San Marcos’ Julian Lake made his coach proud with a major decision against Ventura in a Channel League wrestling dual match Thursday night.Ventura won the match 59-16.Lake, wrestling at 191 pounds, defeated David Mitchell 16-6 after getting pinned by Mitchell in the first period at a recent tournament.Luis Urbina was another Royal who showed tremendous improvement against the powerful Cougars. He lost his 287-pound match to Ben Wiltjer by a 2-0 score after being pinned by the same … [Read more...]

Luis Urbina made quite a splash at this weekend's Nogales Super Championship wrestling tournament, which isn't hard to do when you tip the scales at 285 pounds.The first-year San Marcos wrestler made it all the way to the finals in the heavyweight division via four pins before losing by fall in the championship match.He weighed around 319 after football season, but has shed the pounds to make weight on the mat. … [Read more...]

The Channel League's biggest wrestling match-up came early this year, and it lived up to its bill as host Dos Pueblos, ranked 10th in CIF, lost to No. 3 Ventura 37-34 on the mat at Sovine Gym on Thursday night."I'm not going to cry about it, because we put ourselves in a position to win and I'm very proud of that... This is supposed to be the year when they go and win CIF and we almost got 'em," said longtime DP coach Anthony Califano. … [Read more...]

Heavyweight Luis Urbina took less than a minute to finish off his opponent for the San Marcos wrestling team on Thursday, and he did it with style in a 63-12 defeat of the crosstown Dons at the Thunderhut. "It was an incredible move," said Royals head coach Tony Becerra. "The other guy got behind him, somehow he flipped the guy on his back for the pin. I'm not sure exactly how he did it."In the 171-pound division, Zach Belway won by technical fall and extended his season-long … [Read more...]

Tyler Mallard, Zach Belway and Luis Urbina each made it to Saturday's quarterfinals at the Nogales Super Championship Tournament, which finished up late on Friday night.Louis Giroux and Julian Lake were alive in the consolation bracket."We brought eight guys and we've got five still going so that's a pretty big deal for us," said coach Tony Becerra, who said that Dos Pueblos was in 10th place out of 60 teams the last time he had heard.Competition begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. … [Read more...]

Despite missing two key wrestlers due to injury and illness, Dos Pueblos went to Upland and finished sixth out of 39 teams in the Black Watch Invitational, just two points away from fourth."It was really solid considering we only brought 10 wrestlers," said coach Anthony Califano.Connor Dorais placed second amongst the 160-pounders, winning his semifinals match 5-4 against an opponent seeded a spot higher. Dorais was then pinned at the buzzer against a stat-ranked foe in the finals. … [Read more...]

Zach Belway was dominant yet again, as the San Marcos wrestler won the 173-pound division at the Gold Coast Classic in Camarillo via two pins and two major decisions (wins by more than eight points). He won the championship match 15-1.Louis Giroux took third in the same division."It's amazing how far he's come in only his second year wrestling, and I think his development has a lot to do with being Zach's workout partner," said coach Tony Becerra, whose wife delivered his third child … [Read more...]

Zach Belway continued his dominance on the mat for the San Marcos wrestling team, collecting a victory by fall in just 38 seconds as the Royals traveled to Santa Paula — a match which they lost last year — and came home with a 51-24 win Tuesday.Belway is 15-0 on the year with 14 pins."Things are definitely falling into place," said coach Tony Becerra. "Some of the holes are starting to be filled, and when all of our injured guys are healed up we look forward to contending once the … [Read more...]

Zach Belway gave up only one point while going 10-0 with nine pins in the Camarillo Duals wrestling tournament on Saturday. Belway wrestled at 171 pounds."He had an incredible performance. He won one match 10-1 and the rest were all in under two minutes," said coach Tony Becerra.At 142 pounds, defending Channel League champ Tyler Mallards went 8-2 with eight decisions coming by fall and the two losses coming in very close matches. Julian Lake went 9-1 with eight falls in the 217-pound … [Read more...]

Tyler Mallard went 5-0 with five pins — three of which came in under a minute — on a solid opening day for the San Marcos wrestling squad at the Camarillo Duels Tournament. The Royals finished 3-2 on the day.Julian Lake and Zach Belway also went 5-0 with as many pins, while Elias Giroux was 4-1. Lake notched one of his pins in just 15 seconds. … [Read more...]

Connor Dorais went 9-0 with nine pins to earn upper-weight MVP honors at the Downey Tournament Saturday, and the Dos Pueblos wrestling team finished 8-1, good enough for third place as a team."It was a really good start to the season for us," said coach Anthony Califano.Mario Elias (130 lbs) and Joseph Story (189 lbs) also went 9-0 for DP. … [Read more...]