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Things look good on Westmont mat
Kawahara brothers win titles for Saratoga at Blossom Hill Meet
By Dick Sparrer
Ron Sardina is pretty encouraged as he looks ahead to the 2001 wrestling season at Westmont. And why wouldn't he be encouraged? After all, the Westmont wrestling coach has a half dozen solid returners on his squad who will join with a strong corps of talented newcomers to form what he figures will be a formidable team for the coming year.
How formidable? Well, Sardina figures Westmont to be a title contender.
"We should be in the top two in our league, the top six at [the Central Coast Section] and send four qualifiers to state," said the Westmont coach. "And we should place in the top four in at least three local tournaments."
The Warriors will get the chance at one of those top-four spots this weekend when they compete in the Bianchini Memorial Tournament at Cupertino on Jan. 6. They were already third at the Willow Glen Dual Meet Tournament in December.
Leading the assault for the Warriors are seniors Billy Stouffer (160), Jason Kennedy (189) and Chad Sizemore (152), all back from last year's squad. Juniors John Bauman (125), Garreth Gorman (170) and Juan Jimenez (119) are other top returners for Westmont.
"Look for these wrestlers to place in the top three in league and qualify at CCS for state," said Sardina.
The coach is also impressed with a solid crop of first-year varsity performers, including senior Ashkon Jadali (145), junior Tom Miller (215), sophomores Eric Selmans (189), Brad Turner (152), Thien Nguyen (140) and Ryan Kennedy (135) and freshman Hiep Dinh (103).
The coach figures that Miller, Selmans, Turner, Nguyen, Kennedy and Dinh all have the potential to be "future CCS placers and state qualifiers."
The Warriors will open league competition this week when they visit Overfelt on Jan. 4, 4:30 p.m., for a Blossom Valley Athletic League match before competing in the Bianchini Tournament at Cupertino on Saturday.
Bianchini Tournament
Anthony Baza of Fremont and Andrew Pease of Los Gatos are each looking for a repeat this weekend.
A year ago, both Baza and Pease won individual titles at the tough Gary Bianchini Memorial Wrestling Tournament at Cupertino High. And when the 16th-annual Bianchini is contested on Jan. 6, they'll be looking to do it again.
David Serwitz (third at 135) and Brian Miguel (fourth at 130) of Los Gatos and Jimenez (fifth at 112) of Westmont are other comeback placers expected to compete in the Saturday tournament.
Cupertino, in conjunction with the Cupertino Host Lions Club, hosts the Danny Ruppel and Gary Bianchini tournaments each year. The Ruppel, a second-man junior varsity tournament, will be held on Friday at Cupertino with the Bianchini a day later. Wrestling begins at 9 a.m. Saturday with the finals to get under way at about 6 p.m.
The Bianchini attracts many of the best teams in Northern California for what is considered to be the best one-day high school tournament in the state.
Westmont, Prospect and Lynbrook will send teams to compete in both tournaments.
Blossom Hill Invitational
The Kawahara brothers each won individual titles to lead the Saratoga wrestling team to a 12th-place finish at the Blossom Hill Invitational hosted in December by Oak Grove.
Ori Kawahara rolled to an 8-2 win over Anthony Sandoval of Gunderson to clinch the title at 119 pounds, and Taj Kawahara posted a tight 6-5 win over Joe Barajas of host Oak Grove to win the crown at 125 pounds for the Falcons.
Prospect, meanwhile, ended up 14th in the rugged tournament thanks to an individual title won by Rocco Lucero.
Lucero pinned at 2:32 of the second round to win the 145-pound crown. J. Ashraf lost a tough 4-2 decision in his last match to finish sixth at 275 pounds for the Panthers.
Lynbrook finished 11th in the team standings at the Blossom Hill. Gabe Tseng (130) and Steve Nguyen (275) each finished fourth for the Vikings and Han Lwin (125) and Ryan Beylikjian (215) were each sixth.
Falcons win
Earlier in the year, the Kawahara boys each posted victories to lead the Falcons to a 52-23 dual match win over Milpitas in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Saratoga lost the first two matches, but O. Kawahara pinned at 119 and T. Kawahara followed with a pin at 125 to get the Falcons on track.
David Rossi won by fall at 130 pounds to give Saratoga the edge in the match, and the Falcons won five of the last nine matches to pull out the team win.
Jarrod Usher rolled to a 10-0 victory at 140 pounds and Scott Donohoe won by fall at 145.
David Lin (152), David Cheng (171) and Troy Follmar (215) each won by forfeit to round out the list of 'Toga victors.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
