STOCKTON – The eighth-seeded Manteca High girls wrestling team made school history Saturday by picking up its first Sac-Joaquin Section team dual victory in a 48-34 defeat of Hiram Johnson in Division I action before running into a buzz-saw in No. 1 Pitman and losing 63-18. All of the Buffaloes points in the second round came via forfeit.
“We knew we were going to be on the back side of the bracket,” Manteca coach Vince Bordi said. “Because of the pigtail we got, the eighth seed, and we were able to go against the ninth and that gave us a winnable match.
“Our girls program is still in the building stage, and this is the first time we have ever won a Section team dual match.”
Alisha James (117 pounds) posted a first-round pin against the Warriors of Sacramento.
“I wasn’t in my head that first match,” James said. “Usually, I think about wrestling too much, but this time, I just went with the flow.
“I have been wrestling for four years, and a lot of it is muscle memory. I got a half pretty quickly, and I was able to pin her pretty fast.”
Other winners for the Buffaloes against Hiram Johnson were Aubrie Strickland (102, pin), Nalani Rico (107, forfeit), Breanna Bragg (112, pin), Isabella Castillo (122, pin), Rupreet Dheraj (132, pin), Kirra Hendrix (137, forfeit), Mandy Martinez (172, forfeit).
Martinez, who normally wrestles at 145 pounds, was bumped up to 172 and was the only Manteca wrestler who was not pinned against the Pride of Turlock.
Martinez led Maggie Carranza twice in the first two rounds before Carranza ran away with a 22-13 major decision.
“I tried my best to get a pin or at least some points,” Martinez said of the Pitman match. “I tried taking shots, but it didn’t work out like I wanted it to.
“I fought to keep going and didn’t give up.”
Division IV boys
Placer 41, Ripon 33
A couple of late pins by the sixth-seeded Indians got the match close, but Ripon could not catch the Hillmen.
“We are really happy with how the season ended for us,” Indians coach Glen White said. “We had a big win on Wednesday over Escalon and we were just hoping to get here.
“We were a little surprised to be in Division IV, so we just took it and ran with it, and I thought we wrestled a pretty good match overall. I thought there were some matches that could have gone our way and didn’t, and that’s how a dual meet works. We are going to get ready for the postseason now, and that kind of turns to more of an individual thing. We have enjoyed the team season, but we are ready for the individual part now.”
One of those late pins came in the heavyweight match by Joaquin Rodriguez. Trailing Gage Esty 3-0 with time running out in the first period, Rodriguez put together a five-point combination with seconds remaining and then bounced back to get the pin.
“I got mad, because that is someone I shouldn’t have been losing to,” Rodriguez said. “I knew this was going to be a tough dual, because I saw these guys at Tim Brown and a lot of them placed. I had seen this kid before and I knew he was strong – we practiced together at Masters last year.
“I wanted it more today, so I had to get up and get moving.”
Other winners for Ripon were Gilber Luiz (132, pin), Omar Reyes (138, decision), Ace Dougherty (144, pin), Callen Thomason (175, pin) and Jackson Malone (215, pin).
