The Cerritos College wresting team had five entries finish in the top four places at the Santa Ana Tournament on Saturday. The end result was a third place finish, as the Falcons compiled 119 team points and outdistanced fourth place Sacamento City College by three points. Fresno City College won the event with 163.5 points, while Mt. San Antonio College had 129 points to come in second place. The team will now host Santa Ana College in a Southwest Conference match at 7:00 p.m. on October 14.

125 Pounds - Freshman Jacob Valdes (Warren HS) dropped his first match and then earned a pair of wins before a loss eliminated him from competition. He opened with a 5-2 loss to Pedro Sarabia of Bakersfield before recovering to defeat Jessica Toledo of Sacramento City by fall and then posted a 7-4 win over West Hills College's Kevin Mejia. A loss by pin in 4:41 to Michael Rodriguez of West Hills ended his day. Kevin Pelligrini (Citrus Hill HS) pinned his opening round opponent, Joshua Garcia of East Los Angeles College in 2:01, but was pinned in 49 seconds by Rodriguez. In the consolation round, Pelligrini suffered a 16-1 technical fall to get eliminated.

133 Pounds - Freshman Anthony Vargas (Citrus Hill HS) posted three straight wins to reach the finals, where he was defeated, 8-3 by George Taylor of Mt. San Antonio College. He opened with a 16-1 technical fall over Luis Pacheco of Santa Ana College and then came away with a close 4-3 win against Dean Parker of Mt. San Antonio. An 8-4 victory over Michael Robles of Rio Hondo College set up the championship match. Josh Garcia (La Serna HS) picked up a consolation win - 7-2 over David Clancy of Sacramento City - while Anthony Alldread (Los Alamitos HS) lost both of his matches for the Falcons.

141 Pounds - A pair of wins by freshman Richard Pocock (California HS) put him in the semifinals, where he was defeated by Santa Ana's Andrew Gomez, 4-2. But he recovered and shut out Antonio Jiminez (4-0) of Sacramento City and defeated Elias Mercado of Rio Hondo to come in third place. Freshman Jaime Nunez (Canyon HS) opened with a 5-4 win over Jesse Jaime and then was pinned in 4:58 by eventual champion Jonas Gayton of Fresno City College. Nunez followed that loss by pinning PJ Reyna of West Hills in 2:48 and then shut out Hunter Minton of Sacramento City, 2-0 before getting pinned by Carlos Alvarez of Sacamento City to end his day.

149 Pounds - Freshman Benjamin Gonzalez (Loara HS) recorded a pin over James Schmidt of Rio Hondo in 4:10 and then defeated Bakersfield College's Johnathan Santone-Tovar, 16-6 to reach the semifinals. He ended up getting pinned by eventual champion Martine Sandoval of Fresno City in 2:45 and then dropped a 7-4 decision to Chris Vaughan of Sacramento City. Prior to losing to Sandoval, freshman teammate Daniel Zeleya was pinned in 1:25 after opening with a victory. His day came to an end when teammate Kody Davis (Chino Valley, AZ HS) posted an 18-2 technical fall on his way to finishing in the top six with Gonzalez. Davis followed that win with a 2-0 victory over Santone-Tovar and then suffered an 8-4 loss to Isiah Alva of Fresno City.

157 Pounds - Another Falcon to advance to the semifinals, freshman Dylan Moreno (Downey HS) was defeated by champion David Macias of Rio Hondo, 8-5 after an opening 11-7 win, followed by a pin of Kirk Kaliszewiski of Palomar College in 4:55. Moreno won his next two matches, 7-4 over Anthony Espinoza of Rio Hondo and Kaliszewiski for a second time to earn third place. Oliver Elizalde (Warren HS) earned one win on the day, while David Zamora (John Glenn HS) suffered a pair of losses.

165 Pounds - The lone entry, Jacob Collins (Calvary Chapel HS) lost his first match, 9-4 to Reed South of Mt. San Antonio and then defeated Sac City's Jason Ingram, 5-4. A 17-0 technical fall loss to Ryan Cummings of West Hills eliminated him from the tournament.

174 Pounds - Freshman Joel Villa (Citrus Hill HS) earned his way into the semifinals with a tough 4-2 win over Luis Jauerigue of Fresno City and then pinned Alex Gallo of Palomar in 4:57. But he was then pinned by Trevor Wright of Sacramento City in the semifinals, sending him to the consolation round. A second pin, this time by Mt. SAC's Hector Vargas in 1:00 ended his day in sixth place. Freshman Blake Moser (Gig Harbor, WA HS) won his opening match, 6-5, but was defeated in his next two, while Nicholas Paz (Norwalk HS) dropped both of his matches.

184 Pounds - Winning his first three matches by pins was freshman Ryker Coppa (Marina HS), which put him in the championships. He defeated Maurise Stephens of West Hills in 30 seconds, and also posted pins over Juan Soto of East Los Angeles and Nick Rohner of Sacramento City. Facing Alex Graves of Palomar, Coppa was pinned and had to settle for second place. John Robles (Santa Fe HS) earnded an 8-7 win in the consolation round over Robbie Nickerson of Sacramento City, but was defeated in his other two matches.

197 Pounds - The Falcons lone champion, sophomore Oscar Martinez (Centennial HS) pinned his first opponent and then had to escape his next three matches with close wins, including a 3-2 decision over Vernon Willis of Mt. San Antonio in the finals. He also beat Ryan Padilla (4-3) of Sac City and Jay Johnson (5-3) of Fresno City after opening with a pin of Christian Espinoza of Bakersfield in 1:40. Sophomore Elijah Wilson (Long Beach Poly HS) advanced to the semifinals with wins over Brandon Aviles (14-1) of East LA and Raul Briseno (9-7) of Palomar before suffering an 11-7 setback against Willis. He then dropped a 5-3 decision to Jason Zecchini of Sac City to finish in the top six. Andrew Ballantyne (San Pedro HS) lost both of his matches.

285 Pounds - Sophomore Jesse Gomez (Buena Park HS), the top-ranked wrestler in the weight earned three wins to reach the finals, but withdrew and did not compete for the title, placing second. He escaped a pair of 5-4 decisions against Seville Hayes of Palomar and Josh David of Bakersfield to reach the finals. Freshman David Eubanks (Calvary Chapel HS) was on a collision course to face Gomez in the finals for the second week in a row after winning his first two matches, 4-1 and a pin in 7:35. But he was defeated by Mt. SAC's Andrew Cruz, 6-1 in the semifinals, with Cruz winning the championship when Gomez defaulted. Barry Gee (Fountain Valley HS/Santa Ana College) pinned his first opponent in 53 seconds, but dropped a one-point match to drop into the consolations. After a second pin, he was eliminated when he lost, 11-6 to Casey Jones of Sacramento City.

Photos by Daryl Peterson