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Galant wins state berth; Miller, Follmar also place at CCS meet
By Dick Sparrer
California, here I come!
That's the tune Del Mar's Jerry Galant is singing this week after qualifying for the California State Wrestling Tournament, set for March 1-2 at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Galant earned his state berth by finishing third at 215 pounds at the Central Coast Section tournament held last weekend at Independence High School in East San Jose.
Joining Galant on the medal stand were local wrestlers Troy Follmar of Saratoga and Tom Miller of Westmont. Follmar was fifth at 215 pounds and Miller was sixth at 189. Only the top three placers at CCS advance to state.
Galant won his first three matches at CCS before losing, then fought back for two more wins to clinch third in his weight division.
Galant won by technical fall in his first bout against John Diaz of North Salinas. The Del Mar senior handled Evan McDonald of Los Gatos 16-5 a match later, then pinned Zin Croon 37 seconds into the third round.
Galant lost a 3-2 heartbreaker to Adam Beltran of North Monterey County a match later. Beltran went on to win the CCS title in the weight class.
The Del Mar star came back with a 5-1 win over Brandon Hester of Silver Creek, then pinned third in the weight division when he won by fall against Miguel Zavala of Greenfield.
Saratoga's Follmar was fifth in the same weight class, and he did it by winning six of eight matches--five of them by fall.
Follmar pinned John Readler of Bellarmine in just 42 seconds in his first match, but he lost 8-6 to Greenfield's Zavala a match later.
The Saratoga senior headed over the consolation side and put together a string of four straight pins. He dropped Monta Vista's Brandon Reinhardt in 1:21, Hillsdale's Kevin Clark in just 31 seconds, Serra's Croon in 3:45 and Readler again in 1:33.
Follmar lost again to Zavala to slip into the fifth-place match against Hester, and the Falcon won 9-4 to clinch fifth.
Miller, meanwhile, had to fight back after a tournament-opening loss to win five straight matches to get back into contention for a medal.
Miller lost by technical fall to Pat Varela, the ultimate champ at 189 pounds, then started his climb to the medal stand.
The Westmont senior pinned Justin Mackiewicz of Scotts Valley in 1:38, then won by tech fall over Richard Waters of Milpitas. He pinned Gerardo Vital of San Jose in 2:42, beat Brad Yanez of Lincoln 12-7 and pinned Daniel Vargas of Greenfield in 2:16.
A loss to Chris Smith of Los Gatos knocked Miller out of contention for a state berth, then he lost his last match to Matt Mallon of Pioneer to wind up sixth overall.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
