RIPON — Escalon wrestlers were already lining up on the mat as Ripon standout heavyweight Tristan Smith was declared a winner via forfeiture, but Wednesday’s matchup between the Trans-Valley League’s two best teams had been decided long before that.
Escalon put itself in the driver’s seat to seize another league title, toppling the Indians 49-21 despite missing two of its top grapplers.
The Cougars clinched the victory with five bouts to go after 160-pounder David Ryan pinned Nolan Berghorst in 4 minutes, 49 seconds. That allowed Escalon to forfeit the following match, where 170-pound standout Cameron DeBois, nursing a knee injury, was ready to go if needed.
Ripon (1-1 TVL, 7-4 overall) may have had a shot in the end if not for some missed opportunities early on.
“We came out really flat,” Ripon coach Glen White said. “The first few matches kind of set the tone and from there we just couldn’t recover.”
Mykayla Vega sparked the Cougars with a third-round pin of Jordan Campa, who scored the first five points of the 106-popund contest and nearly had one of the section’s top female lowerweights stuck midway through the first. Vega, however, wriggled out of the jam and ended up tying it 5-5 by the end of the opening period with a near fall of her own. She rolled to a 15-6 lead before securing the pin in 4:27.
Two matches later, Escalon’s Rhys Panero (120) gutted out a 5-3 decision in overtime against Donny Fontillas. Fontillas led for most of the bout and was ahead 3-1 until he was taken down with 11 seconds left in regulation. Panero later came through with a single-leg takedown with 4.5 seconds remaining in sudden-death overtime. That gave Escalon a 15-0 lead and all the momentum.
“Those were huge, let’s be honest,” Escalon coach Derek Scott said, adding that he was minus Kyle Jimenez, the TVL’s reigning 113-pound champ. “We had a freshman girl wrestling at varsity and she was getting choked out for the first 30 seconds. She did a great job of fighting off her back and getting the pin later on.
“And Rhys had been off-and-on wrestling because of some injuries. For him to out-tough the guy in overtime really swung the match there. If (Ripon gets) those pins it’s a hard match.”
Escalon led 25-0 before Ripon got on bored. Javi Hernandez (138) got the Indians off the snide with a hard-fought 5-1 victory over Trenton Busca. Jacob Rhodes (195) recorded Ripon’s only other win on the mat, as he stopped Stephen Mendez in the final second of the first round.
Others earning wins for Escalon was: Alex Jimenez (113, 3:58 pin), Nick Deweerd (126, 3:42 pin), Livius Seung (132, 11-4), Hugo Alcala (145, 5-2), Fabrico Gallo (152, 5-2) and Marco Mendoza (182, 0:39 pin).
“It wasn’t our best match,” White said. “We’ve wrestled much better this year so it was very disappointing. You expect to come out and wrestle your best match against your best opponent and it didn’t quite go that way.”
Ripon can still capture a co-championship but will have to run the table with dual meets at Mountain House and Hughson remaining. The TVL Championships is Feb. 13 at Modesto Christian.
“We know what they need to work on and they’ve been working on it, it just didn’t show tonight,” White said. We’re hoping that through this experience they can get better from it. We have to win out and win the tournament to win a share of the title but a lot would need to happen.”
