Saratoga's Follmar wins SCVAL wrestling title

By Dick Sparrer

If there was any question heading into the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League wrestling finals which division was tougher, De Anza or El Camino, there certainly was no question by the night's end.

The seven De Anza Division teams took the top seven spots in the team standings at the SCVAL finals held last Saturday at Palo Alto, confirming the power of the upper division.

And the best of those De Anza teams, Los Gatos, confirmed its place as the rightful owner of the league championship this winter.

The Wildcats, who capped a 6-0 division record with a convincing 41-12 victory over Cupertino in a dual match last week, rolled through the SCVAL field to run up 244 points to finish well ahead of runner-up Cupertino (197.5).

Individual champions Bobby Pease and Richard Escobar sparked Los Gatos to the team title at the finals. The two top a list of 14 Wildcats--one in each weight class--who have qualified for the Central Coast Section tournament coming up Feb. 22-23 at Independence High School in East San Jose.

Mitch Conley and Ben Reynolds each won titles for Cupertino, and they will lead a contingent of 10 Pioneers to the CCS tourney.

Fremont put the most wrestlers on the top step of the medal stand at the league tournament. Chris Osian, Alvin Cacdac and Daniel Atondo each won titles to lead the Firebirds to a team third at the finals with 152 points. Fremont will send eight wrestlers to CCS.

The Montanez brothers, Paul and Dan, each won individual crowns for Monta Vista and will lead a contingent of seven Matadors to the next level.

Troy Follmar of Saratoga and Gabe Tseng of Lynbrook were other local wrestlers who won SCVAL titles on Saturday. Tseng and two other Vikings will head to CCS this weekend and Follmar will be one of two Falcons to make the trip.

Follmar starred for the Falcons, winning the title at 215 pounds. The Saratoga senior beat Los Gatos standout Evan McDonald in the finals to clinch the title.

Adam Walters joined Follmar as a Saratoga placer with a fourth at 189 pounds.

Tseng was the champ at 125 pounds for Lynbrook at the league tourney. Jimmy Mar was second at 103 and Eugene Berson was fourth at 119 to round out the list of Lynbrook placers.

CCS tournament

Joining Saratoga's Follmar and Walters and Lynbrook's Tseng, Mar and Berson on the trip to CCS will be top local placers from the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

Garreth Gorman, Tom Miller and Ryan Kennedy of Westmont and Tony Barba of Prospect all earned berths in the section tourney by placing at the BVAL finals.

Gorman won a title at 173 pounds with Miller third at 191 and Kennedy eighth at 184 for the Warriors.

Barba claimed a second-place finish at 277 pounds for the Panthers.

Falcons fall

The Saratoga girls soccer team lost in the first round of the CCS Division III playoffs last Saturday, falling 2-1 to Notre Dame-Salinas.

The loss brought an end to the season for the Falcons, who posted an 8-8-5 record for the year.

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