Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Monterroso, Gutierrez dominate at finals

By Kevin Sparrer

Bacilio Monterroso has added another achievement to his already impressive list this year.

Monterroso, a senior wrestler at Lincoln High School, boasts an impressive 30-3 record this year, and thanks to his performance on Feb. 15-16 at Overfelt High School, he's the new Blossom Valley Athletic League champion at 114 pounds.

Monterroso dominated his way through his weight class, allowing opponents only two points in the three matches he won.

Monterroso won his final round match over Anthony Lineras of Oak Grove 7-1 after defeating Jordan Yamat 16-1 in the semifinal round and Chris Barcelona of Pioneer 15-0 in the second round of the tournament. Monterroso received a bye in the first round.

"I was second in BVAL last year," said Monterroso. "It was tough, but I trained hard."

Due to Monterroso's success, he will lead an impressive contingent of BVAL placers into the Central Coast Section tournament that will be held at Independence on Feb. 22 and Overfelt on Feb. 23. The gold medal round will begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

"I dropped football to focus on wrestling," said Monterroso. "I needed to run a lot more and build up my stamina."

Jose Gutierrez starred for Willow Glen at the BVAL wrestling finals, dominating the 217-pound weight class with three straight pins to earn himself the championship.

Gutierrez's last pin was over Juneil Morales of Oak Grove in only 1:56. In the semifinal round, he pinned Rodney Mendoza of Overfelt in 1:32, and in the quarterfinals he put Matthias Ienmann's shoulders down in 3:12 after receiving a bye in the first round.

"At first it didn't really feel like anything," said Guttierrez. "It wasn't until I talked to my coaches about my accomplishments that I started to realize I won. I couldn't have done it without my coaches and I will train hard for the CCS finals."

Gutierrez tops of list of six Rams who qualified for CCS by finishing among the placers at the BVAL tournament.

Bobby Lopez finished fourth at 142 pounds after losing his final match to David Silver of Prospect. In the consolation semifinal round, Lopez won by major decision 11-3 over Curtis Elwin of Evergreen Valley and by a major decision over Marcus Bojorquez of Westmont 13-1 in the consolation third round. Lopez also downed Joseph Cardova of Oak Grove by major decision 16-4 after falling to Silver by a 7-6 decision in the quarterfinals. In his first match, Lopez pinned Cortland Johnson of Lincoln in 5:00.

Willow Glen's Hugo Hernandez will also proceed to the CCS finals after finishing fifth at 147 pounds. Hernandez pinned Leigh's E.J. Carboni in 3:41 in the fifth-place match after falling to Henry Millan of Silver Creek in 2:22. In the third consolation round, Hernandez pinned Ben Meduri of Westmont in 1:21 and received a bye in the second consolation round. Hernandez fell by major decision 14-2 to Carboni in the quarterfinals after receiving a bye in the first round.

Pavel Rice finished seventh at 114s, winning by decision in his last match over Barcelona of Pioneer 15-11 after being pinned by Johnny Ochoa of San Jose in 1:14 in the third consolation round. In the second consolation round, Rice pinned Jerdani Kraga of Westmont in 2:09 after receiving a bye in the first consolation round. Rice lost to Barcelona by pin in his first round match.

Luis Vargas at 127s and Dominic Raffin at 132s each placed eighth for the Rams.

Matt Potter competed for Willow Glen at 121 pounds, Brandon Masoni at 105s and Jonathan Meza at 162s.

Andrew Hartman placed fifth for the Lions at 137 pounds and will join Monterroso at CCS. Hartman won his final match by an 8-4 decision over Julian Ramirez of Independence.

Hartman lost his quarterfinal match by pin to Luis Carrasco of Del Mar in 2:37. Prior to that, he fell by an 8-5 decision to Victor Saldana of Overfelt in the consolation semi's. Hartman defeated Brian Santana of Prospect 7-4 in the third consolation round and Matthew Koral of Evergreen Valley 6-0 before that. Hartman received a bye in the first round of the tournament.

Along with Hartman and Monterroso, Jordan Rasmussen also placed fifth at 173s in the BVAL tournament for Lincoln. Rasmussen won over Jesus Gonzalez of Leigh in the fifth-place match after falling to Scott Campbell of Prospect in the consolation semifinals by a 6-5 decision. Before that, Rasmussen lost by major decision to Victor Gilllespie of Sobrato 12-4 in the semifinal round. In the quarterfinals, Rasmussen defeated Tony Le of Evergreen Valley 7-3 and pinned Aaron Schreiber of Westmont in 1:45 in the first round of the tournament.

Rasmussen will also be continuing on to the CCS tournament with his teammates.

Lawrence Meeks at 287s and Vince Veliz at 217s each placed eighth for the Lions.

Sam Razo wrestled at 154s, Cortland Johnson at 142s and Zach Barry at 132s for Lincoln.

