Los Gatos wrestlers show dominance in SCVAL finals
SANTA CLARA >> The Los Gatos High School boys wrestling team dominated the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Finals Feb. 11-12 at Santa Clara High School.
The Wildcats won the boys team title with 263 points, as they took first in six championship matches and qualified 11 wrestlers for today and Saturday's Central Coast Section Championships in Watsonville. The top five wrestlers in each weight class at the SCVAL Finals qualified for the CCS Championships.
“I'm really proud of them,” said Los Gatos coach Greg Varela about the team right after the finals. “This morning, we had a talk even before the tournament started and I said `Guys, it's about handling business.'”
The Wildcats certainly did that. Entering this week, the Los Gatos boys team was ranked second in the section to Gilroy by The California Wrestler website. Gilroy is in the Pacific Coast Athletic League.
Los Gatos' run of individual SCVAL championships started Feb. 12 in the 126-pound division. Peter Bowen, a junior, easily topped Osmar Hernandez of Cupertino, winning 16-0 by technical fall. Bowen led 14-0 at the end of the second period before achieving the technical fall at the 5 minute, 17 second mark of the match.
Then Timmy Murabito achieved a second-round pin of Cupertino's Christophe Espitia-alvarez after Murabito led 11-0 in the 132-pound championship match. Murabito was ranked second in the CCS for his division by The California Wrestler.
Ethan Parco produced Los Gatos' third straight
championship win. The sophomore transfer from De La Salle-concord held a 3-0 lead over Omar Arias of Fremont-sunnyvale before achieving a pin with a cradle move in the second round at the 3:16 mark of the 138-pound championship match. Parco was ranked No. 1 in the CCS and No. 7 in the state by The California Wrestler.
Anthony Pavlov-ramirez made it four championship titles in a row for the Wildcats. The junior fell behind 2-0 to Darragh Howard of Fremont before battling back to take a 3-2 lead right before the end of the first
period of the 145-pound championship match. Pavlov-ramirez eventually built the advantage to 6-2 before pinning Howard at the 3:49 mark of the match.
“At the beginning, I was looking for my shot, and he got a good, deep shot on me,” said Pavlov-ramirez, who was ranked No. 1 in the CCS and No. 8 in the state. “I had the full faith in my coach, and he just told me to get up. … I worked the move, tried to get up, got a stalling call, got out, and we blasted and we started taking over.”
In the 170-pound championship match, Los Gatos'
Daniil Gorshkov won 7-1 over Palo Alto's Max Felter. Gorshkov, a senior, broke a scoreless match in the second period with a takedown and built on that for a 4-0 advantage entering the third period. Gorshkov was ranked No. 1 in the section and No. 8 in the state.
Sasha Nyzhnyk achieved Los Gatos' final individual championship when he pinned Kane Ngov of Fremont at the 1:11 mark of the first period of the 195-pound title match. Nyzhnyk led 4-1 before achieving a fall.
In a battle between a pair of state-ranked wrestlers, Palo Alto's Cade
Creighton defeated Los Gatos' Sergiy Nyzhnyk 11-2 in the 182-pound championship match. Creighton was ranked No. 1 in the CCS and No. 8 in the state; Sergiy Nyzhnyk was ranked second in the section and No. 11 in the state.
Other second-place finishers for Los Gatos included Om Shastri (220-pound division) and Dillon Lucas in the 285-pound (heavyweight) division. Shastri was outpointed 7-2 by Calvin Conway of Mountain View. Lucas was pinned in the second round (at the 2:56 mark of the match) by Fremont's TJ Takafua, who was ranked No. 1 in the section and No. 3 in the state.
“Our heavyweight wrestled his hardest out there,” Varela said. “That's all we preach is give me your best effort, and I think he really did.”
Other Los Gatos boys wrestlers who qualified for the CCS Championships included Nathan Deleon (third in the 160-pound division) and Laurant Degery (fourth, 152).
“They were really business-like, they wrestled hard, they weren't showboating or anything like that, they just handled their business and came off the mat,” said Varela about his team. “They really supported each other.”
Girls basketball
Los Gatos High School achieved a huge 55-31 victory over host Palo Alto on Sunday and now will set its sights on the CCS playoffs.
The Wildcats outscored Palo Alto in every quarter, including a 21-6 advantage in the fourth. Los Gatos led 34-25 at the end of the third quarter. It was only the second loss of the season for Palo Alto.
Los Gatos finished the regular season with a 21-3 overall mark and 10-2 record in the SCVAL De Anza Division. Entering Monday, Palo Alto was a De Anza Division-leading 10-1 with one division game left to play. The result of that game, on Tuesday against host Los Altos, was unavailable at press time. If Palo Alto lost, Los Gatos earned a code Anza Division title.
The Wildcats, who ended the regular season with a four-game winning streak, opened last week with a 4337 victory over host Los Altos on Feb. 9. Los Gatos outscored the Eagles 12-6 in the fourth quarter to win.
Then Los Gatos defeated visiting Lynbrook 48-34 on Friday. The Wildcats outscored their opponent in every quarter, taking a 25-19 halftime lead and 36-25 advantage at the end of three quarters.
Boys basketball
Los Gatos High School won its regular-season finale 51-47 over Lynbrook on Friday, then had to wait and see if its 9-3 SCVAL El Camino Division record would hold up for an outright or shared league title.
The Wildcats (14-10, 9-3 El Camino Division) entered Monday with one more division win than second-place Fremont, which had one game remaining. The Firebirds hosted Gunn on Tuesday after this publication went to press.
Los Gatos led by only one point at halftime against visiting Lynbrook, but held off the Vikings in the second half.
In a 48-45 loss to Fremont on Feb. 8, Arya Emarlou and Nolan Koch both scored a team-high 12 points for the Wildcats. Victor Josifovski added a teamhigh seven rebounds for Los Gatos.