On the strength of five wrestlers who finished in the top four of their weight classifications, Cerritos College came in third place at the Lassen Tournament on Saturday. The Falcons finished with 117 team points and trailed only Sacramento City College, who came in first place with 162 points, and second place Fresno City with 141.5 team points. The team will now host Santa Ana College at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday in a Southwest Conference match.

Leading the way for Cerritos was 157-pound freshman Keanu Tom (Los Alamitos HS), who came in first place, while the duo of freshman 125-pound Dustin Kirk (Elisnore HS) and sophomore 141-pound Greg Barrera (Northwest, TX HS), who both came in second place. Placing third for the Falcons was freshman Maxwell Kumashiro (Los Alamitos HS) at 174 pounds.

Tom, who is ranked #2 in the state at 149 pounds, breezed through his competition on his way to the championship match. He opened with a 17-1 technical fall win over Joe Roorda of West Hills College, followed by a 13-2 major decision against John Hedge of Highline College. In the semi-finals, Tom posted an 18-3 technical fall against Victor Tiscareno of Sacramento City to advance to the championships. Facing Taylor Hodel (Sacramento City), who's ranked #2 in the state at 157 pounds, Tom fought his way to a 3-2 decision.

At 125 pounds, #2 ranked Kirk pinned both Christian Carbajal and (:27) Albert Landeros of Sacramento City (7:00) and then West Hills Jonas Tirado in 4:08 to reach the finals. In that match, #3 ranked Arnulfo Olea of Fresno City was able to come away with a 12-6 decision, which earned Kirk second place. As for the unranked Barrera at 141 pounds, he received a pair of byes before defeating Carson Homuth of Modesto College, 7-4 and then shut out Alec Fraser of Fresno City, 4-0 to reach the finals. Up against top-ranked Ali Naser of Fresno City, Barrera was pinned in 5:54.

After advancing to the semi-finals, Kumashiro was defeated, 9-5 by Kevin Corbett of Fresno City, who's ranked #4 in the state, while Kumashiro is ranked #5. He responded with a 12-2 major decision over Jesse McDaniels of Modesto and then won the third place match by a 12-3 major decision against Owen Craugh of Basemont West Wrestling Club. Sophomore Timothy Garnica (North Torrance HS) was pinned in his first match at 165 pounds, but posted four straight wins to advance to the third place match. He was defeated, 11-9 in overtime by Andrew Orr of Southwest Oregon College. Garnica pinned both Nick DeKalb of Sacramento City and Alex Grijalva of Modesto on his way to the third place match.