With just the championship matches still to be held, the Cerritos College wrestling team has a six-point lead in the team standings over their closest competition. The Falcons have compiled 151 team points and lead second place Fresno City, who has 145 points. Cerritos has seven of their 11 entries competing in state championship matches, with teammates squaring off in the 285-pound weight classification, while the Rams have qualified five and will open the finals with their 125-pounders facing each other. The winners in the championship round earn four team points and no bonus points are awarded when facing a teammate. This is the first year schools can qualify more than 10 wrestlers into the state championship, with 12 being the maximum.
There were a couple of close calls in the semifinal matches that could have prevented the Falcons from leading heading into the championship round. At 157 pounds, sophomore Keanu Tom (Los Alamitos HS) was trailing Santa Ana's Richard Miranda, 8-6 with time running out in the third period. But Tom, the state's top-ranked wrestler at that weight, got a reversal with just :01 second left on the clock to tie the match and then won in overtime, 10-8 to advance to the finals. He will take on Adrian Gomez of Fresno City, who he lost to, 3-1 in the semifinals of the Fresno Open earlier in the season.
At 149 pounds, freshman Antonio McKee (Long Beach Poly HS) was in a battle with Brian Sergi of Sacramento City College. He held a close 1-0 lead in the second period and then upped that lead to 2-0 before securing the victory with a takedown in the final :10 seconds. That win pits him against Anthony Rubio of Chabot College, who's ranked #2 in the state behind McKee.
In a first for the Falcons, teammates will take on each other in a state championship match, as sophomore Robert Chism (Downey HS) will square off against freshman Jesse Gomez (Buena Park HS). Chism, the top-ranked wrestler in the state, took fourth place at last year's state championships and handed Fresno City's Andrew Singer a 5-1 defeat in the semifinals. In the other semis, #3-ranked Gomez worked his way past Mt. San Antonio's Andre Cruz, 2-1 to make the finals.
Looking for a state championship at 133 pounds is sophomore Dustin Kirk (Elsinore HS), who will take on Palomar College's Alberto Garcia in the finals. It was Garcia that handed Kirk his only loss of the season, which came last week in the Southern Calfornia Regional championship match. Kirk came in third place at 125 pounds at last year's state championships. The Falcons were guaranteed an entry in the finals at 197 pounds, as sophomore Jeremiah Gerl (Calvary Chapel HS) took on freshman Oscar Martinez (Corona Centennial HS) in a semifinal match. Martinez came away with a 3-2 triple overtime win to advance to the finals, while Gerl went on to come in third place. Martinez will face Bakersfield College's Jack Murphy in the finals, with Murphy owning a 5-2 win in last week's SoCal Regional Tournament.
Sophomore Max Kumashiro (Los Alamitos HS) is the seventh Cerritos wrestler to reach the championship match. He posted a stunning 4-3 win over Northern California champion Logan Paxton at 184 pounds and will take on Will Gockel-Figge of Fresno City in the championships. Sophomore Dylan Clarke (Burnt Hills, NY HS), who lost his quarterfinal match on Friday, went on to win three times Saturday and finished the season in third place at 174 pounds.