Diamond Bar Boys Fall In Quarterfinals at CIF Dual Meet Wrestling

There may be no such thing as a buzzer beater in high school wrestling, but Diamond Bar High surely felt the pain of having a victory taken away from them at the very end in Saturday's CIF-Southern Section Division 4 Dual Meet  Championships.

Fourth-seeded Quartz Hill rallied from a huge deficit, winning four straight matches for a 36-30 victory in the quarterfinals of the 16-team tournament at host site Redlands East Valley High.

Holding a 30-15 lead, the Brahmas were unable to close out the Golden League champions, who used three pinfalls and Sam Bauer's 5-0 victory over Shane Lee to pull off the stirring comeback.

Jared Wilkins completed the job, pinning Diamond Bar's Andre Bonafre at 1:30 in the first period.

"I'm not shocked, I'm just disappointed," said Diamond Bar heavyweight Brian Ryu, who was one of several wrestlers that helped the Brahmas build their sizable lead. "We're better than that. We knew that (Quartz Hill) was a formidable opponent. Our mindset just wasn't right."

Quartz Hill coach Trevor Leach, whose team barely advanced to the quarterfinals after a 31-30 victory over Beaumont, said it was important to keep the deficit within a reasonable margin considering the strength of Diamond Bar in the upper weight classes.

"I was just hoping that we could keep things manageable and have a chance," he said. "Diamond Bar is just stacked at the heavyweights. They got some monsters."

Those monsters lifted the Brahmas to an early 24-9 advantage as Kevin Kim (171 pounds), Dennis Ruan (189) and Ryu all notched pinfall victories.
Arthur Melendez (125) and Andrew Jun (130) added to the lead with a pair of victories as the Brahmas appeared poised to advance to the final four. However, two quick pinfall victories by the Rebels brought the Hacienda League champions back to reality.

"We didn't want to have to depend on the heavyweights," Diamond Bar coach Scott Usher said. "But there's not really one thing I could say that really hurt us. We didn't have the best week of practice and maybe that mattered."

Nathan Pike (112) and Desi Hernandez (160) also had victories for the Brahmas,
who opened the day with an impressive 48-18 victory over Granite Hills. After losing the first match, the Brahmas proceeded to blast the Eagles, an at-large selection from the Desert Sky League.

After the promising first-round victory, the Brahmas looked just as good at the opening against Quartz Hill. But the dream of a chance at a CIF title would be just that.

"I know my coaches expectations were to be CIF champions," Ryu said. "My expectations was to win three straight matches and see what would have happened in the fourth. I really thought we had a chance."

Fortunately, the wrestling is not yet over for several Brahmas. Usher will take nine wrestlers to the CIF Individual Championships beginning on Feb. 18 at Brea Olinda High School.

"Hopefully today can serve as a reality check for some of the kids," Usher said. "I hope they learn from this and we perform well at individuals."