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Reynolds, Conley headed to state
By DICK SPARRER
California, here they come!
Ben Reynolds and Mitch Conley of Cupertino are headed to the California State Wrestling Tournament after placing at the Central Coast Section finals held last weekend at Independence.
Reynolds was second at 189 pounds and Conley finished third at 112 to lead Cupertino to a seventh-place finish at the CCS tourney and to qualify for the state tournament set for March 1-2 at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Reynolds topped a list of four Cupertino placers at the CCS tourney. Joining Reynolds and Conley on the medal stand were Andrew Reese, fifth at 171 pounds, and David Kullmann, sixth at 160.
Reynolds breezed to four straight wins before losing a tough 4-1 nod to Pat Varela of Alvarez in the finals at 189 pounds.
Reynolds beat Pedro Herrera of Riordan 7-1, pinned Kris Kibak of Santa Cruz at 2:08 of the second round, won by technical fall over Nathan Vasquez of San Benito in the second round and handled Juan Pablo Ayala of Gonzales 6-2 to get into the title match.
Conley won four of five matches at the CCS tournament to wind up third at 112 pounds.
The senior opened with a 10-2 win over Adam Ruiz of Gilroy, then pinned Joey Webster of Soquel with five seconds left in the first round. Conley was pinned by Justin Owens of Monterey, but came back to pin Webster again and beat Robert Beltran of San Benito 7-4 for third place.
Reese posted a 5-2 record to finish fifth at 171 pounds. He beat Nico Beck of Harbor 7-6 and Marcus Ford of Seaside 13-6 before losing a 3-2 heartbreaker to Taylor Catrett of Live Oak. Reese fought back to beat Will Keller of Gunn 11-7 and Jeff Lema of Hillsdale 10-5 before losing 9-5 to Mark Zabala of Gilroy to slip into the fifth-place match. Reese pinned Ryan Reyes of Palma at 2:27 to claim fifth.
Along with Reynolds, SCVAL wrestlers in the finals were Fremont's Daniel Atondo and Alvin Cacdac, Richard Escobar of Los Gatos (first at 171) and Justin Carskadon of Wilcox (first at 145).
The Pioneers were part of a solid showing put forth by the teams of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. SCVAL teams claimed three of the top 12 spots (Los Gatos was third at 114.5 and Fremont was 12th at 82), and SCVAL wrestlers were in the finals in five of the 14 weight classes.
Kullmann ended up sixth after going 4-3 in the tourney. He pinned Scott Donnelly of San Benito and Daniel Silvera of Half Moon Bay in his first two bouts, but lost 5-3 to Fernando Mercado of Oak Grove. He came back to beat Matt Rodriguez of Santa Cruz 12-10 and Tolu Wusu of Palo Alto 6-5, but then lost to Jakub Kacpryznski of Monterey 4-3 to drop to the fifth-place match. Kullmann was pinned by Mercado in his last match to wind up sixth.
The four placers pushed the Pioneers into the top 10 in the team standings. Bellarmine was sixth with 100.5 points and 'Tino finished seventh at 91.5.
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Cupertino, California Since 1947
