RSS Feed
Print Story
E-mail Story
Silver, no gold for locals
Area wrestlers shutout in seven title matches, now prepare for Masters
| Saturday, Feb 16 2008 10:45 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Feb 16 2008 10:57 PM
Travis Rasmussen was able to manage a few smiles and even a laugh after Saturday's Central Section Yosemite Division wrestling finals, probably only because he knows this isn't the end of the road.
Our readers recommend:
Loading Stories
Photos:
John Harte / The Californian Brutal night in section wrestling championships as every Bakersfield wrestler is defeated. Things started badly for local wrestlers with East's Marc Collier losing to Clovis West's Zach Zimmer at 103 pounds, and continued through the night as every Bakersfield wrestler lost. NAMES CQ
That was the silver lining in a night filled with far too much silver for Bakersfield-area wrestlers, who took it on the chin in all seven of their finals matches at East High.
"I'll see him again next week," said Rasmussen, who still qualified for Saturday's Masters tournament at Clovis East.
Rasmussen, Bakersfield High's 145-pounder, entered the night ranked first in the state and left with a silver medal.
His championship match against Clovis-Buchanan's Andrew Balch seemed off-kilter from the start. Balch was awarded a takedown just seconds into it with both wrestlers headed out of bounds. Rasmussen then nearly had a reversal, but the referee called a stalemate before he could complete it.
The bad breaks seemed to fire Rasmussen up, and he quickly reversed Balch and put him on his back. But after a second where it seemed sure that Rasmussen would restore order with a pin, he leaned too hard and fell on his own back.
Balch quickly took advantage, sticking Rasmussen and ending a match that took only 1:17.
"I kind of bounced," Rasmussen said. "I thought I had him. ... (I was thinking) 'How did that happen?'"
It was a similar story for top-seeded East wrestlers Marc Collier at 103 and Peter Gonzalez at 112, who both lost to Clovis West opponents.
"Everything changes from week to week," East coach Joe Triggs said. "This is not the state meet, this is not the Masters. This is the second qualifying tournament."
Foothill 215-pounder David Travis and East heavyweight Antonio Hernandez ended the night like Collier and Gonzalez began it, with losses to Clovis-area wrestlers.
Two other Drillers, Timmy Box (125) and Brad Carls (171) also lost finals matches. Box took down No. 4 Steven Fitzgerald of Clovis East early but eventually succumbed to a pin, and Carls lost 8-4 to Clovis' Tommy Burriel.
Still, BHS finished third in the team standings, with 209 points to Clovis' 304 and Buchanan's 268. East finished seventh with 115.5, Centennial eighth with 110 and Liberty 10th with 87.
More important, the Drillers qualified eight wrestlers to Masters. The top six Yosemite wrestlers join the top four Sierra-Sequoia wrestlers at Masters, where the top seven receive state berths.
"That's one more than I thought we'd qualify," BHS coach Andy Varner said. "Our goal all year long's been the state meet. That's what our goal is, not this. So use this as fuel to the fire."
Bryce Hammond (152), Jose Ramirez (160) and Anthony Padilla (heavyweight) finished third for BHS. Padilla lost his first-round match Friday, then reeled off seven straight pins for a bronze medal. Brian Schoene (215) took fourth and Jonah Cruz (140) fifth.
Other top-six finishers and Masters qualifiers included: for Centennial, Seth Hicks, fourth at 140, John Musquez, fourth at 171, and Austin Ballard, fifth at 135; for Delano, Amandeep Singh, sixth at 160; for Foothill, Derik Rizo, sixth at 119; for Liberty, Greg Kapler, third at 135, Vince Rivera, fourth at 130, and Robert Rios, fifth at 145; for North, Joey Thomason, fourth at 189, and Brent Willis, fourth at heavyweight; for Ridgeview, Bryan Magno, fifth at 130; and for Stockdale, Eric Matthews, sixth at 152.
Frontier freshman Alex Gomez, the first female league champion in Kern County history, lost 11-0 to Madera's Eric Gomez in her first match of the day and was eliminated.