Murrieta Wrestlers Earn 12 Medals in League Championships

With 42 medals up for grabs in 14 weight classes, varsity wrestlers from the six Southwestern League schools grappled Saturday at the Vista Murrieta High School gym during individual league championships.

While teams compete for honors in wrestling, Saturday was mostly about individual titles. Leading the way for Murrieta wrestlers with individual weight-class championships were Broncos Nick Jazo wrestling at 147 pounds, Joe Arellano at 197 pounds, and Diego Vazquez at 222 pounds. Each won with a pin.

Perennial league champion, Temecula Valley, was expected to do well considering having captured their 24th consecutive league championship team title this season. The Golden Bears did not disappoint as they went home with five individual champions, four second-place and two third-place medals.

Chaparral finished with four league champions, four second-place and three third-place medals. Great Oak had two league champions, two second-place and four third-place medals.

Murrieta schools had additional medalists in addition to the three Vista Murrieta league champions. The Broncos had one second-place and three third-place medals, Murrieta Valley had three second-place medals and Murrieta Mesa had two third-place medals.

The top three in each weight class earned medals and the right to move on in two weeks.

As teams, Temecula Valley and Chaparral earned the right to move on to the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 dual meet competition by virtue of their first- and second-place finishes in league. That meet is next Saturday at South Hills High School, West Covina. The Golden Bears are the reigning CIF dual meet champions, winning over Oak Hills High School last season.

At this point in their season, wrestlers’ weight classes increase slightly to allow for growth.  Each school competed at three levels: freshman, JV and varsity.

Athletes in Saturday’s matches competed in the 14 weight classes between 108 and 287 pounds.

Individual matches had three, two-minute periods. The wrestler with the most points at the end of the third period wins that match. A match can end earlier with a pin.

Murrieta Mesa Ram Bryce Greer counts himself lucky to have competed at league championships. Twice during the season he paid visits to the dentist for wrestling mishaps. In a match at Temescal Canyon he had two teeth knocked out leading to two root canals. Then, weeks later against Temecula Valley, Greer chipped another tooth.

Prior to his third-place finish Saturday, Greer told Patch that besides trips to the dentist, exhaustion coming from cutting weight and being sick of running, wrestling has been "fun."

“...I don't really even remember what I do in my matches I just go out there and give it my all," Greer said.

Heavyweight Ram teammate Carlos Matos also reached the medals podium in the 287-pound weight class. Three other teammates finished in fourth place: Adrian Rueda at 108 pounds, Trevor Wells at 122 pounds and Christian Pamlenyi at 128 pounds.

Murrieta Valley’s third-year head coach Brett Schleiger, talked about his Nighthawks’ rebuilding year.

“We went 0-5 in league. We have had some good individual awards but as a team we are young and inexperienced,” he said.

Murrieta Valley had a lot of injuries over the course of the season but regained sufficient health by Saturday.  Nighthawks Devante Wise, Michael Gonzalez and Nick Johnson wrestled at 115 pounds, 122 pounds and 184 pounds, respectively, and earned second-place medals.

Finishing in fourth place, but not advancing to CIF were fellow Nighthawks Abraham Montes wrestling at 140 pounds and Taylor Damico at 154 pounds.

Tournament director for league finals was Vista Murrieta head coach Jeremy Jarrett.

“We have 70 kids finishing the program this season, with 17 varsity lettermen, 30 JV, and 23 frosh," Jarrett said of his Broncos. "We start with around 100, but a lot of the kids don’t stick it out because it is such a tough sport.”

With a 7-4 overall record (2-3 in league), Jarrett’s wrestlers had one of their best tournament seasons in school history placing in numerous tournaments as a team: seventh at the Riverside County tournament (40 teams), 10th at the Las Vegas Holiday Classic (75 teams), ninth at Canyon Springs (50 teams), and ninth at Westminster (32 teams).

As of last week, two of his league champions, Vazquez and Arellano, were ranked in the state, 11th and 15th, respectively.

Several Broncos were plagued with injuries this season. Vandrick Cruz (122 pounds) missed league finals for his injury, and Ben Gonzalez missed the entire season due to injuries. Jazo, the league champ at 147 pounds, missed 90 percent of the season with injury.

Jazo was also honored as one of the meet’s MVPs, taking the award for the
lower-weights’ division.

Vista’s Belen Ladd moves on to CIF with his second-place finish. Ladd and Jazo each told Patch how proud and excited they were for teammates Vazquez and Arellano and their excellent showing.

Finishing in third place and also moving on to CIF are Alan Manalili (108 pounds), KJ Diaz (128 pounds) and Garrett Reynolds (162 pounds).

Fourth-place Broncos included Wyatt Paterson (172 pounds) and Brent Morgan (287 pounds).

First-place finisher Arellano shared his thoughts Sunday regarding his season and Saturday's personal victory.

“So far my season has been a little tougher than I expected but as I've gone further and further in these tournaments, I've realized that nothing is given to you in wrestling. Everything has to be earned," Arellano said.

"Yesterday at league finals I earned that win. It had been one of my goals since last February to be a league champion again and all the work I put in definitely helped me achieve that goal. TV always sends out good competition, but yesterday I just outworked [Shalamar Lawson] in the finals match. I didn't roll over for him because he was from Temecula Valley, and I pushed the pace the entire match until I won.”

Mesa’s Greer shared his perspective on the sport.

“...[W]restling is the hardest sport and you have to be mentally and physically tough to compete in our league," Greer said.

In all, 42 young men proved they are mentally and physically tough enough to move on to the next level, Feb. 17-18 at Pacifica and Oxnard high schools in Oxnard.