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Warriors win six of seven contested matches in league opener
Joe Naiman
Village News Reporter
Fallbrook High School’s wrestling team traveled to Del Norte High School for a Valley League dual meet Jan. 5, participated in the JV Rumble tournament Jan. 6 at Escondido High School, and had two wrestlers place at the Jan. 7 Mission Hills Invitational tournament.
“It was a good week,” said Fallbrook head coach Tom Brockson.
This year Fallbrook and Del Norte are in the Valley League along with Escondido, Mount Carmel, Westview, and Valley Center. The Jan. 5 meet was the league opener both for Fallbrook and Del Norte.
“It went pretty well,” Brockson said.
Del Norte actually won the dual meet, but Fallbrook won six of the seven contested varsity matches. In each match, a wrestler is given one point for an escape, two points for a takedown, a reversal, or a near fall lasting two to five seconds, and three points for a near fall of at least five seconds. A win by decision provides three team points, a major decision which means a margin of at least eight points is worth four points, a 15-point margin triggers a technical fall which gives five points, and a pin or forfeit win (usually due to default because the other school doesn’t field a grappler in that weight class rather than due to disqualification) adds six team points.
“We had a lot of forfeits,” Brockson said.
Four of the six Fallbrook victories over Del Norte were by pin: Nic Brockson in the 113-pound class, Benjamin Moreno in the 126-pound bout, Devin Huntington in the 138-pound match, and Sylvester Bautista in the 160-pound competition. Daniel Wilson defeated his 132-pound opponent by major decision.
From a standpoint of team points alone, the 120-pound decision victory of Xavier Pacheco over Cristoforo Martinez wasn’t as meaningful as Fallbrook’s other five victories. However, the Dec. 3 Carlsbad Invitational which began Fallbrook’s season included Martinez pinning Pacheco with 21 seconds remaining in regulation. Martinez took second among 120-pound matmen in that tournament while Pacheco shared fifth place.
Pacheco thus defeated an opponent to whom he had previously lost. “He got a revenge match,” Tom Brockson said.
“It was a good match,” Brockson said. “He stuck with it.”
Eleven of Fallbrook’s 15 wrestlers won their Jan. 5 matches including five junior varsity wrestlers. Fallbrook’s two girls both lost to female Del Norte opponents. “They got some experience at least,” Brockson said.
Five of Fallbrook’s junior varsity wrestlers competed at the JV Rumble. One of those placed; Christopher Wooten took fourth in the 120-pound division. “He wrestled some pretty good matches. He had a hard kid at the end,” Brockson said. “It’s good to see him come along.”
The Mission Hills Invitational allowed an additional four pounds per weight class. Fallbrook had seven wrestlers there. Nic Brockson placed third in the 117-pound bracket and Moreno was fourth among 130-pound grapplers.
“It was by far the most talented tournament we’ve been to this year,” Tom Brockson said.
Fallbrook accumulated 55 team points for 16th among the 31 teams who scored points. Poway and Brawley shared the meet championship with 203 points apiece.
Brawley won two individual championships at the Mission Hills Invitational including in the 117-pound class. Anthony Tamay pinned three of his four opponents with the exception being an 8-0 major decision victory over Nic Brockson in the semifinal. Brockson began the tournament by pinning Will Mackey of Oceanside with three seconds left in the first period and advanced to the semifinal with a third-period pin against Micah Kollmeyer of Scripps Ranch.
Brockson did not pin Kollmeyer until 36 seconds remained in regulation. The 5:24 of wrestling in that match combined with the 1:57 in his previous match was taking its toll on Brockson. “His eye was swollen shut,” Tom Brockson said.
The loss to Tamay pitted Nic Brockson against Bryan Minsky of West Hills. Brockson pinned Minsky with five seconds remaining in the second period.
“He wrestled his way back to third,” Tom Brockson said.
Bryce Hughes of Christian, who had been pinned by Tamay in the first period of that second-round match, was Nic Brockson’s official opponent in the third-place competition. Hughes, however, had reached the CIF limit of five matches in one day and had to default to Brockson.
The 130-pound class had 19 wrestlers. “Fourth place is good in that tournament,” Tom Brockson said.
Moreno began competition with a 10-2 major decision victory over Nicolas Sierra of La Jolla. Brawley’s Diego Arias obtained an 18-2 lead for a technical fall which sent Moreno to the consolation bracket.
Jovanny Rodriguez of Rancho Buena Vista was Moreno’s first consolation bracket opponent. A 9-6 decision victory advanced Moreno to a match against William Herman of Helix. Moreno pinned Herman 44 seconds into that match and then pinned Edgar Martinez of San Pasqual 35 seconds into the third period. The win over Martinez was Moreno’s fifth match of the day, so he had to default the third-place match to Damien De La Vega of Santana.
Pacheco was eliminated one match short of the 124-pound medal round. He pinned Moses Espino of Santana 1:02 into the second period, was pinned by weight class runner-up Riley Jones of El Capitan 1:12 into the second period, won a 9-6 decision over Jamison Brown of Mission Hills, and was pinned by Rancho Bernardo’s Elias Ramirez 57 seconds into the second period.
Wilson was one match away from the 136-pound medal round. An 8-4 decision loss to Oliver Perez of Helix was followed by a pin of Rancho Buena Vista’s Bryce Fullerton 42 seconds into the third period, a pin of Scripps Ranch’s Grant Hancock 59 seconds into the match, and a 10-0 major decision loss to Jonathan Moedano of Mission Hills.
Fallbrook’s 149-pound wrestler, Francisco Franco, also won two matches but did not place. Franco pinned Reese Arthur of Rancho Bernardo 1:49 into the match, lost a 13-2 major decision to eventual champion Ian Brown of Granite Hills, pinned Sean Morrin of Rancho Buena Vista 49 seconds into the second period, and was pinned by Caden Kestler of La Jolla 1:22 into that match.
Huntington and Bautista also participated in the Mission Hills Invitational, and each won one match.
The Warriors’ first home meet of the season will take place Jan. 19 against Mount Carmel.
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