Saratoga News

Sports

Los Gatos dominates at league mat finals

By Mike Barnhart

In December of 2003, Fisher Middle School had a fantastic wrestling team. In fact, according to current Los Gatos High School standout Geoff Doss, who was on that squad, the eighth graders that year were so good that the Trojans were the second best team in the entire county.

Four years and two months later, Doss and several of his old Fisher teammates are still at it--albeit bigger, stronger, faster and smarter. And on Feb. 22-23 at Independence and Overfelt high schools in San Jose, they will find out if their new team--the Los Gatos Wildcats--is the best in five counties, a.k.a. the Central Coast Section.

Los Gatos certainly has been the best team in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League the past two seasons, waltzing through the De Anza Division dual meet season and then making a shambles of the SCVAL championship meet.

Last Saturday night at Saratoga High, 10 Los Gatos wrestlers were finalists and six took gold. With two third-place finishes, plus a fourth and a fifth, all 14 Wildcats moved on from the league meet to CCS.

Los Gatos captured its ninth SCVAL team crown in 10 seasons, totaling 291.5 points, well ahead of runner-up Fremont (183). Gunn was third with 148, followed by Wilcox (124) and Cupertino (114). Milpitas (109) was sixth, one-half point ahead of Saratoga and 5.5 ahead of Palo Alto. Lynbrook took ninth with 79.5, followed by Los Altos (73), The King's Academy (51), Monta Vista (49), Homestead (44), Santa Clara (36) and Harker Academy (11).

Doss, who recently signed a letter-of-intent with Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, was a machine in his three 152-pound bouts. He scored a first-round pin and twice won by technical fall (15-point margin), earning the Outstanding Wrestler award for the middle weights (130-160 pounds).

"This year has been fun, trying to live up to the hype," noted Doss, whose league title was the third of his career, all at different weights. "Our team has done a good job so far, especially winning the Sierra Nevada Classic and coming back with a great finish for second at the CIT (Morro Bay)."

Senior teammate Nick Kalpin received the Outstanding Wrestler honor for the upper weights (171-275) after pinning talented junior Travis Johnson of The King's Academy in just 54 seconds of the 215 finale.

Other champions from Los Gatos were seniors Calvin Hawkes (135), Robbie Nakata (140) and Sean Goodison (160) and junior Marcel Schwager (125), who ended a run of three Los Gatos defeats by beating Milpitas senior Ngo Hoang 13-6.

Hawkes, whose goal this year is to be a state medalist, according to coach Ken Perrotti, beat Cupertino junior Kirby Haraguchi 5-2 in the 135 final.

Nakata rolled at 140, scoring a pair of second-round pins before whipping Gunn's Clayton Post 10-1 in the finals.

Goodison was all business in his bouts, nailing two first-round pins, then stopping Gunn senior Nic Giaccia 8-6 in the finals. Goodison, ranked fourth in the CCS, had split two earlier bouts with No. 2 Giaccia, but he wasted little time scoring a quick 5-0 lead on a takedown and a three-point near fall. Goodison led 7-4 after two periods and held on for the win in one of the evening's most competitive matches.

Doss, Kalpin, Hawkes, Nakata, Goodison, 119-pounder Matt Anzalone (second place), 189-pounder Gurbaksh Sohal (third) and injured 171-pounder A.J. Luft all were part of the Fisher success and now are hoping to surprise CCS tournament favorite Gilroy.

"These guys wrestled together at Fisher, and we knew when we saw them as freshmen that they were a special group," said Perrotti. "We'll see how special in a couple of weeks."

Junior Jack Hogan (103), sophomore Andy Kreidle (112) and senior Victor Gonzalez (145) all lost decisions in championship bouts. Saratoga juniors beat Hogan and Gonzalez, and Santa Clara's Eric Serrano, the tourney's Outstanding Wresler for lower weights (103-125), outpointed Kreidle.

Other Los Gatos qualifiers were sophomore 130-poounder Omri Rahmil, who tied for third with Josh Topete of King's; sophomore Hubert Tsai, fourth at 171, who was filling in for two injured teammates; and junior Spencer Havens, fifth at 275.

Other league champions included Milpitas junior Lendl Yanagacio, who stopped Anzalone 13-5, senior Ryan Drebin of Palo Alto at 171 and junior Graham Paterson of Monta Vista at 275.

Saratoga's Nathan Nguyen, who placed third at CCS last year, successfully defended his league title by winning his first two matches by technical falls and edging Hogan 6-4 in the final. Teammate Jasper Loren, who placed third in league as a sophomore, but was sidelined by a knee injury at CCS, earned a return trip with a 10-5 triumph over Gonzalez.

"Both have been working hard and having good years," said Saratoga coach Kirk Abe, who also was the tournament director for the event. "We knew those two matches would be tough ones. Any time you go up against Los Gatos wrestlers, you have to be a little worried because they have such a strong program."

Loren reached the finals by pinning Cupertino's Scott Martin with two second left in the first round and edging Fremont's Kenny La 5-2.

"He has wrestled some tough competitors this season," Abe said, "and when he goes on the mat, I know he will compete. It really showed in this tournament."

Another Saratoga junior, Richard Macklin, was second at 130 pounds, losing a 9-1 major decision to Fremont senior La Quintin Cathey, a state meet qualifier last year.

Falcon sophomore Alan Yen was pinned in the second round of the 189 title bout by Los Altos senior Matt Sell. Yen, who missed the league meet last year due to injury, reached the final by knocking off Palo Alto senior Kevin Hall 7-3 in the semifinals. It avenged an earlier loss to Hall at Gilroy's Mid-Cal Tournament.

Another Saratoga qualifier was junior Raymond Boales, who sat out last season after competing as a freshman. Boales placed fifth by pinning Stephen Salazar of Gunn in the second round.

"Raymond has been a pleasant surprise," Abe said. "After missing a year and coming back and being a finalist at the Overfelt tourney and now going to CCS, that's great."

Senior Samir Mathur, who missed the tourney because of an injury, may earn a bid to CCS later this week in a hardship challenge match against Monta Vista senior Asavir Kalla, the league's current sixth-place qualifier. Another Falcon senior, heavyweight Trent Dozier, earned a seventh-place medal.

Seven Lynbrook wrestlers earned medals with top-eight finishes. Four seniors qualified for CCS--Vincent Huang, third at 119; James Kim, fourth at 140; senior Andre Shmakov, fifth at 189; and Justin Estradas, sixth at 275. Sophomores Arash Bastranfard (112) and Geren Pele (171) placed seventh and freshman Garrett Weng (103) was eighth.