Local wrestlers captured three weight-class titles at the Channel League Championships on Saturday at Dos Pueblos.
San Marcos brought home a pair of championships, with David Billesbach winning at 132 pounds and Connor Pfefferle taking the 147-pound division.
Chuy Lopez, at 137 pounds, was the lone champion for Dos Pueblos, which put seven wrestlers in the finals and qualified for the CIF individual finals in 12 of 14 weight classes.
The top three finishers at the league meet advance to the CIF Northern Division individual finals at Pacifica High in Oxnard on Feb. 19-20.
DP coach Anthony Califano said this was the fewest number of league champions he’s had in his 12 years at the helm, but he was still upbeat about the overall performance by his wrestlers.
“Overall, my guys wrestled pretty well,” he said. “The only match that was a bit on an upset was the 121 match. Other than that, we came back and won a lot of third places, which means they’re automatic qualifiers. The consolation round went excellent for us.”
The 121-pound match featured Harrison Solomon against Buena freshman Steven Mendez. Solomon had a 6-3 lead in the second quarter, but Mendez fought back, cut the lead to 6-5 and then surprised everyone by scoring a pin at the 3:45 mark.
“That’s the way wrestling is,” Califano said. “You can be winning and you get a little bit out of position. I think what he did was try to force a move and he got a little out of position and the guy was good, too, and he pinned him. That’s how it goes. That’s how the sport is.”
Lopez took control of his 137-pound match from the start, building a 5-1 lead after two periods and coming close to pinning Ventura’s Christian Brown before settling for a 10-1 victory.
“Chuy is a defending league champion and returning CIF medalist. I expected him to go out and control the match and that’s what he did,” said Califano.
Other DP wrestlers finishing second were Raul Yescas, Chad Lampe, Shannon Dixon, Sam Sarmiento and Abraham Lizama.
Billesbach of San Marcos caught Ventura’s Njamu McCrary-Swader off balance and finished him with a pin at the 1:55 mark in the first period of their 132-pound final.
Top-seeded Pfefferle was dominating at 147 pounds, wrapping up DP’s Sam Sarmiento with his left leg and applying heavy pressure to get a pin in 1:10.
Freshman standout Michael Orosco, Louis Giroux and Julian Lake were runners-up for the Royals, who will send 11 wrestlers (including alternates) along to CIF. They had five wrestlers make it to the finals.
“Orosco was phenomenal, and it was nice to have a freshman in the finals,” said cach Tony Becerra, who also cited the strong showing of sophomore Blake Rogers at 137 pounds. He finished fourth and will be an alternate for CIF competition.
Buena’s Steven Patch etched his name Channel League wrestling lore by becoming only the third wrestler in league history to win four consecutive titles.
Patch outlasted Ventura’s Jesse Arreguin 11-9 in a dramatic 121-pound final to join Ron Wilson for Camarillo from 1968-71 and Mike Yamasaki of Dos Pueblos from 1979-82 as the only four-time champions.
“I think it’s so cool,” Patch said of the rare accomplishment. “Looking at the pamphlet of all the names and all the people who have been there, to be a part of it is so cool.
It’s a pretty exclusive group, so I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Arreguin gave it his best shot to deny Patch from making history. He recorded the first takedown of the match and led 9-7 late in the second period. At one point, he had came close to putting Patch on his back, but the savvy Bulldog senior kept his composure and managed to scoot himself off the mat and force a restart.
“I wanted that match so bad, I wanted it so much in my heart,” he said. “I wasn’t going to give up. I was going to do whatever I could to win that match.”
Patch regrouped and scored a two-point reversal to tie the match at 9-9 going into the final two-minute period. Adding to the drama, a bandaid covering Patch’s skinned nose was ripped off and the match had to be stopped because there was blood smeared over his face.
“I’ve had my nose (scraped) since the first tournament and it busts open all the time,” said Patch with a smile. “It’s like a ninja band with all the tape. It has a good effect.”
Once the action resumed Patch was able to gain control of the match and scored a two-point takedown to pull out the victory.
Patch didn’t know what to expect from Arreguin.
“I beat him my freshman year, but we both haven’t wrestled against each other since. But we’ve both been practicing hard and it was close match. I’m just glad I came out on top.”
Once the match was over, Patch received hugs and pats on the back from his teammates, some of the other wrestlers and fans. He was named the meet’s outstanding wrestler in the lower weight classes
Buena coach Eddie Martinez said Patch has been an inspiration to the younger wrestlers in the Buena program.
“He’s just consistent. He’s constantly ready to go 100 percent,” Martinez said. “He just keeps working, working, working. He’s a great role model for all our youngers guys coming.”
On the closeness of the title match, Martinez said, “Steven was a little nervous, knowing what was at state. He was rushing a couple of his cradles and (Arrequin) popped his arm out. But he was able to recover. He made a couple of mistakes but they didn’t cost him the match. He was able to keep going and going and working til he had the match.”
Reigning league champion and CIF top-ranked Ventura dominated the upper weight classes. Ryan Bortness, who pinned DP’s Lizama at 162 pounds, was named the outstanding wrestler in the upper weights.
“I’m happy,” Ventura coach Mike Gacha said. “We think we might have lost only one match we thought we should have won, so the kids beat the kids they were supposed to. We had eight champions out of 14 weight classes.”
Some of the Ventura wins were impressive to say the least. Before Bortness’ pin, Henry Jordan scored a dominating 17-0 unanimous decision in the 154 final; Isaac Archibeque cleaned up at 173 pounds, winning the final 16-1, and Alex Rosales recorded a pin at 287 pounds.
“We are, from 152s on up, very, very solid. That’s where we’ve been winning a lot of our matches,” said Gacha.
CHANNEL LEAGUE WRESTLING FINALS
Championship matches
105– Patrick Birkimer, V, pinned Chad Lampe, DP, 3:10
114 — Chris Rey Hernandez, B, pinned Shannon Dixon, DP, 1:57
121 — Steven Mendez, B, pinned Harrison Solomon, DP, 3:45
127 — Steven Patch, B, dec. Jesse Arreguin,V, 11-9
132 — David Billesbach, SM, pinned Njamu McCrary-Swader, V, 1:55
137 — Jesus Lopez, DP, dec. Christian Brown, V, 10-1.
142 –– Cameron Keffer, V, dec. Victor Varela, B, 9-4
147 — Connor Pfefferle, SM pinned Sam Sarmiento, DP, 1:10
154 — Henry Jordan, V, dec. Michael Orosco, SM, 17-0
162 — Ryan Bortness, V, pinned Abraham Lizama, DP, 3:50
173 — Isaac Archibeque, V, dec. Louie Giroux, SM, 16-1
191 — Noel Alvarez, V, Julian Lake, SM, 8-5
217 — David Mitchell, V, def. Raul Yescas, DP, by default
287 — Alex Rosales, V, pinned Stephen Magana, B, 4:30
Third-place finishers
105 — Johnathan Morales, B.
114 — Johnny Armstrong, V
121 — Justin Farrell, V
127– Metehan Ozten, DP
132 — Kameron Gunsolley, DP
137 — Kurtis Gibson, B
142 — Max Ross, DP
147 — Juan Cortez, V
154 — Shaun Flagel, SB
162 — Tim Wallis, SM
173 — Justin Russo, DP
191 — Lucas Rascon, DP
217 — Edgar Montiel, SM
287 — Taylor Dawson, SB
