session.

For complete brackets go to: www.TrackWrestling.com