The week started out well for Monta Vista senior wrestler Dan Montanez, and it got even better as the week went on.

Montanez opened the week with a pin to lead Monta Vista to a 48-17 win over Cupertino in the first-ever match for the Jay Lawson Cup, and he came back on Feb. 14 to take the 160-pound title in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League finals at Los Altos.

Montanez won three matches to take the league crown and pace the Matadors to a team fourth behind Los Gatos, Fremont and Wilcox. He will now lead the Monta Vista contingent to the Central Coast Section wrestling championships to be held Feb. 20­21 at Independence High School in East San Jose.

Among those Matadors joining Montanez on the trip to CCS will be Brandon Greenwood, third at 125 pounds the league tourney, and David Clewett, third at 140. Others include Grant Kadokura (103), Alex Kadokura (112), Nate Fung (119), Jack Lai (130), Roger Kapul (135), Travis Constant (140), Bjorn Walters (152) and Taylor Oberhelman (171).

Homestead's Ittai Barzilay and Mark Zosky also won league titles at the SCVAL tournament. Barzilay won the crown at 145 pounds and Zosky took the title at 171.

Cupertino wrestlers placing in the top three at the league tourney were Bronson Farr, second at 215, and Nykolas Ramirez-Baker, third at 189. Other Cupertino CCS qualifiers include Alex Wu (112), Renato Sanchez (125), Steve Plotnikov (130), Aris Harutyunyan (135), Paul Kim (140) and David Joiner (152).

Lynbrook's Eugene Berson was third at 135, and Andrew Liu (140) also clinched a CCS berth.

In the Monta Vista-Cupertino dual match last week, pins by Montanez (160), Ha-Nang Wang (275), Clewett (145), Greenwood (125) and G. Kodokura (103) pushed the Matadors to the Lawson Cup victory.

A. Kodokura (112), Myron Fung (130), Kapul (135) and Oberhelman (171) each nailed decision wins and Walters won by forfeit.

Winning by decision for the Pioneers were Plotnikov (130), Kim (140) and Ramirez-Baker (189). Farr (215) won by forfeit.

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