February 24, 1999    Saratoga, California  Since 1975

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    Westmont's Woodland pins CCS title

    But team had to settle for 2nd

    By Dick Sparrer


    Greg Woodland won a championship for Westmont at the rugged Blossom Valley Athletic League wrestling championships. So did Phat Dinh, and so did Brodie Gorman.

    But even with three individual titles, the Warriors couldn't get past Oak Grove in the team standings at the league meet. They had to settle for second place overall, 39 points behind the Eagles in the race for the tournament title.

    At the Central Coast Section tournament last weekend, though, it was an entirely different story. Woodland won a division crown to top a list of five placers, and it was enough to lift the Warriors to a team third behind Watsonville and Bellarmine--and in front of Oak Grove.

    Watsonville ran up 178 points to win the team title with Bellarmine second at 125.5 and Westmont an impressive third at 119. Oak Grove ended up a distant sixth at 99.5.

    Woodland starred for the Warriors at CCS, winning the championship at 217 pounds.

    Dat Dinh was third at 105 pounds with P. Dinh third at 132. Gorman added a fourth at 154 pounds and Tony Oka was fourth at 173.

    Saratoga's Keith Follmar joined the list of local placers with a sixth-place finish at 173 pounds for the Falcons.

    Westmont's Adam Antolin (121), Billy Stouffer (147) and Juan Jimenez (114), Saratoga's Yuichi Kurosawa (121), David Cheng (142), Jarod Usher (137) and Monte Kawahara (114), Lynbrook's Robert Lee (127), Oren Mayer (154) and Leo Polovets (191) and Prospect's David Lam (105) were other local wrestlers to qualify for CCS. Woodland wins

    But it was Woodland who stole the show with his championship performance at 217 pounds.

    Woodland opened the tourney with a fall, pinning David Diaz of Santa Clara with 47 seconds remaining in the second round.

    The Westmont standout went on to beat Matt Engwall of San Benito 10-4 and Robert Berry of North Monterey County 6-2 before pinning Peter Borba of Watsonville with just 13 seconds left to wrestle in the semifinal match.

    Woodland clinched the title with an impressive 6-1 victory over Steve Hoppe of Oak Grove in the finals.

    Woodland had won the 217-pound title at the league tournament a week earlier. P. Dinh was a champ at 132 pounds, and Gorman won the crown at 154. Oka was second at 173 pounds, and D. Dinh was second at 105.

    P. Dinh wrestled his way into the semifinals with three straight wins on the first day of the tournament. Dinh posted three straight technical falls, beating Eric Alvarez of Gonzales, Derek Supnet of St. Francis and Israel Trujillo of North Monterey.

    But Dinh lost a tough 5-1 decision to Anthony Baza of Fremont to slip into the consolation bracket. He handled Larry Hernandez of Palma 6-3, then clinched third with a 6-4 win in a second match with Trujillo.

    At 105, another Dinh also finished third in the tourney. Dat Dinh beat Thien Ho by technical fall and Arturo Galano of Fremont 10-6 before losing 7-5 to Josh Lam of Wilcox.

    Dinh battled back with a 4-1 victory over Robin Tabana of Santa Teresa, won by injury default from Jamil Miller of San Benito, then got a little revenge with a 6-4 victory over Lam in the third-place match.

    In the same weight class, Prospect's David Lam opened with a 15-1 victory over Jeff Covarrubias of King City, but then he lost by fall to eventual tourney champ Joe Streu and was pinned by Gabe Gammon of Half Moon Bay.

    Gorman and Oka each nailed fourth-place finishes for the Warriors.

    Gorman opened with three Friday wins, beating Sonny Mohammadza of Los Altos by pin 58 seconds into the second round, pinning Juan Branche of Monterey with 55 seconds left in the second, and edging Oscar Muniz of James Lick 10-8.

    But Gorman lost 15-3 to top-seeded Eddie Lucatero. He fought back to beat John Villapondo of Palma 4-0, but lost 8-4 to Oscar Muniz in the battle for third.

