STOCKTON – Trevor Smith looks ready.
He actually looks really ready. The Ripon High standout opened the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Wrestling Championships with a 3-0 record, finishing with a one-sided, no-mistake-about-it victory over West High’s Amrit Singh Friday.
Smith gave the Stockton Arena crowd a glimpse at his season-long domination, rolling up a 14-0 lead on Singh before knocking him to the consolation bracket with a pin.
“I thought he looked great,” Ripon High head coach Glen White said. “Amrit’s a tough kid, we’ve wrestled him before, he’s really a super-tough kid and I expect him to go to state.
“The fact that we handled him in the quarterfinal, I was really happy.”
Lathrop High’s Alex Garcia made serious headway in his sophomore season Masters trip, starting off a perfect 2-0 before running into Vacaville’s Gionn Peralta, who is currently ranked No. 1 in the state in the 106-pound weight class. The Vacaville junior looked the part in his first-round pin over Garcia.
“It won’t get any easier,” Lathrop head coach Vince Garcia said of Alex’s remaining journey. “We knew who he was, that guy is No. 1 for a reason; we’re excited with how Alex wrestled today.
“It’s already out of his head and he’s looking forward to his first match.”
He will have to net a pair of wins to earn one of the top-7 places and a berth to the CIF State Championships.
His teammate Omar Guzman came up just short in his quest, pushing through a decent consolation run before falling with a 2-2 record for the tournament.
Weston Ranch heavyweight Joseph Gomez suffered through a similar fate, falling in his fourth match of the tournament, in overtime, 7-5. Gomez trailed late 5-3, but landed a two-point takedown to tie the match up. In the final 30 seconds of the overtime period Gomez gave up a two-point reversal to seal his fate.
“It didn’t go my way,” Gomez said through a heavy look of contemplation. “I need to work harder next time. I could have hustled harder earlier; I should have had more offense in the beginning.”
Sierra got a strong showing from Alberto Loaiza in an ultra-competitive 138-pound bracket. Loaiza finished 2-2, but missed out on extending his season another day. Same with East Union’s Peter Barrington, who fought valiantly back through the consolation bracket but ran into Oakdale High’s Max Stevens to close out his high school career.
“I worked my butt off in all my matches and did the best that I could,” Barrington said. “I’ve been training truthfully for four years for this and it is what I have kept my mind on.
“He’s beaten me every time I’ve wrestled him this year. He got me on my back and I just tried to keep working.”
Smith and Garcia will be the only area wrestlers with state hopes alive when the tournament continues at 9 a.m. at the Stockton Arena with fourth round consolation matches.
