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Los Gatos senior Chris Smith works over his Lynbrook opponent in a match last week. Smith ended up with a pin at 191 pounds, helping the Cats to a 74-6 win over the Vikings.
Photograph by Paul Myers
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Wrestlers roll over Lynbrook 74-6
Escobar, Smith, Pease each fourth at MidCals
By Dick Sparrer
It started out tamely enough... state-ranked Richard Escobar walked to the center of the mat to accept a forfeit victory at 173 pounds.
Or at least that's how it seemed. But there was nothing tame about the Wildcats last Wednesday night at Lynbrook.
The Los Gatos wrestling team went to Lynbrook for a match in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, and the Cats brought home a lopsided 74-6 league victory.
Los Gatos won every match there was to win as the Wildcats overwhelmed the young Vikings.
"They're well coached, but they're young," said Los Gatos co-head coach Scott Downs of the Vikings. "They were a step behind on every move. That's what a good feeder program does for you."
Downs was referring to the strong junior high school squads at Fisher and C.T. English that feed wrestlers into the high school program.
"Some matches were close," added the coach, "but they ended up in pins anyway."
Of the 10 matches wrestled last Wednesday, eight resulted in Los Gatos pins. There was also one Gatos technical fall, a decision win and three forfeit victories.
Los Gatos was up 30-0 in the match before the Vikings even knew what hit them.
After Escobar picked up his forfeit at 173, the Cats reeled off four straight pins.
Chris Smith won by fall at 191 pounds and Evan McDonald pinned at 217. Nathan Fillhardt was a pinner at 277 pounds, and Bryan Ceglio won by fall at 105.
Kevin Cho outlasted Lynbrook's Jeff Lee 5-1 at 114 pounds in the closest match of the night, and Matt Nudelman followed with a 16-1 technical fall at 121.
Junior Holden Groves pinned at 127 pounds to up the team lead to 44-0 before Gatos gave up its only points of the night with a forfeit at 132.
Teddy Ross pinned at 137 pounds, Bobby Pease won by fall at 147 and Tyler Donnelly won on a pin at 154.
Add in forfeit wins by Mark Johnson at 142 and Jeff Oleson at 162, and it was a completely one-sided victory for the Wildcats.
Earlier in the week, Los Gatos had finished fifth at the rugged MidCals in Gilroy. Escobar, Smith and Pease each posted 3-2 individual records to nail fourth-place finishes for the Wildcats.
Los Gatos matched its best-ever MidCal finish with the fifth place, but Downs thought the Cats could have done better.
"Overall, it was disappointing," said Downs, who felt that the 54-team tourney was "poorly run." Hollister and Bellarmine, two of the top teams in the Central Coast Section, were allowed to join the tourney field just a day before the event, so none of their wrestlers were seeded, skewing the individual brackets.
Still, the coach was pleased with the efforts of the three Gatos placers.
"[Escobar] wrestled real well," said Downs. The senior sensation lost a tight 7-4 decision to a Marin Catholic wrestler ranked third in the state to fall out of the championship bracket.
Pease's only two losses came against wrestlers currently ranked among the top three in CCS. He lost by a point at the buzzer to the section's No. 1 wrestler from Terra Nova, and he dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to the Gilroy wrestler ranked No. 3 at 142 pounds.
"It was good to see him wrestle the way we know he can wrestle," said Downs of Pease.
Smith also went 3-2 to finish fourth at 191 pounds.
Adam Morgenthaler picked up three wins in a strong effort, but failed to place at 127 pounds.
Los Gatos returns to league dual match competition this week. The Cats take their 4-0 league mark up against Palo Alto on Feb. 7, 6:30 p.m., at LG. The following week, the Cats host Cupertino on Valentine's Day in the bouts that should decide both the varsity and junior varsity dual match championships.
The Cats' 46-11 win over Fremont on Jan. 23 set up the match with Cupertino as the league title bout.
"Now [the Cupertino match] becomes a real big one," said Downs after the win over Fremont. "We're not looking past anyone, but it should come down to that."
Missing Fremont results
A piece of the story chronicling the results of the Los Gatos-Fremont match was left out of the Jan. 30 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. The missing part of the story follows:
Nathan Fillhardt pinned in the first round at 277 pounds.
Los Gatos held a commanding 40-7 lead in the team score with just three matches remaining, but one of the three was a big match indeed.
Sophomore Bryan Ceglio had to face Fremont's talented female wrestler, Amantha Hordagoda, at 105 pounds and he was winless against her in previous meetings.
But this time Ceglio went out and nailed an impressive 4-1 victory.
"He really controlled the match," said Downs of Ceglio.
Kevin Cho notched a 7-5 victory at 114 pounds to cap the night for the Wildcats.
Fremont star Chris Osian outlasted Matthew Nudelman at 121 pounds in the final match of the night, but it was too little too late for the Firebirds.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
