Brackets
Team Scores

After the first day of the CCCAA State Wrestling Championships at Fresno City College, the Cerritos College wrestling team is sitting in second place with 69 team points. The Falcons hold a 10.5 point lead over third place Sacramento City College, in spite of it being a rough second round for the team. The host Rams have pulled out to a huge lead and have 99.5 team points. The second day of the championships gets underway at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow.

With hopes of advancing as many as six or seven of their 11 entries into the semifinals, Cerritos saw two of their top-seeded wrestlers lose their opening match and get dropped into the consolation round with third place the best possible finish. However, on the bright side, all 11 wrestlers will place at the championships, which is the first time in the 14-year career of head coach Donny Garriott. In his state championship season of 2015, Garriott had 10 wrestlers place at the championships.

At 125 pounds, freshman Jonathan Prata (Downey HS) received a bye in the first round and then recorded a 7-2 win over Modesto College's Brandon Mendoza. That sets him up for a semifinal match against upset-minded Nick Foster of Lassen College in the semifinals, who upset #2-seeded Gavin Sweeny of Sierra College, 12-11. Foster is the #6-seed our of Northern California.

Also posting a win in his only match of the day was freshman 141-pound Isaiah Mora (Esperanza HS), who recorded a 20-3 technical fall over Jesus Langarica of Rio Hondo College. Just two wins away from a state championship, Mora will square off against Anthony Chavez of Fresno City College, the #2-seed from Northern California in another semifinal match. The final wrestler to advance to the semifinals is freshman 197-pound Hamzah Al-Saudi (Palisades HS), who pinned Lazaro Carrasco of Chabot College in 3:32. That sets up a semifinal match against Ricardo Gonzalez of Bakersfield College, who upset the #2-seeded Hunter Gonzalez of Sierra College in overtime. Ricardo Gonzalez is the #4-seed from Southern California.

Suffering an upset loss in his first match was sophomore 133-pound Andres Gonzales (Capistrano Valley HS), who was seeded #1. He fell behind early against #4-seeded Hunter Scibek of Modesto College and never recovered in an 8-4 loss. Dropping into the consolation round, Gonzales trailed #6-seeded Donaven Medina of Moorpark College early on before fighting back for an 11-5 win. He must now face teammate Stefano McKinney (Torrance HS), who won his first match, then lost and followed that with a convincing 15-0 technical fall win in an elimination match. The winner moves one step closer to competing for third place, while the loser will wrestle in the seventh place match.

Another top seed that was upset in his first match was sophomore Larry Rodriguez (Downey Calvary Chapel HS), who suffered a 4-1 loss to Josh McMillon of Sacramento City. Unhappy about his performance, Rodriguez took it out on Isaac Escarino of Rio Hondo College and pinned him in 1:46 in an elimination match. Three wins away from third place, Rodriguez will take on Lassen College's Gabriel DeHaro, the #5-seeded wrestler from Northern California. At 149 pounds, freshman V'ante Moore (Lawndale HS) came in as the #2-seed from Southern California but was pinned by #3-seeded Logan Garcia of Lassen College to drop into the consolation round. Moore responded with a 13-6 win over Lance McNatt of Palomar College and will open Saturday with a match against Joe Katchmar, the #5-seed from Northern California out of Sacramento City College. 

Opening his day with a win, sophomore 165-pound Drake De La Cruz (Long Beach Millikan HS) suffered a technical fall loss to Augie Garcia, the #1-seed from Fresno City College in his next match. He responded in an elimination match by defeating #3-seeded Scott Hokit of Bakersfield College, 9-6. The #4-seeded De La Cruz, who loss to Hokit last weekend, will now take on #2-seeded Wetzel Hill of Mt. San Antonio College with a chance to move closer to a third place match. Also starting off with a win was freshman 174-pound Bryan Samayoa (Long Beach Millikan HS), who recorded a pin before suffering a 13-6 loss to top-seeded Chase Miles of Sacramento City. Faced with elimination, Samayoa earned an 8-5 win over Jacob Annis of Bakersfield in an elimination match. Next up is Arturo Rivas of Fresno City, who is the #3-seed, but was upset in his first match of the day.

Sophomore Angel Verduzco (El Dorado HS), who has battled a shoulder injury all season, started his quest at 184 pounds with a 15-6 major decision in his first match. That was followed by a 6-0 loss to #1-seeded Stephen Martin of Skyline College. As with his teammates, Verduzco bounced back for a third period pin over Jonathan Vale of West Hills-Lemoore College. He will now take on Bobby Melo of Santa Rosa Junior College in a consolation round match. Freshman 285-pound Randy Arriaga (Capistrano Valley HS), who slipped to fifth place at the Southern California Regional Championships, started off with a 4-0 win over Santa Rosa's Javante Gregiore before a close 4-2 loss to top-seeded Enrique Galacia of Palomar College. The match looked to go to overtime until Galacia recorded a late takedown to post the win. In an elimination match, Arriaga was forced to go to overtime against Jackson Clark of Mt. San Antonio and was able to get a takedown in the first overtime period to a 4-2 decision.