With 247 athletes, representing 25 schools, grappling on seven mats in two gymnasiums, Cupertino High School at least was the wrestling Mecca of Santa Clara Valley for 12 hours on Saturday.

One of the teams that traveled the furthest, Del Oro of Loomis, performed the best. With 10 athletes placing fifth or better, including individual champs Josh Summers (152 pounds) and Micah Ferguson (125), Del Oro racked up 224.5 points en route to the team championship.

Ferguson, the 2004 state champion at 119 pounds, was one of three repeat winners from 2004. Fremont junior Filip Novachkov (112) again was named Outstanding Wrestler for the five lower weight classes, and Monta Vista senior Dan Montanez successfully defended his 160-pound title. Fremont junior Tom Staats (189) and St. Francis senior Kevin Cunningham (140) also were winners.

Without getting a wrestler into a championship match, Los Gatos finished second with 175.5 points. The Wildcats boasted a top-six finish in nine of the 14 weight classes.

Foothill of Pleasanton, making its first trip to the tournament, took third place with 153.5 points. With its two champs and three third-place finishers--sophomore Boris Novachkov (103) and juniors Kurtis Ogasawara (140) and Greg Crane (152)--Fremont totaled 146 points for fourth place. Another first-time participant, Central Catholic of Modesto, was fifth with 138.

Rounding out the top 10 were Silver Creek (124.5), De La Salle of Concord (113), Half Moon Bay (112), St. Francis (108) and San Benito of Hollister (108). Westmont, led by 215-pound runner-up Tyler Porras, finished in 14th place with 69 points. Monta Vista was three points back in 16th, Cupertino (53) finished 18th and Kings Academy (45.5) tied for 20th with Evergreen Valley.

Novachkov, Montanez, Staats and Cunningham all needed to win four bouts in a row to reach the head of their weight classes.

Novachkov's victories became more impressive the deeper he advanced into his bracket. He followed a 9-5 decision over Independence's Michael Howard with a 21-4 technical fall and two pins. In the final match, Novachkov needed just 42 seconds to pin Palo Alto's Jon Leape.

Montanez won his first bout in 59 seconds, then scored two major decisions over Josh Montoro of The King's Academy and Jeff Wysuph of Los Gatos, before topping Half Moon Bay's Chris Rey 8-5 in the finals.

Staats pinned three of his four 189-pound foes, including Del Oro's Braden Kolb with just eight seconds left in the championship bout. Staats' toughest match was in the semi-finals, where he edged Mike Morales of St. Francis 2-0. Morales had reached the semi's with an 8-4 decision over Los Gatos' Kevin Gallagher. He ended the day with a 4-1 record and a third-place medal. Gallagher, who went 3-2, took fifth.

Morales, Joel Shaw (second at 145) and Cunningham were the only placers for St. Francis.

To get to the title match Cunningham had to get past Fremont's Ogasawara, the Central Coast Section's top-ranked competitor of the 140 class. Cunningham sandwiched takedowns in the first and third periods around a second-period near fall en route to a 7-2 victory.

Ogaswara, who had opened by pinning Monta Vista's Travis Constant and topping Los Gatos' Collin Sanders 8-1, finished strong to finish with a 4-1 record and third place.

Los Gatos' top efforts were turned in by third-place medallists Jordan France (119 pounds) and Eric Chen (171). France, whose only loss was to Foothill's Phil Boyer in the semi-finals, won four of five bouts. Chen took three of four, losing only to eventual winner Travis Edwards of Monterey, the Outstanding Wrestler for the upper weights.

Wysuph and Jake Schonig (103) scored fourths for the Wildcats. Schonig, who was surprised 7-0 by Evergreen freshman Michael Rodriguez in the semi-finals, dropped a one-point decision, 6-5, to Boris Novachkov in the battle for third place.

Four Wildcats--Adam Nudelman (135), David Bitter (145), Mike Wysuph (152) and Gallagher--placed fifth with 3-2 marks. Wildcat junior James Alva went 2-3 and finished sixth at 130. Two of his losses were to Leigh senior Eric Nakagawa, who placed fifth.

Two of Nudelman's wins at 135 came against Westmont's Preston Falbo, who finished sixth. Junior Stephen Thalin of King's won four of five bouts at 135, narrowly losing 7-6 in the semi-finals to eventual champ Michael Rico of Silver Creek.

Monta Vista sophomore Grant Kadokura won three of five matches and claimed fifth place. One of his wins was a 4-2 overtime win over Los Gatos sophomore Naveed Bagheri.

The best matches of the day were semi-final matchups involving Fremont's Crane at 152 and Westmont's Porras at 215. In his only defeat of the day, Crane went overtime with Central Catholic's Louis Bland before bowing 12-10. In a wild affair with Tyler Payne of Monterey, Porras led 21-12 before scoring a pin late in the third period.

Porras couldn't score a point in the championship match, however, and bowed to Ryan Dunn of San Benito. Dunn had reached the finale by injury default when Cupertino's Bronson Farr had to retire early in the second period of their semi-final contest. Farr, who suffered a concussion from a blow to the head by Dunn's knee, had to forego his last two matches and settle for sixth place.

Westmont 275-pounder Ramsey Habib earned fifth place with a 6-3 decision over De La Salle's Dan Hennesey, a competitor who had pinned Habib earlier in the day.

Fremont heavyweight Edgar Mazereagos was disqualified in his first bout, but recovered to win twice in the consolation bracket.

Other non-placers who fared well in consolation bracket action were St. Francis' Parker Sinclair (112) and Brian Brownell (119), 125-pounders Matt Smith-Pfirrman of Westmont and Evan Winslow of The King's Academy, Andrew Leyva (135) of Fremont, Cupertino's David Joiner (145) and Leigh's Mark Carlotta (152).

Second-man tourney

The day before the Memorial Tournament, Gilroy wrestlers claimed five first places en route to the team championship of the Second Man Tournament. The Mustangs tallied 201 points, edging runner-up San Benito by 10.5 points. Harker Academy and Monta Vista both scored 103 points, claiming shares of third place in the 20-team tourney.

Among the individual champions were Ray Wakiyama (112) of Monta Vista, Harker teammates David Woolsey (135) and John Olilla (152) and Lynbrook's Winston Wey (160).

Second-place finishers included Los Gatos' Geoff Doss (125) and Nick Kalpin (189), Cupertino's Kirby Hariguchi (130), Monta Vista's James Kahng (140) and Fremont's Scott Scandalis (160) and Jimmy Staats (275).