February 2008 Archives

Through first three rounds Friday, here is an update on Inland Valley and Sun area wrestlers at the CIF State meet at Bakersfield.

103:

Eddie Hernandez, Alta Loma

won first round by pin; lost by technical fall, lost 11-6-eliminated

Chris Mecate, Redlands East Valley

Won 7-2, lost 5-2, won 4-0, won 3-1

112:

Sean Silva, Barstow

bye, lost 6-3, lost 4-1, eliminated

119:

Sergio Aginuiga, Kaiser

bye, won 8-4, lost 11-9

Ryan Fillingame, Sultana

bye, won by pin, lost 9-4, won 8-3

125:

Daniel Gudino, Hesperia

bye, won 5-1, won 8-2 in quarterfinals

Angel Garcia, San Dimas

won 12-3, won 13-3, won 3-1, in quarterfinals

130:

Dylan Cataline, Roosevelt

lost by pin, won by pin, lost 8-6 in OT, eliminated

Andrew Collins, Hesperia

bye, won 11-5, won 8-2 in quarterfinals

Tony Pietropaula, Beaumont

lost 11-7, won 2-0, lost 10-6 eliminated

135:

Eric Lopez, Hesperia

bye, won 9-0, won 7-2 in quarterfinals

Paul Maldonado, Los Osos

bye, lost 7-6, lost 7-6 eliminated

Alfonso Hernandez, Cajon

bye, won by pin, lost by pin

140
Nikko Cataline, Roosevelt

bye, lost in OT, won 6-5

Cody Bollinger, Sultana

bye, lost 11-9, lost 10-2

145

Clayton Schuelke, Beaumont

lost by technical fall, won 4-3, won 4-3

David Stupplebean, Bonita

bye, won by pin, lost 9-8

152

Justin Mehan, Montclair

bye, lost 11-4, lost 14-4-eliminated

Vinny Maraj, Yucca Valley

bye, lost 5-2, defaulted-eliminated

160

Darrin Duncan, Victor Valley

bye, lost 3-0, lost 4-3, eliminated

189

Danny Reyes, Hesperia

bye, lost 11-4, won by pin

215

Oscar Navarette, Ontario

won 7-0, won by pin, lost by pin

I'm really looking forward to the state wrestling meet that begins Friday. I wish it were close enough that I could sleep in my own bed, but it is a great event.

Our online director, Louis Amestoy, is a former sports writer, who has a greater affinity for cross country, track and football than he does for wrestling. But even he says it is the greatest state championship, better than state track. If you haven't seen it, it's quite an event at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield when, for the finals, they have a raised platform for the mat and thousands of eyes are focused on two wrestlers at a time. Also impressive is the earlier rounds, when there are 10 mats going on at once. The feeling is electric.

Check back on my blog for periodic updates on how Inland Valley and San Bernardino County-area wrestlers are doing on Friday and Saturday. I'll try and bring you round-by-round updates.

Time will tell whether the best chances for a state title: San Dimas Angel Garcia (125) for the Inland Valley, and Sultana's Cody Bollinger (140) and Yucca Valley's Vinny Maraj (152) will get to the finals. Stay tuned ...

Wow. What a couple of games at Colony High School on Thursday night. First, La Verne Lutheran stayed undefeated with a thrilling 57-56 win over West Hollywood Pacific Hills in the V-AA game. Then Patriot held on to beat Jurupa Valley 49-46 in the IV-AA game.

Two great games with great atmosphere for both. However...

Colony High School, in its second year hosting CIF championship basketball games, was a great place for the V-AA final. The crowd wasn't overwhelmed by a large college gym. It was a little too small for Jurupa Valley-Patriot.

First, Jurupa Valley and Patriot are in the same district, are very close to Colony and are much larger schools. They are not Division IV schools in size ( I think they're Division II). The Sunkist League was moved to IV-AA last year because schools had little success in higher divisions. Apparently, upwards of 200 or more fans were turned away because the gym was already at capacity, which is a shame. And until the Lutheran-Pacific Hills crowd let out, several hundred Jurupa-Patriot fans were kept in the lobby of the Colony gym because there was no room for them inside.

Colony (or Los Osos, which has the same gym design) is a great place for CIF championship games. But for schools the size of Jurupa Valley and Patriot, it's inadequate.

I was also underwhelmed by some of the sportsmanship I saw Thursday, especially from Patriot fans. Booing the opposing cheerleaders during halftime and then cheering when they made a mistake was pretty classless. Maybe there was similar stuff from Jurupa fans, but I didn't see it. I give kudos to the Jurupa cheerleaders, who didn't have music for their halftime routine, had to deal with Patriot fans, and still got the job done.

After last week's CIF individual wrestling tournaments, here are the qualifiers from the Inland Valley for the Masters Meet which begins Friday at Carter High School. Top 9 in each weight class advance to the state meet in Bakersfield Feb. 29-March 1 up from 8. There are a total of 36 from the area and 30 percent (nine of 30 in each weight class) advance to state. If that percentage holds true for the Inland Valley, 10 or 11 local wrestlers will go to state. Let's see if it's accurate..

