Pioneers, Cats meet for mat title

By DICK SPARRER

They'll be getting together on Valentine's Day.

But there will be no love lost when the Los Gatos and Cupertino wrestling teams meet on Feb. 14, at 6:30 p.m., on the Gatos mat. The two squads will be adversaries, battling it out for the dual match championship in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

The two powers set up the date with rousing wins last week. Cupertino rolled over Lynbrook 70-6, and Los Gatos coasted past Palo Alto 57-9. The victories left each squad 5-0 in the division with just one match left to wrestle ... on Valentine's Day.

"It's going to be a big one," said Cupertino coach Jay Lawson.

"Both teams have good, solid line-ups," added Lawson. "These are two of the best teams in the Central Coast Section when it comes to dual matches."

Lawson figures Gatos to be a slight favorite heading into the match, but a few key bouts could change the tide.

The best match of the night could come at 191 pounds when Cupertino's Ben Reynolds squares off with Chris Smith of Los Gatos. The two traded pins in their only two head-to-head battles this season. Smith finished second at the Bianchini Memorial tournament with Reynolds third, and Reynolds was third with Smith fifth at the MidCals in Gilroy.

"They both are very good," said Lawson. "That should be a key match."

Another outstanding match is expected at 217 pounds where 'Tino's Jaime Mejia-Baker is expected to go up against LG's Evan McDonald.

"That should be a very good match," said Lawson. "It's so hard to tell [who will win] because they haven't wrestled each other. So that's a real key match for both teams."

State-ranked Richard Escobar of Los Gatos is favored at 173 pounds, but Andrew Reese figures to give him all he can handle. When Escobar won a title at the Bianchini earlier this year, Reese finished third.

Lawson sees the bouts at 137 pounds (Ben DiGregorio-C vs. Teddy Ross-LG) and 154 pounds (Kayn Ramirez-Baker-C vs. Tyler Donnelly-LG) as "toss ups, and if we can win some of the close matches, then we can win the match."

Other expected match-ups include (Cupertino wrestler listed first):

105--Alex Wu vs. Bryan Ceglio
114--Mitch Conley vs. Kevin Cho
121--Daniel Cisneros vs. Matthew Nudelman
127--Byron Chan vs. Adam Morgenthaler
132--Brett Haraguchi vs. Brian Miguel
142--Jen-Hao Chen vs. Bobby Pease
147--Mohammad Gorjestani vs. Mike Ross
162--David Kullmann vs. Jeff Oleson
277--Patrick Bialoglouski vs. Nathan Fillhardt

"We have a lot of respect for Los Gatos," said Lawson. "Scott [Downs] is a really good coach."

Cupertino won 10 of the 11 matches contested and added three forfeit wins on the way to the easy win over the Vikings last week. Seven of Cupertino's 10 victories came by fall.

Three of those pins came quickly. Reynolds pinned in just 18 seconds at 191 pounds, and sophomore Nykole Ramirez-Baker pinned in just 34 seconds a match later at 217 pounds. Wu won by fall in just 41 seconds at 105 pounds.

Conley and Chen also nailed first-round falls for the Pioneers in the lopsided win over the Vikings. Conley, a junior, pinned at 1:08 of the first round at 114 pounds, and Chen, a senior, pinned at 1:08 of the first at 142.

Bialoglouski and Chan also joined the pin parade for the Pioneers. Bialoglouski won by fall with 59 seconds left in the second round at 277 pounds, and Chan pinned 26 seconds in the third round at 127.

Three Cupertino wrestlers nailed decision wins against the Vikings. Haraguchi won 9-7 at 132, DiGregorio won 7-1 at 137 and Gorjestani won 12-6 at 147.

Forfeit wins went to Ramirez-Baker at 154, Kullmann at 162 and Reese at 173.

Eugene Berson pinned at 1:03 of the first round at 121 pounds for Lynbrook's only win of the night.

In other local wrestling action last week, Homestead won a half-dozen bouts, but lost a 41-28 decision to Milpitas to slide to 3-2 in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL.

Clark Chen topped the list of Homestead winners with a second-round pin at 147 pounds. Eric Matsuoka won a 19-9 major decision at 114 pounds.

Supporting the effort for the Mustangs were Arash Zahoory, a 6-4 winner at 121; Cliff Barclay, a 9-8 winner at 137; Nathan Baxter, a 12-2 winner at 162; and David Ramirez, a 4-0 winner at 277.

All of the teams of the SCVAL will get together for the league finals on Feb. 16 at Gunn High School in Palo Alto.

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