Mats set for Holtville tourney
HOLTVILLE — One of the Imperial Valley’s longest-running and premier sporting events is set to return to Holtville High here on Friday afternoon.
Beginning at 1 p.m. on Friday, Holtville High will play host to about 40 schools for the 55th annual Holtville Rotary Invitational Wrestling Tournament.
The annual event is one of the longest-running high school wrestling tournaments in the state and has consistently yielded champions that go on to do well the CIF and Masters tournaments.
The tournament will run a 32man double-elimination bracket and will continue its hard-luck bracket for those wrestlers that lost a pigtail match or went 0-2 on the first day of action.
Each wrestler is guaranteed at least three matches for the tournament with the possibility of more if time allows.
As per tradition, the tournament will also award trophies to the top wrestlers of each weight class at the end of the championship finals, which are scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Awards include medals for the first through sixthplace finishers in the championship bracket, team plaques for the first through fourth-place teams, the Benji Rivas Best Takedown award, Most Outstanding Lower & Upper and a Coaches Award as well.
Last season, the tourney saw six local wrestlers advance to the championship finals including four athletes from Brawley Union High and one each from Imperial and Southwest highs.
The team competition was won by Rancho Bernardo, who had nine athletes advance to the finals and tallied a team score of 314.5.