    It was a similar showing for Oka at 173 pounds. After claiming a forfeit win in the first round, he pinned Jason Martinez of Oak Grove with 11 seconds in the first round, then beat up Eddie Holguin of James Lick 13-2.

    But Oka lost 13-2 to David Galant of Del Mar. He fought back to beat Saratoga's Follmar 6-3, but he lost the third-place match to J.C. Serrano of Palma 10-2.

    Follmar sixth

    Follmar came through with a solid showing in the weight division to clinch sixth place.

    He started with a couple of falls, pinning Marc Alquiza of Independence with 38 seconds remaining in the third round and pinning A.J. Isaac of Gunn with 50 seconds left in the second round.

    But Follmar was pinned by Robert Thomas of Palo Alto in his next match to fall into the consolation bracket.

    Follmar beat Heath Ferreira of Valley Christian 4-2, but then lost to Oka. He ended up losing 6-4 to Alquiza in the battle for fifth place.

    Follmar had finished second in the league tournament at 173 pounds with teammate Kurosawa third at 121.

    Kurosawa won three matches in his weight class at CCS, but came up short of the places.

    Kurosawa opened with a fall, pinning with 29 seconds remaining in the second round against Tony Thomson of Leigh. But he lost 18-9 to Matt Sanchez of Bellarmine a match later.

    Over in the consolation side, Kurosawa beat Danh Nguyen of Pioneer 7-3 and Anthony Sandoval of Gunderson 7-4 before losing 3-1 to Gabe Fierro-Fine of Soquel.

    In the same weight division, Westmont's Antolin was stuck with a tough first-round foe, ultimate champ Jarrod Rothman of Monta Vista. He was pinned by Rothman, then lost 7-3 to Sandoval.

    Westmont's Jimenez and Stouffer each won a couple of matches at CCS.

    Jimenez beat Kai Garcia of Fremont 6-2 in his first match at 114 pounds, then pinned Teddy Hanson with 26 seconds left in the second round. But he lost by technical fall to eventual champ Jacob Palomino of Independence a match later.

    Over on the consolation side, Jimenez beat Evan Cooper of Live Oak 15-5, but then lost 4-3 to Jason Veile of Monterey.

    Stouffer lost his opener at 147 pounds to Matt Stafani of Palma by pin, but he came back to beat Joey Rivera of Silver Creek 9-6 before losing on a technical fall to Gilbert Sanchez of Fremont.

    Saratoga's Usher lost two straight matches at 137 pounds, falling 7-1 to Nick Lipscomb of Half Moon Bay and Paul Montanez of Monta Vista 4-2, and Cheng dropped two in a row at 142, losing 7-0 to Albert Trujillo of King City and by injury default to Leonard Vigil of Silver Creek.

    Vikings qualify

    Lynbrook's Robert Lee won a CCS berth by placing second at the league meet. Lee made it to the finals before losing in the league title match at 127 pounds to Cesar Valle of Los Altos.

    Lee started out strong at CCS, beating Kevin Jepsen of Capuchino 9-3 and Terry Uyeda of St. Ignatius 6-4 before losing 12-0 to Benito Mendoza of Watsonville.

    Lee came back with a 12-5 victory over Gabrial Andrade, but then lost by fall to Joel Harris of Palma to fall out of the tourney.

    Oren Mayer and Leo Polovets also won CCS spots with strong efforts at the league meet.

    Mayer was second in the SCVAL at 154 pounds, losing only to Conley.

    He lost his CCS opener to John Villapondo of Palma, but battled back with wins over Ryan San Juan of St. Ignatius (14-3), Abel Munoz of Alvarez (7-6) and Neil Gregor of Gilroy (10-1) before losing a 1-0 heartbreaker to Adrian Carbajal of Mt. Pleasant.

    Polovets lost two straight matches at CCS, falling to Louis Trebaol of Bellarmine and Anthony Petri of North Monterey.



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