Three local wrestlers capture Central Section Grand Masters titles
| Sunday, Mar 01 2009 02:24 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:02 PM
Images
Centennial senior Seth Hicks, right, tries to keep control over Liberty's Greg Kapler during the 135-pound final in the Central Section Grand Masters. Hicks won 6-3. The Golden Hawks' senior enters this weekends state tournament undefeated.
Shafter's Rene Medina, right, locks up with Fresno-Washington's Mark Narvaez during the 171-pound final in the Central Section Grand Masters on Saturday at East High. Medina won 5-2.
Bakersfield sophomore Bryce Hammond hangs on to Clovis' Cameron Kelly in the last few seconds of the first overtime period in the 152-pound championship match Saturday.
Maybe Bakersfield High sophomore Bryce Hammond had an idea he’d have an unforgettable finals match at Saturday’s Central Section Grand Masters wrestling championships when he warmed up in a Muhammad Ali-like boxing robe.
Then again, almost nothing about this tournament at East High wasn’t memorable.
Hammond won a double-overtime, controversy-filled championship at 152 pounds over Clovis’ Cameren Kelley, leading the Drillers to a third-place finish in a tight team race and joining two other Kern County wrestlers as section champions.
“It was pretty crazy,” Hammond said. “There were a few questionable calls, but, hey, that just makes it more exciting.”
Spoken like a true Ali.
Hammond led 1-0 with seconds on the third-period clock, when, with the Clovis fans howling for stalling, Kelley was awarded a point for an illegal hold as time expired.
In overtime, Hammond appeared to have Kelley taken down with his toes in the circle, but the wrestlers were ruled out of bounds and remained tied, 1-1.
Finally, in double OT, Hammond used a granby to roll Kelley to his back for a 5-1 lead. He held on, 5-3.
“As a team, I think we’re the best-conditioned team in the state,” Hammond said. “So I thought I’d go through both overtimes better than him.”
Two matches later, at 160 pounds, Shafter’s Rene Medina won a section title just two weeks after he was pinned in the South Sequoia League championship. He beat Fresno-Washington Union’s Mark Narvaez 5-2.
“I’ve been working on my stance; that’s what’s been killing me,” Medina said. “They’ve been getting to my legs.”
Even last week, Narvaez took Medina to overtime because he caught him in a couple of low single-leg takedowns. Not this time around. “It feels great,” Medina said. “This is my first time winning this tournament. Last year I got seventh, so this is good.”
Earlier, Centennial’s Seth Hicks won a long-awaited 135-pound showdown with Liberty’s Greg Kapler, 6-3. The two are section-ranked friends and rivals from schools that are about 10 minutes apart, but they hadn’t met in a match yet this season.
This one was for all the Central Section marbles. Hicks, ranked first in the state, improved to 43-0 with a four-point move in the first period and a reversal in the second.
He said wrestling Kapler, who uses a funky style centered on locking up with his opponent, was an adventure.
“He’s got a real unique style of wrestling,” Hicks said. “I was able to read his moves and stay out of harm’s way. Every second of the match, he had some weird, locking elbows or something.”
Now Hicks will go into the state tournament as the 135-pound favorite.
“I could not imagine this from the start,” Hicks said. “But one match at a time, and it seems more and more likely.”
Also going to Rabobank Arena on Friday and Saturday with a chance to make some noise is Bakersfield High, which had seven wrestlers at Masters and got all seven through to state (the top seven here qualified.) That included finalists Hammond, Jonah Cruz at 140, Adam Fierro at 145 and Brian Schoene at 215.
The other three lost their championships, Schoene in somewhat shocking fashion to Fresno-Edison’s Rykeem Yates. Schoene beat Yates 3-1 last week but seemed helpless to stop him this time around. Yates used two nearside cradles for nearfall in the second period and won 11-3.
Cruz lost his second straight final to Lemoore’s Nicholas Sierra, 6-4, and Fierro was pinned by state No. 1 Scott Sakaguchi of Clovis.
“We had some individual guys not accomplish their goals,” Bakersfield coach Andy Varner said. “So it’s a little disappointing for them, but the reassurance is they get another shot.”
All in all, Varner called it a successful day for BHS, which was a distant third to Clovis-Buchanan and Clovis last week and narrowed the gap considerably this time around. Clovis won the Masters meet when Buchanan heavyweight Kyle Papendorf lost his championship. The Cougars had 137 team points, Buchanan had 135.5 and Bakersfield had 128.
“It’s a new week next week,” said Varner, and he could have meant that for good or bad. “... I think all seven have a shot. But all seven have to wrestle their best matches.”
Kern County will send 26 wrestlers to state, including three from East and two each from Liberty, Arvin, Tehachapi, Foothill and Frontier — the first two in school history.
All 26 are probably glad just to have survived the Masters, a wild meet where six of the 14 weight classes were won by a wrestler who didn’t win his divisional meet last week.
“You could wrestle this thing again next week, and the placings would all be different,” East coach Joe Triggs said.
They will wrestle again next week, with a few hundred friends from around the state joining them and everything on the line.
