Cupertino sophomore Jaime Mejia-Beher, on his way to a pin in this match against Fremont last week, qualified for CCS by finishing third at 191 pounds at the league tournament on Saturday.

Photograph by Jeff Kearns

Montanez wins league title for Mats

Area wrestlers qualify for CCS tournament

By DICK SPARRER

Monta Vista may not have been the champion at the league wrestling finals held last Saturday at Wilcox. But that doesn't mean that the Matadors didn't win a championship.

Monta Vista's Paul Montanez won an individual championship for the Matadors when the top wrestlers of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League converged on the Wilcox mats for the league meet last weekend.

Montanez tops a list of 17 Cupertino area wrestlers who have qualified for the Central Coast Section finals coming up Feb. 23 and 24 at Independence High School in East San Jose. The top five placers in each weight class at the league finals advance to the section tournament.

Montanez will be joined at the CCS tourney by teammate Hiro Miura, six wrestlers from Cupertino, seven more from Lynbrook and two from Homestead.

Placing high enough at the league finals to advance to CCS were Rory Conley, Mitch Conley, Mohammad Gorjestani, Michael Joiner, Jaime Mejia-Beher and Ben Reynolds of Cupertino; Michael Marr, Brian Baik, Chris Tsang, Grant Henderson, Jeff Lee, Ryan Oliver and Ryan Beylikjian of Lynbrook; and Chris Chen and Neal Cornell of Homestead.

Montanez won the individual title at 142 pounds to head up the list of area placers. The Monta Vista junior beat Miguel Chavez of Santa Clara in the championship match.

Miura earned his CCS berth with a third-place finish at 154 pounds.

Also placing for the Mustangs at the league tournament were Daniel Chen, sixth at 132, and David Hourmanesh, sixth at 105.

Lynbrook's Tsang and Cupertino's Reynolds each earned CCS spots by placing second at the league finals last Saturday.

Tsang won his way into the finals at 127 pounds before losing his last match to Kai Garcia of Fremont.

Reynolds, a sophomore for the Pioneers, was unbeaten at 217 pounds before losing to Troy Follmar of Saratoga in the finals.

The Conley brothers, Rory and Mitch, will join Reynolds for the trip to CCS. Rory Conley, a senior, finished third at 105 pounds for the Pioneers and Mitch, a sophomore, was fourth at 114.

The Conley tandem is one of four brother teams who placed high enough at the SCVAL finals to advance to CCS. The Miguel brothers (Matt, fourth at 105, and Brian, first at 137) and the Pease brothers (Bobby, second at 121, and Andrew, second at 147) of Los Gatos and the Kawahara brothers (Ori, first at 121, and Taj, third at 127) of Saratoga will also advance.

Joining Reynolds and the Conley brothers for the trip to CCS will be Cupertino's Gorjestani, a junior who finished third at 137; Joiner, a soph who was fourth at 173; and Mejia-Beher, a sophomore who was third at 191.

Finishing sixth at the league meet for the Pioneers were junior Ben DiGregorio at 142 pounds, junior Kayn Ramirez-Baker at 154 and sophomore Andrew Reese at 162.

Joining Tsang for the trip to CCS will be Lynbrook teammates Marr, fifth at 105; Baik, third at 114; Henderson, fifth at 132; Lee, fifth at 137; Oliver, third at 173; and Beylikjian, fifth at 217.

Finishing sixth for the Vikings was Scott Han at 121.

Homestead's Chen and Cornell each placed fourth at the finals to win CCS berths. Chen was fourth at 147 pounds with Cornell fourth at 154.

In dual match competition last week, Cupertino finished the De Anza Division season 3-3 after a 44-28 loss to Fremont.

Pins by R. Conley at 105 and Meja-Beher at 191 pounds weren't enough for the Pioneers to overcome the Firebirds.

Mejia-Beher pinned with 41 seconds left in the first round at 191 pounds and Conley won by fall with 47 seconds left in the second round at 105. But in between, Fremont won nine matches.

Junior Scott Mueller pulled out a 12-4 victory at 217 pounds for the Pioneers. But other than a couple of forfeit wins, that was all Cupertino could manage on the night.

In other dual match action last week, Monta Vista lost 63-2 to powerful Los Gatos. Montanez posted an 11-4 victory at 142 pounds for Monta Vista's only win of the night.

Sheriff's Report

Jon Hoornstra: Could you push the button?

American Cancer Society will hold its 16th annual Daffodil Days fundraiser for cancer research

Sports Briefs

Montanez wins league title for Mats