Team Scores
Brackets

With the first day of the CCCAA State Championships behind them, the Cerritos College wrestling team is currently in second place with 76.5 team points. The Falcons, ranked #2 in the state, still have nine of their original 12 entries still alive in the competition. Cerritos, who is also serving as host of the two-day championship, advanced five of their wrestlers to the semifinals, which will be the first competition at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday when the championships resume. First place Mt. San Antonio College, who leads with 94 team points, has nine of their remaining 11 wrestlers competing in the semifinals.

Defending state champion at 125 pounds, sophomore Jonathan Prata (Downey HS), earned a bye in the first round and then needed just 2:11 to pin #6-seeded Alex Cardoza of Victor Valley College. That puts him in the semifinals, where he will square off against #4-seeded Christopher Bettancourt of Mt. SAC. In his first match of the season back in September, Prata defeated Bettancourt, 16-6 at the West Hills Tournament. Freshman Felix Osorio (Santa Fe HS), who is ranked #2 at 149 pounds, earned a technical fall over #6-seeded Everarado Rueda of Bakersfield College, 21-3 to advance to the semifinals. Osorio, who also received a bye in the first round, will take on Lupe Ayon of West Hills-Lemoore College, who is the #1-ranked wrestler from Northern California. Also competing at 149 pounds, freshman Caoilte Drury (Westminster HS), who opened his day with a pin in 1:19 against Leem Kue of Modesto College. However, he was then defeated, 7-3 by #2-seeded Alfredo Martinez and was relegated to the consolation round, where he needed just 1:42 to pin Luis Rios of Fresno City College. Drury is three wins on Saturday from third place and will open his day against Donovan Sanin, the #6-seed from Rio Hondo College.

One of the shortest days came at 157 pounds, as freshman Daniel Bracamontes (Villa Park HS) earned a bye in the first round and then pinned Temistocle Politi of Shasta College in just :36 seconds. The top-seed will take on Conrad Trevino-Oceguera, who is seeded #2 from Northern California out of Sacramento City College in the semifinals.

Top-seeded 165-pound Armando Murillo (Rowland HS) had his hands full with Gabe Carrillo of Cuesta College, but came away with a 4-1 win, which advanced him to the semifinals. He will take on Northern California's Willy LaMacchia of Skyline College, who is seeded #2. Another Falcon who had a one-win day was freshman 174-pound Stone Robledo (Villa Park HS), who is seeded #2. After a first round bye, he pinned Jacob Turner of Modesto College in the third period. The match was locked at 3-3 until Robledo was able to get Turner on his back and pinned him with 1:07 remaining in the match.

In the closest match of the day, top-seeded Jonovan Smith (Birmingham Charter HS) needed to go to double overtime to win his 285-pound match against Corbin Hayes of Bakersfield College. Trailing, 3-1 in the third period, Smith recorded a takedown, and when Hayes escaped, it was a 4-3 match with time running out. The official warned Hayes for stalling earlier in the period and then awarded Smith with a point when Hayes failed to create any action, which tied the match at 4-4. In the two-minute first overtime, neither wrestler was able to score, which sent it to double-overtime, which consisted of two 30-second periods, with each wrestler getting a chance on top. Smith needed 15 seconds to escape in the first session, while Hayes got out in 12 seconds. The rules state that the person who gets out quicker in the double-overtime will be named the winner. Knowing that, Smith knew he needed a takedown to post the win. As time expired, he was able to do just that and escaped with a 7-5 win. He will now take on Taven Avila, the #2-seed from West Hills-Lemoore in the semifinals.

At 133 pounds, the duo of Roland Dominguez (Downey HS) and Josh Mendoza (Warren HS) earned wins in their first matches, but lost their quarterfinal matches. Needing to win their first consolation match to advance to the second day, Dominguez earned a 5-4 win over Rainer Colina of Modesto, while Mendoza earned a 16-0 technical fall over Fernando Diaz-Marquez of Skyline College.

Those that failed to get through the first day for Cerritos included freshman 141-pound Kimo Servino (Carson HS), who lost both of his matches, which was the same fate for 184-pound freshman Joseph Rodriguez (Paramount HS) and 197-pound freshman Justin Sawai (North Torrance HS).

Photos by Daryl Peterson