The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Los Gatos dominates at league mat Þnals

By Mike Barnhart

In December of 2003, Fisher Middle School had a fantastic wrestling team. In fact, according to current Los Gatos High School standout Geoff Doss, who was on that squad, the eighth graders that year were so good that the Trojans were the second best team in the entire county.

Four years and two months later, Doss and several of his old Fisher teammates are still at itÑalbeit bigger, stronger, faster and smarter. And on Feb. 22-23 at Independence and Overfelt high schools in San Jose, they will find out if their new teamÑthe Los Gatos WildcatsÑis the best in five counties, a.k.a. the Central Coast Section.

Los Gatos certainly has been the best team in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League the past two seasons, waltzing through the De Anza Division dual meet season and then making a shambles of the SCVAL championship meet.

Last Saturday night at Saratoga High, 10 Los Gatos wrestlers were finalists and six took gold. With two third-place finishes, plus a fourth and a fifth, all 14 Wildcats moved on from the league meet to CCS.

Los Gatos captured its ninth SCVAL team crown in 10 seasons, totaling 291.5 points, well ahead of runner-up Fremont (183). Gunn was third with 148, followed by Wilcox (124) and Cupertino (114). Milpitas (109) was sixth, one-half point ahead of Saratoga and 5.5 ahead of Palo Alto. Lynbrook took ninth with 79.5, followed by Los Altos (73), The King's Academy (51), Monta Vista (49), Homestead (44), Santa Clara (36) and Harker Academy (11).

Doss, who recently signed a letter-of-intent with Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, was a machine in his three 152-pound bouts. He scored a first-round pin and twice won by technical fall (15-point margin), earning the Outstanding Wrestler award for the middle weights (130-160 pounds).

Senior teammate Nick Kalpin received the Outstanding Wrestler honor for the upper weights (171-275) after pinning talented junior Travis Johnson of The King's Academy in just 54 seconds of the 215 finale.

Santa Clara junior Eric Serrano, the tourney's Outstanding Wrestler for lower weights (103-125), outpointed Los Gatos sophomore Andy Kreidle 9-5 at 112. Fremont senior La Quintin Cathey, a state meet qualifier last year, won at 130 pounds, and Monta Vista junior Graham Paterson claimed the gold medal in the heavyweight bracket.

Cathey's route to the 130 gold included a 15-5 win over Josh Topete of The King's Academy, a 12-8 decision over Los Gatos sophomore Omri Rahmil and a 9-1 major decision against Saratoga junior Richard Macklin.

"My goal is to qualify for the state meet again," said Cathey, who placed third in the league and fourth at CCS last year, before losing both of his bouts at state. "I didn't really think I was going to go last year, but this year it's in me."

Paterson, an all-league lineman for Monta Vista's football team, placed fourth in league last year and only won one of three matches at CCS. Like Cathey, he has intensified his focus this season.

"I want to finish in the top four and qualify for state," Paterson said. "Football is more fun, but wrestling is more rewarding."

Paterson pinned all three of his opponents on the way to first place in the heavyweight category. He put Cupertino's Scott Marvin and Los Gatos' Spencer Havens on their backs in the first round, but he needed until midway in the third round to pin Gunn's Phil Park in the final.

Paterson jumped out to a 5-0 lead with a takedown and a near fall at the end of the first period. Park recovered and went ahead 6-5, but Paterson pinned with 51 seconds left in the bout.

Other individual champions included Los Gatos junior Marcel Schwager (125) and senior teammates Calvin Hawkes (135), Robbie Nakata (140) and Sean Goodison (160), Saratoga juniors Nathan Nguyen (103) and Jasper Loren (145), Milpitas junior Lendl Yanagacio (119) and Palo Alto senior Ryan Drebin (171). Hawkes beat Cupertino junior Kirby Haraguchi 5-2 in the 135 final. Haraguchi had reached the final by pinning Tommy Lu of Lynbrook and Luis Ramirez of Fremont. Haraguchi was one of six Cupertino qualifiers to the CCS meet. Junior Mohammed Sharfi (103) shared third place with Wilcox freshman Rashawn Mosley, and senior Eddie Cho placed third at 160. Freshman Garun Arustamov (112), sophomore Gurmukh Singh and freshman Ian Messaros (140) each garnered a fifth.

Fremont had 11 qualifiers to the section meet, including third-placers Donny Mena (215), Keith Bragas (171), Daunte Mills (152), Jesse Guerrero (275), Casey Johnson (125) and Luis Ramirez (135) and fourth-placers Warrick Africa (112) and Kenny La (145). Sophomore Joe Johnson was fifth at 119 and freshman John Facun was sixth at 103.

Homestead senior Andy Chin placed third at 112 pounds, while junior teammate Michael Boucher (125) placed fourth and sophomore Matthew Healy (135) took fifth. Senior Daniel Lu of Monta Vista placed fifth at 152, and Asavir Kalla (160) was sixth.

Seven Lynbrook wrestlers earned medals with top-eight finishes. Four seniors qualified for CCSÑVincent Huang, third at 119; James Kim, fourth at 140; senior Andre Shmakov, fifth at 189; and Justin Estradas, sixth at 275. Sophomores Arash Bastranfard (112) and Geren Pele (171) placed seventh and freshman Garrett Weng (103) was eighth.

For The King's Academy, Topete (125) and Matt Thalin (152) each placed third.