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Baza pins fifth place at state wrestling finals
By Dick Sparrer
Anthony Baza of Fremont and Andrew Pease of Los Gatos have been wrestling rivals all season long at 147 pounds.
And nothing changed when the two senior wrestlers competed in the state tournament held last weekend at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Baza and Pease, two of the top wrestlers in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, each put themselves in position to place at the state meet. But only one of them brought home a medal--and the difference was Brad Martin of Elk Grove.
Pease lost to Martin 13-6 to fall out of the medal round. Martin went on to face Baza for the fifth-place hardware, and it was the Fremont star pulling out a 10-1 victory to clinch fifth.
Baza had a great first day for the Firebirds, winning three straight matches. But he lost his first two bouts on Saturday to drop into the fight for fifth. He came back with an impressive win over Martin, though, to secure a medal.
Baza opened the tournament with a 10-2 win over Emilian Lopez of Norwalk and backed that up with a hard-fought 11-8 win over Ryan Guffey of Valhalla. Baza beat Josh O'Hara of Redlands 6-4 to finish the first day of the tourney unbeaten.
But things didn't go as well on Saturday. He lost 13-6 to Miguel Gutierrez of Foothill in Bakersfield, then lost a 5-4 heartbreaker to Dustin Tillman of American.
Baza was one of three Fremont wrestlers to qualify for the state tournament. Chris Osian qualified at 114 pounds and Kai Garcia won a state berth at 127 for the Firebirds.
Garcia beat Mike O'Hara of Redlands 6-3 in his first match, but lost 10-2 to Ricky Gonzalez of Turlock and 9-1 to Ricky Turk of Rim of the World to face elimination.
Osian lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to Todd Gordon of Turlock in his first match, but he fought back with a thrilling 2-1 win over Ben Frietzke of Canyon Springs. He was eliminated, though, after another 2-1 loss, this time to Jamil Miller of Hollister.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
