Dos Pueblos wrestlers Mario Elias, Harrison Solomon and Chuy Lopez are headed to the CIF Master’s tournament after collecting top-5 finishes at the Northen Division meet on Saturday at Pacifica High School in Oxnard.
Lopez, now a two-time Master’s competitor, finished third in the 135-pound division. Elias came in unseeded and qualified in third place for 130-pounds and Solomon finished fifth amongst the 119s.
“The tournament that matters the most is CIF,” said Chargers head coach Anthony Califano, who commended all the athletes involved for the hard work put in at the two-day event. “I was really proud of the guys.”
Solomon came through with a clutch victory in a do-or-die fifth-place match. Only the top-5 advance to the Master’s meet so everything was on the line. The unseeded Solomon scored a takedown with four seconds left in the third period to take the lead in the match and the win.
Elias’ big win came against the No. 1 seed, gettiing him to his third place match, where he won by major decision.
“It was very exciting,” Califano said.
San Marcos didn’t have the day the Royals were looking for. None of their six wrestlers who advanced to Day 2 will be making the trip to Temecula.
“We just couldn’t get anything going today,” said Royals head coach Tony Becerra, whose team went 1-11 in their Saturday matches.
Louis Giroux made the fifth place match in the 171-pound division but lost to Oxnard’s Gus Garcia 12-2. Connor Pfefferly was stopped one match short of a medal match.
“You always want to have more placers but that’s CIF, it’s tough,” Califano added.
The Master’s meet consists of 32-man brackets and the top-9 in each weight class advance to the State meet.
