Photo Gallery of Monday’s All-Star wrestling at Bishop Amat
By John Sherrard
Seventy two wrestlers from local high schools filled the Bishop Amat gym Monday evening for the Third Annual San Gabriel Valley East-West Wrestling All Star Classic.
The unique event, started two years ago by Amat coach Tom Pierre, was attended by numerous All-League and All-CIF competitors in 14 weight classes.
Twelve schools represented the SGV with the East edging out the West, 8-6.
The featured weight class of the night was at 126 pounds. between two reigning CIF-SS champions. Senior Sidney Flores of Bishop Amat and senior Christian Espinoza of Cal.
In a very close match, Espinoza held on for a 6-5 victory over Flores. Flores had won in each of his sophomore and junior years in the event in different weight classes against other competitors.
“It felt great with the crowd and it was kind of a rivalry between us,” said Flores, who will be attending the Air Force Academy next year. “I’ve gotton the last couple of wins over him and he wanted his revenge over me.
“I wanted to get the best matchup of the night so I wrestled up a weight.”
Espinoza also had the same reasoning of the match.
“We’ve wrestled a couple of times before and it goes back and forth,” Espinoza said. “We’ve been training to beat him all year.”
Both won a CIF title last year in different divisions and have faced each other five times this year, with Flores holding a 3-2 edge overall.
“This is a great way to bring kids from the east side and the west side of the 605 (freeway) together in a common competition,” said Bishop Amat coach Tom Pierre, who came up with the idea of the event three years ago.
“We had quite a lot of state qualifiers, CIF-SS placers and league champions participate (Monday).”
Cal coach Doug Loo, who has been at the school for years, also spoke highly of the event.
“It’s great competition,” Loo said. “The kids wanted to go to compete and it was a chance to see other kids and see where they were at.”
The other match of the night (220) ended a lot quicker.
Amat senior Vincent Moran pinned his opponent, Danny Garcia of Cal, in the second period at 3:18.
“It’s cool because I get to see a lot of the freshmen or (junior varsity competitors),” Moran said. “It’s also not as many matches as say The Five Counties Invitational.”
Orange County has been holding high school all-star wrestling events for years and Pierre’s event has been growing each year in the San Gabriel Valley.
Results: 106 – Richard Rojo (Rowland) dec. David Lopez (La Serna); 113 – Eric Gonzalez (Cal) pinned Joseph Tapia (Glendora); 120 –Robert Ruiz (Glendora) pinned Henry Rivera (Belmont); 126 – Christian Espinoza (Cal) dec. Flores (Bishop Amat); 132 – Armando Murillo (Rowland) dec. Adrian Rios (Bishop Amat); Jake Carpenter (Palisades Charter) dec. Ernie Perez (Baldwin Park); 145 – Chance Chapman (Palisades Charter) dec. 152 – Marcelo Maui (Palisades Charter) pinned Julian Mares (Bishop Amat); 160 – Samuel Perez (Baldwin Park) dec. Logan Nordman (Bishop Amat); 170 – Joseph Velado (Palisades Charter) pinned Sebastian Soto (Wilson HH); 182 – Seth Atilano (Cal) pinned Eric Carrillo (Wilson HH); 195 – Hamzah Alsamdi (Palisades Charter) pinned Taylor Edwards (Wilson HH); Vincent Moran (Bishop Amat) pinned Andrew Ramos (La Puente); 285 – David Hutchison (Bishop Amat) pinned Carlos Velado (Palisades Charter).