By the way, as a follow up to the story I did last week on the Harper/Cataline wrestling family from Roosevelt, two of the brothers (Dylan Cataline and Nikko Cataline) qualified for Masters.

*receives first-round bye, so they need to just win their first two matches to make the semifinals and guarantee a spot at state.

number after school is place in last week's tournament

103 pounds

Bryan Graham, Jr., Chino Hills-2

Eddie Hernandez, Sr., Alta Loma-2

112

Darryl Luna, Jr., Montclair-2

Martin Montez, Sr., Miller-1

Enrique Barrera, Sr., Ontario-5

119

Sergio Aguiniga, Jr., Kaiser-3

Josh Seeley, Sr., Montclair*-1

125

Angel Garcia, Sr., San Dimas*-1

Juan Mora, Sr., Ontario-2

Dane Loomis, Jr., Ayala-5

Phillip Arreola, Sr., Los Osos-2

130

Victor Delfuente, Sr., San Dimas-3

Dylan Cataline, Jr., Roosevelt-5

Julian Febres-Cordero, Sr., Chino HIlls-3

135

George Nickols, Jr., Carter-5

Paul Maldonado, Sr., Los Osos-1

140

Andrew Gundlach, Jr., Los Osos-4

Nikko Cataline, Sr., Roosevelt-2

Josh Avila, Sr., Chino-4

145

David Stupplebean, Sr., Bonita*-1

Gilbert Herrera, Jr., Colony-4

Joey Lemond, Jr., Rancho Cucamonga-3

152

Justin Mehan, Sr., Montclair-3

160

Edgar Arreola, Sr., Montclair-3

Nico Phillips, Sr., Rancho Cucamonga-3

171

Jason Park, Sr., Diamond Bar-4

John Rojo, Sr., Rancho Cucamonga-5

Adam Lizaola, Sr., Carter-5

Leonel Lopez, Sr., Montclair-4

Josh Rottler, So., Chino Hills-2

189

David Evans, Sr., Upland-2

Joshua Powers, Sr., Ontario-5

215

Vincent Aguilar, Sr., Chino Hills-3

Oscar Navarette, Sr. Ontario-4

285

David Macias, Sr., Montclair-4

Ruben McQueen, Sr. Bonita-4

Well, Upland High senior David Evans isn't really a figure skating or a Britney Spears fan, but at least everyone got a smile out of it.

At the  CIF-SS Inland Division wrestling championships at Los Osos High on Saturday, short bios are read on the wrestlers in the finals, just as they were at all the other CIF wrestling finals on Saturday.

And Evans wrote down his accomplishments, which included a 30-7 record, and fourth and third-place finishes in tournaments, and thanks to his family and coaches. But in distinctly different printing was added on the bottom, "enjoys figure skating and Brittany Spears."

A laugh went through those in attendance, whether they were in the stands or on the mat.

"When we get a guy in the finals, we like to add a little humor," Upland head coach Bob Irwin said.

For the record, the credit goes to Upland assistant coach Rey Molina.

It's easy to lose track of Chris Carlson.

He's been one of the most successful water polo coaches in the area in the last 10 years, but can't seem to stay at one school.

First, he was at Etiwanda, where he led the Eagles boys to the CIF-SS Division V finals against Upland, but lost 8-7 in the finals.

Then he went to Bonita, where he won CIF titles in his only two seasons as the boys coach there, in 2002 and 2003, in the midst of a five-year run of consecutive CIF titles for the Bonita boys.

From there, it was on to Redlands, where he led the Terriers boys to the 2006 CIF-SS finals.

He was dismissed as coach at Redlands before the school won the CIF-SS title last fall.

I ran into Carlson on Wednesday in Beaumont, where I was watching Ontario play Yucaipa in a CIF-SS first round game. Carlson took over the Beaumont boys and girls water polo programs, an aquatics program just starting up as Beaumont got a pool for its new campus that just opened. He seems to be happy there, but wonders why he can't stay at a school, and hopes he won't be moving on again.

It seems there must be a lack of communication somewhere, either the schools and parents aren't understanding how Carlson runs his program, or Carlson doesn't understand what the administration or parents expect of him.

I hadn't  seen the Summit High School girls basketball team until Thursday night, a 61-13 win over an overmatched San Dimas team in the opening round of the Division III-AA playoffs. I have seen Miller's girls basketball team, which is definitely the best in the area at this point.

It is amazing how good those two North Fontana schools are in girls basketball. Until Summit opened in 2006, those students would likely have gone to Miller. How scary good would Miller's basketball team be if it had some of Summit's best players? There might not be enough balls to go around, but it would be fun to watch. Summit has more size and Miller has more speed and guard play, so together it would be a more complete team.

Summit did not play a difficult schedule, coach Alexis Onishi will freely admit. But I have a hard time believing that the SkyHawks are only the fourth-best team in III-AA, as they are seeded.