Wildcats face Firebirds in wrestling showdown

By Dick Sparrer

It's showdown No. 1 for the Los Gatos wrestling team.

Scott Downs knew going into the 2001-02 season what his Wildcats would have to do to win the title in the rugged De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this winter. They needed to do to three things: beat Fremont, beat Cupertino, and place in the top two at the league finals.

Well, the first of those three tasks faces the Cats this week. Gatos will head to Sunnyvale on Jan. 23 to face Fremont in a crucial 6:30 p.m. match.

The teams have already met once this year and the Firebirds pulled out a close win at the Hollister Duals. Downs is looking for different results on Wednesday night.

"It's going to be a real headbanger," said the Gatos co-head coach. "They barely lost to Cupertino, who I think is an extremely strong dual meet team.

"It should be really exciting."

Los Gatos is extremely strong in the upper weights this season with Richard Escobar at 171, Chris Smith at 189 and Evan McDonald at 215. But Fremont counters with strength in the lower weights.

"Every match in the lower weights will be key for us," said Downs.

The Gatos coach expects a tough bout at 103 pounds when Bryan Ceglio faces Amantha Hordagoda.

"She's ranked first nationally for girls in her weight class," said Downs of Hordagoda. "She's the real deal. That's a big match for Ceglio."

Another crucial bout will come at 119 pounds when LG's Matthew Nudelman squares off with Fremont's Chris Osian, currently ranked No. 1 in CCS in the weight class.

Brian Miguel of Los Gatos will face Alvin Cacdac of Fremont in another big bout at 130 pounds, and LG's Bobby Pease will meet Fremont's Bayardo Sanchez in a key match at 140.

The Wildcats are coming off a quiet week, at least for the varsity. Gatos had the week off after finishing an impressive fourth at the rugged Gary Bianchini Memorial tournament at Cupertino the Saturday before. Last week, Los Gatos hosted the Wildcat Invitational for frosh-soph wrestlers.

Cats Fourth at Bianchini

Escobar won an individual title and Smith finished second to lead Gatos to a fourth at the Bianchini on Jan. 12 in Cupertino.

Escobar pulled out a 12-7 overtime win over Westmont's Garreth Gorman to take the title at 171 pounds.

"He did what he needed to do," said Downs of Escobar, who ran his season record to 21-2 with four wins at Cupertino. "He took [Gorman] down to his back and almost pinned him [in overtime]."

"He's a guy who's never out of a match," said Downs of his 171-pounder. "He doesn't give up at all, and he's very quick and very strong."

Smith won his first three matches before losing in the finals to finish second at 189 pounds for the Cats.

"He continues to improve, and looks better and better," said Downs of Smith.

He opened with a win by technical fall, then beat a Mills wrestler 14-4. He earned his place in the finals with a tight 6-4 win over a Vacaville wrestler in the semifinals.

The 189-pound weight class was one of three very tough ones at the tournament, said Downs, who added, "It was loaded."

Nudelman was fourth at 119 and Ted Ross was fourth at 135 for the Cats. Miguel was fifth at 130, Kevin Cho was fifth at 112, Evan McDonald was sixth at 215, Ceglio was seventh at 103 and Pease was seventh at 140.

"It was a real good effort by the kids," said Downs. "This is the highest we've ever finished at this tournament."

Vacaville, ranked No. 3 in the state, ran up 242 points to win the tourney title with Turlock (139.5) second, Del Mar (127.5) third, Gatos (125) fourth and De La Salle (120) fifth.

Los Gatos was the highest finisher from the Central Coast Section at the tourney. Bellarmine ended up sixth at 111.5.

"The improvement of these guys is what is really encouraging," said Downs of his Cats.

Frosh-sophers second

Los Gatos played host to the Wildcat Invitational last weekend, and the Cats almost won their own tournament.

But it was Silver Creek picking up key points in the last two weight classes to finish with 208 to take the tourney title. Los Gatos (195) was second with Hollister (151) third and Monterey (137) fourth in the 24-team tourney.

Ceglio (105), Matt Miguel (114), with Mike Ross (147) and Eric Chen (173) each won individual titles to top a list of 14 placers for the Cats at the tournament.

Finishing third for the Wildcats were Dane Diefendorff (114), Daniel Hayashi (121), Eric Pape (132) and Ivan Batinich (191).

Jordan France (121) was fourth for the Cats with Chris Anzalone (114), Nolan Nguyen (121), David Bitter (121) and Gary Wozniak (137) each fifth. Nick Gaffney (154) added a sixth-place finish.

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