DRILLERS STRIKE IT RICH
| Sunday, Feb 15 2009 02:02 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:26 PM
Images
Bakersfield High's Natrelle Demison, top, wrestles against East's Marc Collier. Demison won 10-4 in the SEYL championship match at 112 pounds.
Chances are, East High didn't set up plush-looking stacks of mats beside the championship mat at the SEYL wrestling championships Saturday just for Bakersfield High's benefit.
It just worked out that way. BHS coaches had time to get comfy -- the first 10 weight classes, and 11 overall, featured Drillers in the finals on that mat.
The Drillers, who finished with 266.5 points to Foothill's 214, crowned eight wrestlers league champions, including two freshmen and three sophomores and six victories by at least major decision.
"This is what we do," said sophomore 145-pounder Adam Fierro, who scored a 16-0 technical fall over Liberty's Martin Cueto for a title. "We've done it our entire lives. This is what we live for."
It was the 12th straight team victory for Bakersfield at a league tournament, but this was domination even by its lofty standards. Natrelle Demison's victory at 112 set the tone. The freshman beat two-time state qualifier Marc Collier of East 10-4. Couple that with a regular-season win at 119 over East's Peter Gonzalez, and Demison suddenly looks like a threat to not only reach, but medal at the state tournament.
"I feel good," Demison said. "I want to try to make it there, and if I do, I want to place. At the beginning of the year, I just wanted to make it. But the season has showed me I could be pretty good."
BHS 125-pound freshman Maxx Ramirez upset top seed Nick Gonzalez of East, 9-0. At 130, sophomore Timmy Box returned from an injury to beat Foohill's Derik Rizo 8-3 in a battle of returning state qualifiers. Jonah Cruz, Adam Fierro, Bryce Hammond and Jose Ramirez all won by either pin or technical fall in the finals from 140 to 160, and Brian Schoene added a pin at 215.
There's a long way to go -- the top five wrestlers in each league advance to next weekend's Yosemite Divisional at Lemoore, where the top seven make the Masters tournament back at East, where the top six Central Section finishers reach state March 6-7 -- but it already looks like BHS is performing at optimum capacity.
"That's the plan," BHS coach Andy Varner said. "Hopefully. But we're going to see next week. Everybody's getting geared up; they've done everything we've asked them to do as coaches, and I think they're starting to come around at the right time."
Perhaps the only disappointing result all day for the Drillers came at 171, where top-seeded Darien Moore lost an 8-7 decision to Liberty's Levi Buffington in the first round.
Buffington went on to pin Foothill's D.J. Enderton to win an unlikely championship.
"I was just hoping to make it to divisionals," said Buffington, a sophomore. "But I'm not making as many mistakes, and I'm wrestling smart."
Liberty got a much more expected championship from once-beaten Greg Kapler at 135 pounds. He tech-falled Bakersfield's Silas Nacita in the final.
East, which took third as a team, already had two champions (103-pounder Julio Gonzalez and 119-pounder Peter Gonzalez) when heavyweight Antonio Hernandez avenged an earlier loss with a dramatic against Foothill's Angel Posadas in the championship.
Hernandez earned a late point for Posadas stalling late in the match to even the score 2-2, then took Posadas down late in overtime with just his toes touching down inbounds.
Foothill 189-pounder Jon Palafox also won a title.
But that was long after Bakersfield had made its announcement that this was its day.
"Next week is a big one, but this pretty much starts the whole process," Varner said. "It's time to get going, to get excited. It couldn't have really gone better."
