WRESTLING: Wildcats teams-up clean up with Girls first, Boys in third in CIF SDS Master’s Meet
SAN MARCOS – The Southeastern Conference’s Brawley High Wildcats girls wrestling team claimed the team championship and the Wildcat boys team took third place at the CIF San Diego Section Master’s Meet at San Marcos High School here last weekend.
In addition to the team title and other strong finishes, the Southeastern Conference also represented well with numerous CIF-State Meet qualifying individuals for this weekend and Master’s medalists.
The Brawley Girls Wrestling Team won the CIF San Diego Girls Wrestling Championships with a score of
120.0 points, easily outdistancing second place Mira Mesa High (66.0 pts) and third place Steel Canyon (54.0 pts).
“We have won the team title before but last year we had a couple of injuries and Mira Mesa won it,” Brawley High girls Coach Ray Leon said. “This year the team decided to go and wrestle hard and they did ... for all of them, the goal was that every one wrestling in the medal round was facing Brawley.”
Brawley was able to win the team title despite having a wrestler who finished as a Master’s second place finisher transfer mid-season to another school, also doing it without reigning CIF State Champion Savanah Gomez.
“Savanah decided after her previously injured knee swelled up after winning the CIF Division III Meet championship that she was going to try to defend Master’s and State titles,” Leon said of his nationally-ranked senior, “but it’s been determined that she has a torn meniscus. ...she finished the season undefeated, she didn’t lose to anyone she wrestled, even when she was hurt.”
Brawley will still field a number of wrestlers at the State Meet this weekend, led by seniors Jaylee Cazares (103-pounds) and Delarie Juarez (133).
“Jaylee has been there before and last year she lost in the early rounds to the State champion,” Leon said. “Then she meet a state-placer ... so she’s looking a better draw and use her experience.”
Other Wildcats’ heading to Bakersfield include second place finishers junior Sevyn Diaz (237), freshman Lauren Zaragoza (123), and third place finishers senior Mary Santana (113) and sophomore Jennifer Favela (108).
The Brawley boys finished third with 277.0 points, mere points behind second place Granite Hills High (286), as neither team mounted a challenge to perennial Masters Meet champion Poway High (401.5 pts).
In addition to the strong team finish, the Wildcats had the only Master’s Meet individual weight-class champion in Robert Platt (197), who will be returning to the CIF-State Meet this weekend.
“Last year I finished second at Masters’ and then I didn’t place at State but through God that will change this year,” Platt said. “This year I know what I’m up against and I’m the same weight as last year but I filled out and I’m stronger.”
Platt sounds like a man-on-a-mission for two very good reasons.
“Nobody from Brawley has ever made it to a State final and I want to,” said Platt, a junior who lost a chance to wrestle at the CIF-State Meet as a freshman due to Covid-19 restrictions. “Also, my cousin Vincent Elizalde – he’s like an older brother to me – and he was the number one in seed in 2014 and he placed third. He has taught me a lot and I want to beat that.”
Platt will lead a plethora of Brawley boys to the State Meet in Bakersfield, including fourth place finishers and qualifiers Evan Velez (122), Karim Allal (128), Mathew Guiterrez (172), and David Martinez (222).
Brawley also had fifth place finisher Justin Martinez (108) qualify as an alternate and medal, while sixth place finishers Caleb Ramirez (140) and Philip Castro (184) also medaled.
Other team scores from the boys Masters include the Holtville
High Vikings who finished in 14th place with 81.0 points, followed closely by the Central High Spartans (76.0 pts.) in 16th place, Imperial High Tigers (54.0 pts.) in 22nd, Southwest High Eagles (27.0 pts.) finishing in 39th, and the Calexico High Bulldogs (11.0 pts.) placing in 54th place.
In addition to Brawley’s top girls team finish, the Central girls finished (28 pts.) in 10th place, Holtville (19 pts.) in 20th place, Southwest (15 pts.) in 28th, Imperial (3 pts.) in 37th, and Calexico (1 pt.) in 42nd place.
With the debut this wrestling season of numerous new wrestling coaches, most Southeastern Conference schools have separate boys and girls coaches, with the exception being the Imperial Tigers.
“This was my first season as head coach after eleven as an assistant and it was trying at time with both the boys and girls, but it all came together in the end,” said Imperial Coach Jerry Barragan.
Imperial placed with fourth place finisher freshman Ricardo Ortiz (108) in the State Meet, fifth-placer Adam Avila (184) qualifying as an alternate, and Anglie Fernandez (145) and Isabel Cigarroa (101), who both entered the event as an alternate, finished fifth as State alternates and medalists.
The Holtville Vikings boys qualified third place finisher Seth Iten (162) to the State Meet, while teammates Dion Johnston (134) and Maddox Toten (154) medaled. Santiago Pacheco Jr. (128), of Central placed fifth, as did freshman Ricardo Ortiz (108) of Imperial.
Other CIF State Meet girls qualifiers included Holtville’s second place finisher Mia Navarro (108), while Central’s Lilliana Rodriguez (139) finished third, and Southwest’s Hayden DeLong (133) finished fourth.