The Cupertino Courier Tight decisions help Pioneers beat Mats A couple of escapes. A reversal or two. Maybe a takedown. That was about the difference when the Cupertino wrestling team pulled out a narrow 33-25 victory over Monta Vista last week in a dual match in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. The Pioneers won the match by eight team points, but it was much closer than that. Three individual bouts were decided by just a single point, and had a couple of those gone Monta Vista's way, the team results could have been much different. But Steven Munoz and Joey Conley pulled out one-point victories in the middle weights, and that was enough to help the Pioneers get the important win over the Matadors. The win left Cupertino 3-0-1 in the division and 9-0-1 for the year. Monta Vista slipped to 2-2 in the division. Cupertino trailed 16-15 in the match heading into the 145-pound division. But Munoz outdueled Monta Vista's Norman Hsieh for an exciting 11-10 victory to give the Pioneers a team lead they would never relinquish. Nick Iden nailed a close 10-5 win over Billy Bybee at 152 pounds, then Conley all but clinched the team victory with his one-point win at 160. Conley went up against Monta Vista's Ken Montanez in a battle of the SCVAL's best. Both are returning Central Coast Section placers this season. But it was Conley coming through with a thrilling 3-2 win in the 160-pound match that gave the Pioneers a 21-16 team lead with just four matches left to wrestle. Matt Krieger gave the Matadors a ray of hope 6-0 victory at 171 pounds to cut the lead to 21-19. But Ray Shelley all but wrapped up the Cupertino win when he pinned with 35 seconds left to wrestle at 189 pounds. Eric Otto would pick up a forfeit win for the Pioneers at 215 pounds. Rory Conley had won by forfeit at 103 pounds and Patrick Cannon nailed a 9-2 win at 112 pounds to give the Pioneers an early lead. Monta Vista battled back to tie things up. Jarrod Rothman pinned with 14 seconds remaining in the second round at 119, and Nima Nejat won an 11-10 thriller over Anthony Nguyen at 125. Daniel Lebus put Cupertino up 12-9 with a 6-0 victory at 130, but the Matadors came back with wins by Paul Montanez (10-4 at 135) and Steven Togami (11-0 at 140) to take a 16-12 team lead. Monta Vista's Kyle Kingsbury wrapped up the match with at pin 57 seconds into the third round at heavyweight. Cupertino will wrap up the league dual match season on Feb. 3 when the Pioneers visit Saratoga a 6:30 p.m. Monta Vista heads to Los Gatos on Feb. 4 at 6:30 p.m. [ Back to Contents Page | Cupertino Courier Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Cupertino Courier, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.