Pioneers, Cats meet for mat title

Valentine's Day matchup decides wrestling crown

By Dick Sparrer

They'll be getting together on Valentine's Day. But there will be no love lost when the Los Gatos and Cupertino wrestling teams meet on Feb. 14, at 6:30 p.m., on the Gatos mat. The two squads will be adversaries, battling it out for the dual match championship in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

The two powers set up the date with rousing wins last week. Cupertino rolled over Lynbrook 70-6, and Los Gatos coasted past Palo Alto 57-9. The victories left each squad 5-0 in the division, with just one match left to wrestle ... on Valentine's Day.

"This is a real interesting matchup," said Los Gatos co-head coach Scott Downs of the Thursday dual. "I look at it as a real scrap. It should be real exciting."

"It's going to be a big one," said Cupertino coach Jay Lawson. "Both teams have good, solid line-ups. These are two of the best teams in the Central Coast Section when it comes to dual matches."

Lawson figures Gatos to be a slight favorite heading into the match, but a few key bouts could change the tide.

"And pins will really matter," added Downs.

The best match of the night could come at 191 pounds when Cupertino's Ben Reynolds squares off with Chris Smith of Los Gatos. The two traded pins in their only two head-to-head battles this season. Smith finished second at the Bianchini Memorial tournament with Reynolds third, and Reynolds was third with Smith fifth at the MidCals in Gilroy.

"They both are very good," said Lawson. "That should be a key match."

Another outstanding match is expected at 217 pounds where 'Tino's Jaime Mejia-Baker is expected to go up against LG's Evan McDonald.

"That should be a very good match," said Lawson. "It's so hard to tell [who will win] because they haven't wrestled each other. So that's a real key match for both teams."

State-ranked Richard Escobar of Los Gatos is favored at 173 pounds, but Andrew Reese figures to give him all he can handle. When Escobar won a title at the Bianchini earlier this year, Reese finished third.

Lawson sees the bouts at 137 pounds (Ben DiGregorio-C vs. Teddy Ross-LG) and 154 pounds (Kayn Ramirez-Baker-C vs. Tyler Donnelly-LG) as "toss ups, and if we can win some of the close matches, then we can win the match."

Other expected matchups include (Cupertino wrestler listed first):

105--Alex Wu vs. Bryan Ceglio
114--Mitch Conley vs. Kevin Cho
121--Daniel Cisneros vs. Matthew Nudelman
127--Byron Chan vs. Adam Morgenthaler
132--Brett Haraguchi vs. Brian Miguel or Holden Groves
142--Jen-Hao Chen vs. Bobby Pease
147-- Mohammad Gorjestani vs. Mike Ross
162--David Kullmann vs. Jeff Oleson
277--Patrick Bialoglouski vs. Nathan Fillhardt

"We have a lot of respect for Los Gatos," said Lawson. "Scott is a really good coach."

"It should be a real exciting, hopefully very inspiring dual match," added Downs.

Los Gatos is coming off of a lopsided 57-9 win over Palo Alto.

"And they're not bad," said Downs of Paly.

But the Vikings found themselves in a deep hole in a hurry when Los Gatos came through with some clutch wins in the early going, and Paly was able to win just two of the 14 matches contested.

After the draw, it was determined that the match would start at 114 pounds, and Cho made short work of his opponent with a 7-0 win.

After Nudelman won by forfeit at 121, Groves came through with a pin at 127.

"He just went from move to move to move," said Downs of Groves, "then pinned. That was a good win for us."

Morgenthaler followed with a 10-4 win at 132 pounds before T. Ross pinned at 137 pounds.

"That was a well wrestled match by Teddy," said Downs.

Pease pinned at 142 pounds and M. Ross nailed a 9-3 win at 147 before Donnelly pulled out a tight 6-4 win at 154.

"He wrestled a really tough kid," said Downs of Donnelly, "and he beat him right at the end."

The team score was 38-0 before Palo Alto could win a match, then Los Gatos rebounded with three more wins in a row.

Escobar met an opponent who was ranked high in the Central Coast Section, but the Gatos senior roughed him up for a 13-0 win.

Smith won by technical fall 20-5 at 191 pounds before McDonald met another CCS-ranked wrestler at 217. McDonald pinned, and the Cats were up 53-3.

After a loss at 277, Ceglio wrapped things up with a pin at 105 pounds.

All of the teams of the SCVAL will get together for the league finals on Feb. 16 at Gunn High School in Palo Alto.

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