The Riverside Press-Enterprise
A GUTSY EFFORT
Manzo's peformance gives Canyon Springs win over Paloma Valley and Ivy League title
MORENO VALLEY >> Dual meets are unique because the biggest hero of a match can be a wrestler who does not win their individual bout.
Xavier Manzo played that role Tuesday night as Canyon Springs squared off against Paloma Valley in a dual to determine the Ivy League champion.
Paloma Valley trailed by 21 points after eight matches, but the Wildcats made a stirring comeback and trimmed that deficit to six points entering the final bout of the evening. Manzo was on his back with 12 seconds remaining in the 106-pound match against Paloma Valley’s Uriel Cruz. But Manzo avoided being pinned during those final seconds, a result that helped Canyon Springs escape with a 36-33 victory and claim this season’s Ivy League crown.
Cruz prevailed with a 6-2 decision, but Manzo sent the home crowd into frenzy when he executed a reversal with seven seconds remaining on the clock.
“I knew I had to do it for my team and help our seniors win that league championship,” Manzo said. “I really wanted that for them, so I just found a way.”
If Cruz had secured a pin, the final score would have been knotted at 36 and tiebreakers would have been used to decide a victor. The first three tiebreakers deal with unsportsmanlike behavior by wrestlers and/or coaches, and neither team was docked points for unruly conduct.
The next seven tiebreakers would have failed to determine a winner, as well, with the teams deadlocked in each of those categories. In the end, Canyon Springs would have been victorious on the 11th tiebreaker, as the Cougars had 16 takedowns during the dual compared to Paloma Valley’s 13.
Manzo made it a moot point, however, and spared the coaches having to review the scoresheet and work out the complicated series of tiebreakers.
“That all really comes down to heart,” Canyon Springs coach Jason Lowe said of Manzo. “He wasn’t going to give up and let his teammates down.”
WRESTLING