The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Pins help Firebirds to win over Falcons Jose Guardado got things started, Jamie Kashitani and Gilbert Sanchez just about clinched it, and Elton Vallejos added the exclamation point. And all of that added up to an impressive 48-20 wrestling win for Fremont over Saratoga in a dual match last week in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. The four pins helped the Firebirds to the league victory that evened their team record at 2-2 in the division. Guardado got things off to a quick start with a pin 53 seconds into the third round at 103 pounds. Fremont won three of the next five bouts, but the score was still close at 15-11 when Kashitani took to the mat at 140 pounds. The Fremont mat star pinned his Saratoga foe with 19 seconds remaining in the second round to give the Firebirds a 21-11 team lead. Sanchez virtually wrapped up the Fremont win when he pinned with a minute left to wrestle in the 145-pound match. Vallejos added the exclamation point to the victory with a quick 46-second pin at 189 pounds. His win gave the Firebirds a 36-20 team lead, but Fremont was already assured of the victory because of the two forfeit wins it would receive in the final two weight classes. Kai Garcia pulled out a 6-2 win at 112 pounds for the Firebirds and Dan Huro won 7-2 at 130. Anthony Baza nailed a tight 3-0 win at 135 and Daniel McCune was a 4-0 winner at 152. Davin Clark won by forfeit at 215 and Danny Mozzetti won by forfeit at heavyweight. Fremont backed up the dual match victory with a solid showing at the Overfelt Classic tournament over the weekend. Baza led the Fremont charge by winning an individual title at 130 pounds. He pulled out a 10-6 decision win over Westmont standout Phat Dinh in the finals. Kashitani made it to the finals before losing to wind up second at 140 pounds for the Firebirds. Guardado won his last match 13-4 to finish seventh at 119, and Sanchez beat David Serwitz of Los Gatos in his final bout to clinch seventh at 145. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.