Brockson, Huntington each win twice at CIF masters tournament

Fallbrook High School seniors Nic Brockson and Devin Huntington each won two matches at the all-division CIF San Diego Section masters tournament Feb. 16-17 at Southwest High School in El Centro.

Brockson wrestled in the 126-pound division at the double-elimination tournament. Huntington was in the 150-pound bracket. Fallbrook freshman Ricky Lopez was in the 108-pound division, although he lost both of his matches.

“Bringing three guys to masters is really big,” said Fallbrook coach Tom Brockson.

CIF competition divisions for wrestling are by school enrollment. Fallbrook’s boys were in Division II this year. The Division II tournament was held Feb. 10 at Orange Glen High School. The top six Division II wrestlers in each weight class qualified for the masters tournament.

Nic Brockson placed second in the Division II tournament. He began masters competition with a first-round bye and then pinned Payton Mixon of Guajome Park Academy 29 seconds into their match. Brawley’s Diego Arias, who eventually placed fourth, pinned Brockson at the end of the second period of their quarterfinal.

Brockson began his consolation matches with a 15-2 major decision victory over Oceanside’s Isaiah Rosales. The win gave Brockson a match against Carlsbad’s Connor O’Balle with the winner being guaranteed a place among the top six.

O’Balle pinned Nic Brockson 1:39 into the match. “He got caught in a weird scramble,” Tom Brockson said.

“He came up one match short,” Tom Brockson said. “He still had a good year.”

Last year, Nic Brockson was fourth in the 115-pound bracket at the masters tournament, which qualified him for the state tournament although he lost both of his matches there.

Huntington did not qualify for last year’s masters tournament. This year, third place at the divisional tournament allowed him to conclude his high school career at the masters.

“Devin’s developed really quickly, and he got to a good level really fast,” Tom Brockson said.

The first masters match for Huntington was a 9-1 major decision victory over Madison’s Cyrus Moliere. Allowing one point for an escape wasn’t the only adverse element of the match for Huntington. “He hurt his knee,” Brockson said. “He kept wrestling all day through it.”

Whether a healthy Huntington could have defeated Poway’s Laird Root in the second round can be questioned, but Root eventually placed third and might have finished first had he not tried to turn Ramona’s Liam Gonzalez in the semifinals and accidentally stepped on his counterpart.

If a wrestler withdraws for medical reasons, it is normally a forfeit, but if that injury is due to an opponent’s penalty he or she wins by forfeit. Gonzalez had pain on his left side including his shoulder and his ribs, so he was given the forfeit win over Root.

“Laird’s a solid wrestler,” Brockson said.

Only one of Root’s matches in the masters tournament lasted longer than a minute. That was when he pinned Huntington 1:39 into the first period. “He actually frustrated Laird,” Brockson said.

In the consolation bracket, Huntington pinned Caleb Wright of San Pasqual 42 seconds into the second period. Nolan White of Coastal Academy then eliminated Huntington with a 2-1 decision victory.

“He really stuck with the match. He lost, but he didn’t get blown away,” Brockson said.

Lopez placed sixth at the Division II tournament. In the masters tournament, he was pinned by Christian’s Ryland Valdez at the end of the first period and pinned by Ayers Reich of Cathedral Catholic with 10 seconds remaining in the second period.

“He got the experience,” Brockson said.