Spartans boys basketball win big
The Strathmore High School boys basketball team put up 40 points in the second half of Tuesday’s 61-41 victory over Parlier in a non-league game at home.
Nick Salas led the Spartans with 16 points — 11 of them coming in the second half. James Anderson had 12 points off the bench and Josue Topete had 11. Miguel Samano finished with 10 points.
Tied at 19 at the half, Strathmore scored 22 points in the third quarter and 18 in the fourth quarter to hold Parlier off. Strathmore head coach Justin St. Clair said the team’s defensive pressure was “a lot better” in the second half.
GIRLS WRESTLING
Six Panthers place at Rocklin trny
Six out of 12 Porterville High School girls wrestlers placed at the No Guts! No Glory! Tournament held at Hardwood Palace in Rocklin on Dec. 28 and 29.
Both Madison Madina (3-1) and Sequoia Cook (2-1) placed second in their weight classes of 143 and 170 pounds, respectively. Lizeth Fuentes (2-2) placed fourth in the 160-pound class, Nariah Mcrae (0-3) finished fourth in the 235 class, Dorthy Steenburgen (1-2) came in fifth in the 189 class and Julisa Hernandez (1-3) took sixth in the 189 class.
BOYS WRESTLING
Marauders take fourth out of 78
The Monache High School boys wrestling team competed in the 75th Annual Tournament of Champions hosted by Valencia High School at Cerritos College on Dec. 29 and 30. With over 78 teams in attendance, Monache finished in fourth place overall. The overall team champion was Poway of San Diego.
Monache had 10 of a possible 14 scoring wrestlers attend the tournament — five of the 10 placed in the top eight overall.
At 160 pounds, Beau Bradley finished first.
Bradley had a dominating tourney from the start of day one with three wins by pin all in the first period and continued that success day two with two more pins to get into the finals. In the finals Bradley dominated his opponent, No. 10 ranked Glodfeder of Buckley and won by the score of 10-6.
At 170 pounds, Mark Cardwell also placed first. Cardwell’s bracket was competitive with multiple highly ranked individuals. On his way to winning the title he defeated the 10th- and 16th-ranked wrestlers in overpowering fashion.
At 126 pounds Jared Callison finished fifth. Callison had some great battles, but came up short and lost to the 12th- and 19th-ranked wrestlers in the state. However he was able to defeat, by pin, the 16thranked wrestler to finish 5th.
At 138 pounds Jose Flores finished sixth. Even though he was battling a slight injury and sickness, the freshman Flores was able to place in front of two wrestlers who are currently ranked in the top 20.
At 285 pounds Taven Avila finished eighth. Avila was at a disadvantage, size-wise, only weighing 220 pounds while most of his opponents were at or over 260 pounds. That didn’t deter him from posting three pins amongst the giants and he even defeated a wrestled ranked 40th in the state.
Others that were key to the team finishing in fourth place, were Landen Cabeje (106), Daniel Higginbotham (132), Alex Castro (138), Hunter Avila (145), Roman Ortega (152), Sal Garcia (182) and Jorge Garcia (220).
“I was very pleased with how our team wrestled this weekend and how all our wrestlers left everything on the mat,” MHS head coach Art Demerath said. “To finish in the top four while not having a full team yet, shows we went out there to score not only with a win, but also try to secure pins to gain more points per win.”