Brian Nichol led Pioneer with a sixth-place finish at 132s after falling in the fifth-place match. Nichol also fell by major decision 18-6 in the consolation semifinals after defeating Joseph Sasamoto of Independence 11-6 and Manual Pablo by pin in 1:59. Nichol lost his quarterfinal match to Abe Matsui of Westmont by pin in 45 seconds after pinning Kenny Lee of Live Oak in 52 seconds.

Nichol will be heading to the CCS finals along with Ray Brownie at 105s. Brownie finished seventh for the Mustangs by defeating Kayla Matsuda of James Lick by pin in 1:42. Brownie fell in the third consolation round to Johnnie Nguyen of Andrew Hill by pin in 3:47 after pinning Masoni of Willow Glen in 44 seconds. Brownie fell in only 17 seconds to Jordan Benigno of Evergreen Valley after pinning Clayton Howard of Live Oak in 3:47.

Chris Barcelona finished eighth at 114s for Pioneer. Sergey Semenov wrestled at 121s, Michael Nordby at 127s and Nolan Morton at 162s for the Mustangs.

Leland's Mitch Truan at 191s will be the only Charger continuing to the CCS finals after placing fifth in the BVAL finals. Truan won his final match by a major decision 12-1 over Rafael Anaya of Sobrato after falling to Marcel Ventura of Oak Grove in the consolation semifinals. Truan pinned Ivo Miskic of Westmont in 4:34 after defeating Mark Matische of Branham by a 14-0 major decision. Truan fell to Chris Sierra of Prospect in the quarterfinals after receiving a bye in the first round.

Also wrestling for the Chargers were Jovan Munoz at 105s, Roberto Garcia at 127s, Sean Dickson at 132s, Bruce Reynolds at 142s and Andrew Garg at 287s.

Branham also has a member of its team continuing to the CCS finals. Ali Moradi finished fifth at 154 pounds after winning by a rule over Ly Thacck of Oak Grove. Moradi lost his two prior matches by 6-4 decision to Frank Mello of Santa Teresa and major decision 14-2 to Daniel Linares of Del Mar. In the quarterfinals, Moradi pinned Roman Clark of Westmont in only 20 seconds and received a bye in the first round.

Also wrestling for the Bruins were Parker Malmquist at 121s, Raul Paredes at 127s, John Crooks at 132s, Danny Stoch at 162s, Christian Pansoy at 173s and Mark Matische at 191s.

Leigh will send four wrestlers in the CCS finals. Chief among them will by Sebastien Chene, who finished fifth for the Longhorns at 162 pounds. Chene won his last match by a rule over Aiden Mikha after falling by major decision to Ismael Sanchez of Silver Creek 13-4. Chene also lost to Zac Cook of Prospect by 10-3 after delivering a technical fall to Travis Driskell of Mt. Pleasant in the quarterfinals and a 48-second pin of Meza of Willow Glen in the first round.

Leigh's Jesus Gonzalez finished sixth at 173s after falling to Rasmussen of Lincoln by a rule. Gonzalez also lost to Jarvis Subia by a 3-1 decision in the consolation semifinals after pinning Le of Evergreen Valley in the third consolation round. Prior to that, Gonzalez won by major decision over Daniel Carpio of Silver Creek 14-4 and lost to Gillespie by major decision 11-3. Gonzalez won his first match of the day by major decision 15-5 over Roberto Gonzalez of Overfelt.

E.J. Carboni finished sixth at 147s after getting pinned in his final match by Hernandez. Carboni also lost the match prior to Daniel Crawford of Evergreen Valley 11-0. Carboni was also pinned by Jesus Torres of Overfelt in 0:57 after he won by major decision over Hernandez 14-2 and a bye in the first round.

Trevor Borello also finished sixth in 121s after falling by rule in his last match to Janik Santana of Prospect and by fall in the match before by Jeshua Aveno of Santa Teresa. Borello won his consolation round three match by decision 4-2 over Matt Dong of Piedmont Hills and his round two was a pin over Jeremy Morales of Gunderson in 2:31. Borello lost his quarterfinal match to Michael McChesney of Sobrato 6-1 after he pinned Peter Pablo in the first round in 3:30.

Also wrestling for Leigh were Ben Unruh at 114s, Robert Lembi at 132s, Martin Gonzalez at 142s and Adam Schur at 191s.

Photograph by Dave Stephenson

Willow Glen's Jose Gutierrez nailed three straight pins to win a title at 217 pounds at the BVAL wrestling finals held last weekend at Overfelt. Gutierrez will move on to the CCS tournament this weekend, also at Overfelt.

Photograph by Dave Stephenson

Lincoln's Bacilio Monterroso won three matches, giving up just two points along the way, to take the BVAL wrestling title at 114 pounds.