Led by four individual state champions, the Cerritos College wrestling team won their fourth CCCAA State Championship in school history, and first since 2002. The Falcons finished the championships on Saturday at Cuesta College with 167 team points and held off second place Fresno City College, who had 159 points and three individual champions.

"I'm so excited to win the state championship, but relieved at the same time," said head coach Donny Garriott. "Every day, I see our state championship banner in the rafters of our gym and I didn't want to be the coach without a number on the banner. I do feel a huge sigh of relief to win this championship. I'd like to get a couple more up there."

Garriott joins Hal Simonek (1971), Jeff Smith (1995) and Greg Gascon (2002) that have won state championships. There have been five head wrestling coaches in Cerritos history and four of them have now won titles.

Garriott was named the state's Coach of the Year, while Eric Gould was voted the Assistant Coach of the Year.

Cerritos entered the championship round leading the Rams by six points, but had an advantage on how many chances they had to win individual titles. The Falcons had seven wrestlers in the state championship round (six weights), while Fresno had five in the finals (four weights). With schools able to qualify as many as 12 wrestlers to the state championships, both schools were able to get a pair of wrestlers in the championship match - the Rams at 125 pounds and the Falcons at 285 pounds.

They faced off against each other in two matches and when sophomore 157-pound Keanu Tom (Los Alamitos HS) posted a 6-4 overtime win over FCC's Adrian Gomez, the Falcons clinched the team championship. Prior to Tom winning, sophomore Dustin Kirk (Elsinore HS) won at 133 pounds and freshman Antonio McKee (Long Beach Poly HS) earned the championship at 149 pounds. The team's fourth state champion was sophomore 285-pound Robert Chism (Downey HS), who pinned freshman teammate Jesse Gomez (Buena Park HS).

"Facing Jesse was awkward because we're good friends and we work out every day in practice," said Chism. "But he's such a good wrestler, I had to be prepared for anything because I felt that if anyone could beat me, it would be him because he knows we so well. I just tried to stay with what I do and worked on making my moves . I was able to get a move on him and then got him on his back. It's always tough to get to the finals of any tournament and not win, so I feel bad for Jesse at the same time. As soon as the match was over, I told him that he's a great wrestler and I loved him. We knew we'd still be good friends after the match."

The wins by both Kirk (pictured, above) and Tom avenged losses they both suffered during the season. Kirk, who lost to Palomar College's Alberto Garcia, 10-9 in the Southern California Championship match last week, came out aggressively and broke open a close 4-4 match with a late escape point in the second period with an early escape point in the third period and late takedown to finish him off. The loss last week was his only setback of the season. As for Tom, his loss to Gomez in the semifinals of the Fresno Open was his lone loss to a wrestler from California this year. Tom trailed 3-1 after the second period, but an escape and takedown with :35 second left gave him a 4-3 lead. Gomez tied it with :14 second remaining in the third period and in overtime, and aggressive Tom got a takedown with :25 seconds left to win the title.

"Both Dustin and I looked at our wins as redemption matches," said Tom. "We were given an opportunity to face the guys that beat us earlier and we wanted to end our Cerritos careers with championships."

"I had a tech fall against Garcia in our team duals," said Kirk. "I was a little over-confident last week against him and it cost me a win. But he's such a good wrestler, I wasn't about to let that happen again tonight. I wasn't going to lose again."

McKee joins his father, Antonio McKee (1988-89) as a state champion, as his father went 61-0 during his career. McKee posted a 6-3 win over Anthony Robles of Chabot College, as he broke a 2-0 lead after two periods with a reversal 11 seconds after Robles got to within 3-2 in the third period.

Also competing in championship matches were sophomore Max Kumashiro (Los Alamitos HS) at 184 pounds and freshman Oscar Martinez (Corona Centennial HS) at 197 pounds. Kumashiro, ranked #4 in the state, was taking on #3-ranked Will Gockel-Figge of Fresno City. The two recorded escape points for the only scoring in regulation. In overtime, Kumashiro was close to a match-winning takedown, but Gockel-Figge worked out of danger and was able to post a takedown with :19 seconds left in regulation to post the win. As for Martinez, the #5-seed gave top-ranked Jack Murphy of Bakersfield all he could handle. Trailing 2-0 in the first period, Martinez recorded a pair of escape points to tie the match at 2-2. But Murphy got off the mat in the third period for an escape and held off Martinez for a 3-2 win.

"This was a great group of guys who were poised all season to win the state championship," said Garriott. "Our returning sophomores worked hard in the off-season and couldn't get in enough training. They worked out all the time and it paid off tonight. We had a couple of guys who put us over the top, which is what you need to win a championship. I'm just so glad it's finally over and I can breathe."

125 Pounds - Gary Howe - 6th Place
133 Pounds - Dustin Kirk - State Champion (All-Amercian)
141 Pounds - Eric Ambriz - Did not place
149 Pounds - AJ McKee - State Champion (All-American)
157 Pounds - Keanu Tom - State Champion (All-American)
174 Pounds - Dylan Clarke - 3rd Place (All-Amercican)
184 Pounds - Max Kumashiro - 2nd Place (All-American)
197 Pounds - Oscar Martinez - 2nd Place (All-American)
197 Pounds - Jeremiah Gerl - 3rd Place (All-American)
285 Pounds - Robert Chism - State Champion (All-American)
285 Pounds - Jesse Gomez - 2nd Place (All-American)

Click HERE for final brackets
Click HERE for final team scores