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Grant Mar goes 5-0, named Outstanding Lightweight at Jackson Duals
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JACKSON — The Weston Ranch High wrestling team turned in yet another impressive tournament performance Saturday at the Jackson Duals hosted by Argonaut High, finishing 4-1 overall and wrestling what Pat King called its best match of the season in its only loss to North Coast Section power Upper Lake.
Grant Mar (125 pounds) finished the day 5-0 and was named the tournament’s Outstanding Lightweight.
In Round 1, the Cougars beat Argonaut, 48-22, before picking up and exhibition win, 66-12, in Round 2.
Round 3 was Weston Ranch’s only loss, 41-27, to Upper Lake, but the Cougars followed it up with wins over Union Mine (50-16) and John Swett of Vallejo, 60-3.
“Our best match was the one we lost,” Cougars co-head coach Pat King said. “Upper Lake was an extremely good team. We gave up two forfeits and actually beat them on the mat. We knew going in that we would have to wrestle our best match, and that’s what we got. We caught them a couple of times early and then we fed off the momentum. Chris Rodriguez (112 pounds) lost a tight one late in overtime.”
King lauded the efforts of Mar, a junior, as well as sophomore Daniel Garcia (130) and junior Travis Bowen (145).
Garcia went 4-0, while Bowen was 3-1 with his only loss coming to the No. 2 rated wrestler in the NCS, 10-3.
“Travis was fighting uphill the whole match,” King said. “They were a step ahead of us. It shows Travis (25-5) where he needs to be.”
Weston Ranch continues the Valley Oak League campaign Tuesday with a home tri-meet against East Union and Sonora.
BIG VALLEY TOURNAMENT
At the Stockton Arena, East Union had four wrestlers make it to the second day of action.
Marco Castaneda (119), Jason Cortez (125), Stevyn Teeple (130) and Matt Neves (140) all wrestled Saturday.
“Everybody had very tough matches during the first round Saturday,” EU head coach Andrew Reindel said. “They all wrestled well. It was good competition, and a good opportunity to see where we’re at.”
Reindel said the Lancers are not quite where they want to be, and that the tournament was an eye-opener for some Lancers.
“We’re hanging with (the competition), we’re just not winning,” Reindel said. “Everything is close, but we still need to learn how to win. But wrestling kids you know you’re going to beat doesn’t help. You’ve got to get out there.”
D.J. Ortega (112, 4th), Brandon Roberts (152, 4th) and Albert Aguilar (HVY, 3rd) all placed in Saturday’s Hard Luck tournament for wrestlers that finished 0-2 on Friday.
EU returns to tournament action Saturday at Lincoln High, the site of Dave Mendoza Tournament.
GORDON HAY TOURNAMENT
In Calaveras, Ripon only wrestled four at the varsity level, but heavyweight Matt Baker shined, finishing first overall with a 4-0 win over Tokay’s Scott Lewis in the championship round.
“We’re really happy with how Matt performed,” Ripon head coach Glen White said. “He’s been working very hard, and this was his first chance to wrestle in a tournament final. He took control of the match and pretty much dominated the kid. Baker finally got to that point and he did well. It was a big win for him.”
At the junior varsity level, Andy Yciano (1st), Carlos Gutierrez (2nd), Maro Guardado (3rd) and Joe Greenwood (4th), all placed.
“The win was Andy’s third junior varsity tournament championship this year,” White said. “He’s just a freshman, he’s going to be a really tough wrestler in the future.”
Ripon travels to Mariposa Wednesday before packing its bags and heading to Huntington Beach for the powerhouse Five Counties Tournament.
BASKETBALL
Girls
Ripon 53, Summerville 37 (Friday)
In Summerville Friday night, Skye Dominguez scored 20 points and Kendra Contente added 15 as the Indians shook off the tired legs of a long trip to the foothills relatively quickly and coasted to the win.
“We shot the ball pretty well,” Ripon head coach George Contente said. “They went into a zone and they stayed in the zone the whole game, and we shot well against it. Skye with 20, Kendra with 15, we hit a couple of 3’s. It worked out really well.”
Jessica Blythe added seven and Adrianna Mayberry had five.
Ripon (6-8 overall) travels to Calaveras Tuesday.
Sophomore
Lathrop 54, Central Valley 33
Jasmine Elder could not be stopped Saturday as the Spartan scored 27 points in leading Lathrop past the Hawks.
With the win, the Spartans moved to 3-2 in VOL play, and 7-8 overall.
“Jasmine was on fire,” Lathrop head coach Ed Fang said. “We played great, we forced a lot of turnovers.”
Brittany Rallios finished with eight, and Krystal Ruiz had seven.
Lathrop travels to Ceres Monday.
Boys
Freshman
Lathrop 42, Central Valley 26
The Spartans picked up their first win of the season in style, turning in a full four quarters of work in the blowout win.
Avery Lewis led the Spartans with 13 and Viks Ralmilay had 12.
Brandon Parkenon netted six and Ricardo Chavez had five.
“Garbriel Castellanos, Jan Villanueva and Shamit Kishore all did a great job on the defensive end controlling the paint,” Lathrop head coach Jerry Cuevas said. “The win feels good, the kids work very hard and they deserve it.
“We’re starting to come together.”
The Spartans (1-3 VOL) travel to Weston Ranch Tuesday.

— Brandon Petersen