Acosta in mix at state
Nine local boys competing at Masters
Monache High School’s Felipa Acosta became the first girl to qualify for the CIF State meet and now is on the road to becoming the first to place at the state meet. The CIF State meet begins at 9 a.m. today at the Visalia Convention Center in Visalia.
Acosta took second at Masters after taking down Mission Oak’s Mariana Salazar in the true-second match. She begins her state run in the 162-pound weight class with a match against Cerritos’ Chimira Cooper, who finished seventh in the Southern Section. If Acosta can defeat Cooper, she’ll face Montgomery’s Larisa Vasquez who placed first out of the San Diego Section.
For full brackets, admission, parking information and more, head to the CIF State website for full details. Masters begins
Nine local athletes are set to compete at the CIF Central Section Masters tournament that begins at 9 a.m. today in Bakersfield at North High School. Of the three schools with wrestlers competing, Monache leads the way with six followed by Porterville win two and Strathmore sending one.
Masters concludes on Saturday with the final rounds and award ceremony. For more information about Masters check Thecaliforniawrestler.com or the Central Section’s webpage at cifcs.org.
Monache The Marauders are ranked seventh in the Central Section by The California Wrestler and boast a group of wrestlers that have the possibility of crowning at least two athletes as champions — in senior Beau Bradley and junior Mark Cardwell who both took first at last week’s Yosemite Divisionals and are ranked in the top four in the state at their weights.
Cardwell sits at No. 2 in the state and has a chance to once again face the state’s top wrestler in Selma’s Christian Rodriguez who took first at the Sierra-sequoia Divisional. But before the two face off, Cardwell and Rodriguez must get past three other wrestlers in the championship round. For Cardwell that road begins with a first-round match against Lemoore’s John Panduro who finished 10th at Yosemite Divisionals and did not wrestle Cardwell.
With the state’s No. 1 and No. 2 wrestlers both coming from the Central Section, the highly anticipated 172-pound final match is likely to give most fans a glimpse of what the CIF State title match could look like next week. The last time the two met, Rodriguez won in triple-overtime.
Ranked fourth in the state, Bradley hopes to defend his No. 1 Central Section ranking and seeding, beginning with a first-round match with Bullard’s Lance Brazet. Brazet finished 10th at the Yosemite Divisionals. A win for Bradley pits him against the winner of Kern Valley’s Conrad Miller and North’s Julias Mayall. At divisionals, Miller placed third for Sierra-sequoia and Mayall finished eighth in Yosemite.
Taking third at divisionals, senior Jared
Callison faces Madera’s Mauro Alejo who took ninth at Yosemite Divisionals in the first round. A win there, pits him against either Washington Union’s Jacob Licea, who finished fourth at the Sierra-sequoia Divisional, or Frontier’s Jose Landin. Callison defeated Landin in a 9-7 decision in the Yosemite quarterfinals.
Freshman Jose Flores finished ninth at divisionals and looks to upset Central’s Anthony Chavez who finished third at the Yosemite Divisional. The two did not wrestle at divisionals, but Chavez is ranked fourth in the section while Flores is eighth.
Both junior Jorge Garcia (197) and freshman Roman Ortega (162) placed 10th at divisionals and will need to upset the Yosemite Divisional’s first-place finishers, Clovis’ Jacob Good (197) and Buchanan’s Joel Romero (162) to remain in the championship bracket. Garcia is an honorable
mention in Central Section rankings, while Good is No. 2 and Romero is No.1.
Porterville Headed to Masters for Porterville is sophomore Tyler Avila (184) who placed fourth at Yosemite, along with seniors Andrew Caballero (140) and Joey Sandoval (162).
Ranked sixth in the section, Avila took fourth at divisionals and has Coalinga’s Francisco Hurtado in his first match of Masters. A win over the honorable mention ranked Hurtado could put Avila back against Stockdale’s Nick Maiden who Avila pinned in 35 seconds at divisionals last week.
Caballero begins his Masters experience with a first-round match against Bakersfield’s Valentin Marin who placed third at Yosemite. Caballero, who took ninth at divisionals, did not face the section’s fourth-ranked Marin,
but is an honorable mention in Section rankings.
Sandoval (162) finished seventh at divisionals and takes on Firebaugh’s Arturo Rivas who finished third at the Sierra-sequoia Divisionals. Like Caballero, Sandoval is an honorable mention while Rivas is seventh in the section.
Strathmore The only local wrestler advancing from last week’s Sierra-sequoia Divisionals was Strathmore star, Seth Garcia. After injury defaulting his final match, Garcia placed fourth at divisionals.
Ranked as an honorable mention in the Section, Garcia faces Clovis’ Austin Frantzich, who finished seventh at the Yosemite Divisionals, in his first match. Taking down Frantzich could put Garcia against Mclane’s Elijah Neal who finished third at the Yosemite Divisionals and is ranked fourth in the Section.