Saratoga News
Sports
Saratoga's Nguyen wins league mat title
By Mike Barnhart
Two days after reclaiming the De Anza Division dual match title from Fremont, Los Gatos wrestlers dominated the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League championship meet at Santa Clara High School on Saturday night.
Five Wildcats, including repeat winner Geoff Doss, earned personal crowns and two others reached the finals as Los Gatos claimed its eighth SCVAL team title in nine seasons. With all 14 of its competitors qualifying for the upcoming Central Coast Section championships, Los Gatos scored 239 points and finished well ahead of runner-up Gunn (160.5). The top seven SCVAL finishers in each weight class advanced to the section meet.
"Los Gatos put together a really good team," praised Fremont co-head coach Bobby Soto, noting that one half of the Wildcats did not compete in the 2006 league finals. "What a great job those coaches have done, bringing along their younger guys."
Cupertino, boasting three league champions and four finalists, scored 127 points and shared third place with Palo Alto. Led by Boris Novachkov, who was named Outstanding Wrestler of the lower weights after holding off Naveed Bagheri of Los Gatos, 5-4, in the 125-pound final, Fremont finished fifth with 126.
Saratoga, paced by 103-pound champ Nathan Nguyen, placed eighth with 82 points, six more than ninth-place Monta Vista. Wilcox took 10th, followed by Santa Clara, The King's Academy (36.5), Homestead (36) and Lynbrook.
Joining Novachkov as Outstanding Wrestler award winners were Cupertino's Aris Harutyunyan (145) and Palo Alto's John Hall (189). The three seniors, along with junior Doss (140), will take No. 1 section rankings into the CCS meet, Feb. 23-24 at Independence and Overfelt in San Jose.
Nguyen won an individual title with an impressive 4-1 win over Los Gatos junior Matt Anzalone in the 103 final. The talented sophomore captured a crown in his first SCVAL finals, is one of six Saratoga wrestlers who qualified for the CCS tournament.
Senior Doug Macklin and sophomore Jasper Loren both placed third, while sophomore Richard Macklin was fourth at 119, junior Samir Mathur fifth at 152 and senior Danny Gold seventh at 145.
D. Macklin lost to Hawkes in the 135-pound semifinal, before beating Monta Vista senior Nate Fung in the third-place match. Loren dropped a 140 semifinal to Cupertino's Kirby Haraguchi, but bounced back to claim the third-place match by knocking off Monta Vista junior Daniel Lu.
A trio of Lynbrook standouts qualified to the CCS meet. Juniors Vincent Huang (119) and James Kim (135) placed fifth and senior Nick Walters (160) finished seventh. Viking senior Darrin Weng placed eighth at 125, but did not qualify.
Saratoga had wrapped up the dual match season earlier in the week with a lopsided 41-28 victory over Homestead. The win left the Falcons 5-1 in the El Camino Division and second to Milpitas.
The Falcons won four of the seven matches on the day with D. Macklin and Jian Lee each winning by fall.
Macklin pinned at 1:04 of the first round at 137 pounds for Saratoga, and Lee, a freshman, pinned in 1:24 of the first at 132.
R. Macklin pulled out a tight 4-3 decision win at 121 and junior Ryan Stoffers won a 16-0 major decision at 142.
Nguyen at 105, Gold at 162 and Alan Yen at 173 each picked up forfeit wins for the Falcons.
Loren lost a 9-4 nod at 147 and Trevor Teerlink lost 12-0 at 127. Mathur lost by fall at 154.
BVAL wrestling finals
Cameron Gustafson and the rest of the Westmont Warriors traveled to Oak Grove on Feb. 10 for the Blossom Valley Athletic League wrestling finals, and he took home the individual crown at 142 pounds.
Gustafson began his trek to the top early in the morning and finished defeating by Eric Tilbury of Del Mar in a 13-2 major decision in the final match of the day in the weight class.
Gustafson improved his season record to 35-6 and hopes to continue his winning ways at the Central Coast Section finals coming up Feb. 23-24 at Independence and Overfelt in San Jose.
Westmont's Abe Matsui finished third at 132 pounds after defeating Jose Pinal of Overfelt in the consolation bracket with a pin after 3:50. Matsui takes a 32-7 record on to CCS.
Roberto Lopez also finished third for Westmont with a win in the 121-pound consolation bracket over Felipe Zamudio from James Lick. Lopez pinned Zamudio in 2:23 for the second time in the day. Lopez is 12-2 as he continues on to CCS.
Josh Millante tied for fourth place at 162 pounds due to the inability to wrestle a sixth match in the day. Millante is 18-9 as he heads to CCS.
Chris Sutton also placed for the Warriors, finishing fifth at 137, and he will continue on to CCS.
For Prospect, Zac Cook finished third at 173s after defeating Marcel Ventura from Oak Grove with a 9-8 decision. With a third-place finish, Cook earned himself a right to compete at the CCS finals. He is 19-10 this season.
Jacob Garcia and Zac Elliot both finished in sixth place with Garcia at 147s and Elliot at 154s. Brian Santana finished eighth at 191s. Garcia, Elliot and Santana will each have the option to continue to the CCS finals with Cook.
Kevin Sparrer contributed to this story.
