Fremont seniors Filip Novachkov and Greg Crane, along with junior Boris Novachkov, all left Radobank Arena Saturday night as state champions. They joined Cupertino's Matt Olejnik (1981) and Aki Yoshikawa (1991) as the only SCVAL wrestlers to return home with state crowns.

After narrowly escaping his semifinal match, B. Novachkov became the first individual winner of the meet, beating Thomas Williams of South Hills, 8-1. Two bouts later F. Novachkov defeated Caleb Flores of Northview, 5-4, for the 119 title. The Novachkovs, only the second set of brothers in state meet history to win first-place medals in the same year, later were joined by Crane, who rallied in the final round to outlast Victor Carazo of Modesto's Grace Davis High, 9-8, for the 160 title.

The points scored throughout the two-day, double-elimination event by the three individual champions lifted Fremont to third place out of more than 100 schools. Buchanan of Clovis won the team title with 134 points, followed by Poway at 126.5. Fremont's 93 was two more than fourth-place Gilroy, the Central Coast Section winner a week earlier.

"We're still soaking it in, and it feels great," said Fremont co-coach Bobby Soto from a Bakersfield hotel room the next morning. "When you're wrestling against the best of the best, any match can turn quickly."

F. Novachkov and Crane needed late maneuvers in their title bouts to make their third trip to state a charm.

Novachkov picked up a quick point in the third on an escape to take a 3-2 lead. Flores took the lead with a takedown at 1:20, but Novachkov reversed him at 1:03 to take the lead back, 5-4. A dangerous hold warning was issued on Flores with 29 seconds remaining, putting Flores in the down position. He tried for an escape but couldn't get away. Another hold call was issued at 13 seconds, putting Flores back in the down spot. He almost escaped, but Novachkov held him off and then earned the win, 5-4.

Trailing 7-5 in the third round, Crane tied the match on a reversal with 50 seconds left. He got two points on a near fall with 21 seconds left to take a 9-7 lead, then held on.

Fremont started the championship round in fourth place with 81 points, only four ahead of Northview and 10 behind third-place Gilroy. Buchanan (129) and Poway (121.5) held the top two spots, but like Gilroy only had one wrestler in the finals. Meanwhile, Fremont had three finalists and Northview two.

F. Novachkov, who placed second at 112 pounds a year ago, entered the tourney ranked No. 2 in the state. After four straight wins, only top-ranked Caleb Flores of Northview stood between Novachkov and a state crown.

Crane had little trouble in his semifinal bout against Dan Bardsley of Clovis West. He scored an 11-3 decision to advance to the championship round against senior Victor Carazo of Grace Davis-Modesto.

Top-ranked B. Novachkov opposed Thomas Williams of the Southern Section's South Hills for the 103 crown.

To reach the 103 finale, B. Novachkov defeated Central Section champion David Chaidez of Foothill, who was injured during the bout and could not finish.

None of the three Firebirds had difficulty getting through Friday's preliminary rounds to Saturday's semifinal round.

B. Novachkov had to work longer on the first day than his older brother and Crane did. While the seniors' brackets required them to win just three matches to reach the semifinals, the 103-pounder needed to win four in a row on Friday.

He began the day by pinning senior Marvin Mora of Hogan of Vallejo with just 14 seconds left in the first period. He followed that up with an 8-1 decision over junior Shaun Hastie of Ventura and a second-round pin of San Leandro sophomore Mark Acosta. Finally, in the quarterfinals, he toppled Covina senior Nick Outumuro, 7-0.

In the 119 bracket, F. Novachkov only needed to win three bouts to reach the semifinals. He began his day by scoring a second-round pin against senior Channing Grillo of Los Alamitos. Novachkov followed up with a pair of decisions, 7-0 over junior Elliott Dennis of La Costa Canyon and 12-3 over Palm Springs senior Nolan Ticman. In the semifinal round Novachkov won 5-0 over Folsom senior Todd Wilcox.

Meanwhile, Crane started strong Friday with second-round pins against senior Frye of Ventura and Dan Righi of Redwood-Visalia. In a quarterfinal match, Crane whipped Dana Dill of San Clemente, 12-5.

For Stephen Thalin of The King's Academy and Fremont's Tommy Staats and Kurtis Ogasawara, day one results were not what they envisioned after losing just one time the previous week at CCS. Tough first-bout losses quickly landed them in the consolation bracket, where competition is as torrid as the Bakersfield heat in summertime.

Each of the three needed to win four in a row to reach day two and maintain medal hopes. None survived, although Thalin nearly escaped the gauntlet.

After losing 10-6 to sophomore Steven Vasquez of Central Catholic-Modesto, Thalin won three straight bouts before being eliminated.

Fremont senior Ogasawara dropped a tough decision in his first 140 bout, then could not get through his first consolation bout. The result, a 0-2 record in his final high school meet, was not what Ogasawara had envisioned after claiming third place at the Central Coast Section championships the week before.

After Ogasawara narrowly losing 6-5 against the Southern Section's third-place medalist, Rosemead senior Ian Millan, he ran into another Southern Section foe in the consolation bracket. Eric Timson of Antelope Valley, the fifth-place finisher at the Southern meet, pinned Ogasawara at 1:49.

Staats fell, 5-2, in his first 189 match to Northern Section champion Hashem Merlohi of Redding's Enterprise High and finished with a 1-2 record.

Baza a Pac-10 champ

Former Fremont wrestler Anthony Baza, a two-time CCS champion in 2000 and 2001, became a Pacific-10 kingpin recently.

Baza, a senior at Cal State Bakersfield, was unbeaten in the 149-pound class during the Pacific-10 Championship Tournament Feb. 25-27 at Stanford University, becoming the first from his school to win a Pac-10 crown in six years.

Baza will take a 19-4 record to the NCAA Division I Championships, March 16-18 in Oklahoma City. Another former Firebird now competing for Bakersfield is sophomore Daniel Atondo, a CCS champion in 2002. Atondo, competing at 157 pounds, placed sixth in the Pac-10 event.