|
Brent Walter is taking a weekend trip. But won't be skiing in Bear Valley, and he won't be visiting Mickey and Donald in Disneyland. Brent's heading to Bakersfield.
Bakersfield? Not exactly a vacation destination, but as far as Walter is concerned, it's the trip of a lifetime--because Bakersfield is the site of the CIF State Wrestling Championships.
Walter earned the trip to the state meet by finishing third at the Central Coast Section wrestling finals held Feb. 2526 at Overfelt High School in east San Jose.
With the third-place finish at 189 pounds, Walter earned a second-straight trip to the state meet, to be held March 45 at Centenniel Gardens in Bakersfield.
Walter won five of six bouts--three by fall--to nail third and qualify for state. He clinched third place with a solid 4-2 win over Mike Morales of St. Francis in the consolation finals on Saturday.
Walter opened the tourney by pinning Jonathan Sanchez of James Lick with one second left in the first round, then he dropped Jerry Ogg of Santa Clara by fall at 2:28 of the second round.
The Saratoga sensation pulled out a 3-1 win over Andres Barragan of Gilroy to advance to the semifinals, but he lost a 7-6 heartbreaker to Julian Carbahal of Mt. Pleasant. Carbahal went on to win the CCS title at 189 pounds.
Walter fought back with a pin at 2:01 of the second round over Demarco Villalona of Oak Grove to get into the third-place match, where he outpointed Morales.
Tim Usher at 125 pounds, Scott Surrette at 135, Kyle Stoffers at 171, Doug Macklin at 119 and Jeffery Nguyen at 103 also competed at CCS for the Falcons. Usher posted a 3-2 record before bowing out of the tourney and Surrette notched a 2-2 record.
Westmont ended up 18th in the team standings thanks to the efforts of Tony Christenbery at 119 pounds, Craig VanBuskirk at 171 and Tyler Porras at 215. The three Warriors each placed sixth in the tourney.
|
Photograph by Carien Veldpape