Wildcats headline bumper crop of state wrestling qualifiers
SAN MARCOS — Imperial Valley Wrestlers put in a strong showing at this year’s CIF-SDS Masters wrestling tournament, held Friday and Saturday at San Marcos High School.
The tournament selects the top wrestlers of each of the four SDS divisions and pits them against one another to find out who’s the best of the best, within the region, regardless of program size.
The top four finishers at each weight class then get to go on to compete at the CIF State wrestling finals Thursday through Saturday at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
For the second straight year, Brawley took third place as a team at the Masters tourney behind upper-division behemoths Poway and Rancho Bernardo. Seven local wrestlers finished in state qualifying position — a slight uptick from the past three years, which saw the Valley send out five (2017 and 2018) or six (2016).
Of the seven local state qualifiers, four were Wildcats.
Brawley’s Jayden Smith had the best individual showing of any Valley grappler, taking second overall at 162 pounds — an impressive feat for someone who’s only a few weeks back from rehabbing a broken foot.
Joining him in Bakersfield will be Daniel Moreno (fourthplace at 108 pounds), Anthony Maldonado (fourth at 115) and JJ Guiterrez (fourth at 140).
The rest of the Valley’s contingent will be made up of three Tigers — Paul Ortiz, Naythan Galbiso and Nathan Hart — who all placed third (at 162, 108 and 147 pounds, respectively), and one Viking: Michael Toten, who grabbed bronze in the heavyweight division.
Also placing — though not advancing to State — were Ethan Strahm of Holtville (fifth at 134), Joseph Castillo of Central (fifth at 154), Brawley’s Alan Carrillo (sixth at 154) and Calipatria’s Jamison Ange (fifth at 197).