Leviathan Wrestlers Face Tough Competition at Colts TOC

Leviathan wrestlers were very busy the weekend of November 7 and 8, competing in two separate tournaments. On Saturday the 7th, the team traveled to Rodriquez High School in Fairfield to compete in the Colts Classic, a qualifier for the Tournament of Champions. Tournament of Champions is one of the toughest tournaments in the state for middle schoolers, and the level of competition is incredibly high: the best wrestlers in California attend as many of the qualifying tournaments as possible to improve their seeding at the TOC.

Brandon Bigler wrestled in 2 weight classes for a total of 7 matches that day. To put that in perspective, CIF rules limit the number of matches a wrestler can have to 5 in a day with a minimum of 45 minutes between matches. Brandon was being called to his next match while he was already wrestling for most of the day. In his 5th-6th grade pool, Brandon placed first, beating all of his competitors. He defeated Jalen Bets from Tri Valley Elite with forceful mat returns and series of reverse arm bar tilts. He threw a powerful head and arm against Ethan Boyd of the Cobras to win by pin, and he beat Arielle King of the California Grizzlies by tech fall. In his second weight pool, Brandon wrestled against 7th and 8th graders and did not place.

Celeste Grabowski faced tough competition in a pool where she was the only girl. Despite the rising popularity of girls’ wrestling, the TOC does not have a separate girls’ division, and there were very few girls at the tournament period. Among her competitors were boys who had competed at Freakshow in Las Vegas and Reno Worlds. Celeste did not win any of her matches, but she fought hard. In her last match, her opponent was in the process of pinning her after walking to her head in a half Nelson. Celeste bridged as hard as she could, kicked her legs up, and flipped over her opponent to get a 2 point reversal.

Celeste’s brother, Caspian, competed at 170lbs. There was one other boy in his weight class, but the coaches agreed to add a 189lb 7th grader from Benicia to the pool so that the boys could get more rounds. Caspian wrestled each competitor twice. He beat his opponent from Benicia both times by pin. Caz lost his first round against Gabe Guzman from El Dorado Hills by getting caught in a stack in the 3rd round. In his next match against Guzman, Caz got cross-faced pretty hard and developed a nose bleed. You cannot compete in a wrestling match if you are bleeding, but you are given “blood time” - a limited amount of time to stop or contain the bleeding. Caz’s coaches were able to stop the nose bleed temporarily, but about 30 seconds later, the plug came out of his nose, and there was some substantial bleeding. Caz ran out of blood time and had to forfeit. He placed 2nd in his pool but did not qualify for the Tournament of Champions because there were not the enough boys in his bracket to reach the qualifying bar. It’s difficult for kids in the upper weights to get matches.

Johnny Shores traveled with the team, but could not compete due to illness. He helped out as manager all day and did a great job! Coach Samuel Ayala took the kids to the Jelly Belly Factory after the tournament as a reward for all of their hard work.

The next day, the team traveled to Cupertino to compete in The Lion’s Den Tournament. Brandon Bigler placed first in his weight class.

Leviathan Wrestling Club practice MWF 6:15-8:15 in the Terra Nova mat room. Our winter session begins December 2. If you are interested in wrestling or you a former wrestler interested in volunteering to help coach, please contact the team at LeviathanWrestling@gmail.com.