December 9, 2017
Wrestling finishes 3rd at the California State Championships
Sauseda (125), Garcia (174), and Nickerson (197) are all State Runner-Ups in their respective weight classes
Sacramento City College Wrestling, ranked #4 throughout the year, made a move at the CCCAA State Wrestling Championships to finish in 3rd place for the second year in a row. SCC, winners of 7 straight BIG 8 Conference Titles has won 2 State Championships (2013 and 2015) and finished 3rd twice in the past 5 years. The low point was a 6th place finish in 2014.
SCC qualified 10 of 12 wrestlers to the championships with two others going as alternates. In all, the Panthers had 3 All Americans and 7 medalists. Here are the individual results:
Three Panthers advanced to the finals in their weights.
Sophomore Morgan Sauseda, (125-Chico HS), a returning All American (4th in State 2016) as well as a returning Academic All American made it to the finals with a bye and 2 decisions. In his first win, he defeated Delta College's Greg Viloria by a 7-4 score. Morgan Sauseda fell behind 2-0 before scoring an escape to cut the lead to 2-1. In the second period, Sauseda scored another escape only to give up another takedown and fall behind 4-2. Viloria chose neutral to start the third period. Morgan Sauseda countered a Viloria takedown attempt to get a takedown of his own to tie the score. Late in the 3rd period, Morgan Sauseda put Viloria on his back to score a 4 point near fall and the win by an 8-4 score. His second match was won 4-0 over Danny Borego of Skyline. "Suasey" as he is known by his team scored a takedown, escape and riding time point. That took him into the finals against his nemesis from Fresno City, #1 ranked Brandon Betancourt. "Sausey" could not get his offense going and fell 7-1. Morgan Sauseda finished 2nd and picked up another All American Award.
Freshman Abel Garcia (174-Oakdale HS) had a bye, pin and decision to get to the finals. In his first match, Abel Garcia made quick work of Robert Flores of Moorpark. Abel Garcia scored a takedown and a nearfall before gaining a pin in 1:45. Next he faced #1 ranked Hector Vargas of Mt. San Antonio. Neither could get much offense going. In the end, Abel Garcia scored an escape and penalty point for unnecessary roughness for a 2-1 win. In the finals, Abel Garcia met Anthony Cress of Chabot who he had lost to in the North Region. Abel Garcia got on the board first with a slick single leg takedown. After a Cress escape, Cress took a shot. Abel Garcia countered but during the counter got out of position and ended up getting pinned to finish second as well as All American.
Sophomore Robert Nickerson (197-Franklin HS) also made the finals. Robert Nickerson had a bye and 2 falls to reach the finals where he met #1 ranked David Vanweems of Cerritos. In his first match he met Kobe Rosas of West Hills. They had met twice previously with a split of the matches. The first round was cautious and ended in a 0-0 score. Rojas scored an escape to begin the 2nd period. Robert Nickerson took little time in scoring a single leg takedown to go up 2-1. Another Rojas escape tied the match going into the 3rd period. Robert Nickerson scored his own escape to take a 3-2 lead. Late in the round Robert Nickerson scored another takedown to the back and finished with a pin in 6:48. In his second match he went against Zavion Roberson of Bakersfield. Robert Nickerson scored a takedown and a nearfall to lead 4-1 after the first period. Roberson scored an escape in the second period to cut the lead to 4-2. Robert Nickerson scored an escape to up the lead to 5-2, but Roberson came back with a takedown and was only down one point, 5-4. Robert Nickerson scored another escape followed by a takedown to the back and his second fall of the day in 6:10. In the finals against Vanweems, the defending state champ who has not lost a match in two years to JC competition, Vanweems controlled the offense with 4 takedowns and a 9-4 win. Robert Nickerson finished 2nd and earned All American status.
Three other Panther wrestlers took home 5th place medals. Isaac Bertolotto (Fresh-165-Turlock HS), Robert Sillas (Fresh-184-Yuba City HS) and Daniel Warden (Fresh-197-Union Mine HS) all finished in 5th place. Isaac Bertolotto started the year at 184, but slowly worked his way down to the 165 weight. He had a bye and then lost a close 5-4 match to eventual champ, Apollo Santos of Mt. San Antonio. He then won his next two matches, a fall over Anthony Espinoza of Rio Hondo and a 6-0 win over Josh Koning of Moorpark. In the consolation semi, he threw Brandon Tierney of Santa Ana to his back for 6, but ended up getting reversed and eventual pinned. He won by medical forfeit in his final match with Blake Vasquez of Cerritos. Robert Sillas, who only weighs 173, but competes for SCC at 184 because we needed someone in the weight. He came through big with 3 wins by fall and a 5th place finish. He started with a pin in 55 seconds over Merceles Velasquez of Palomar. He then lost to the eventual Champion, Adrian Godinez of Bakersfield by a 10-3 score. After scoring a 5-0 win over Jay Johnson of Fresno City, he scored another 1st period pin. This time he pinned Angel Verdusco of Cerritos in 2:21. He lost his next match to another Bakersfield member, Jeremy Mass by a 7-5 score. He finished with a 41 second fall of Dylan Kranich of Delta. Kranich defeated Robert Sillas in the regionals so it was a nice way for him to come back. Daniel Warden took an early 4-2 lead in his match with Robert Ramirez of Rio Hondo, but got caught and pinned in the second period. He followed that with two first period falls. The first was in 1:41 over Kobe Rosas of West Hills. The second was in 1:07 over David Chavaria of Mt. San Antonio. His next match was a back and forth whirlwind with Marcus Macias of Fresno City. Macias came out on top with a 16-12 win. Daniel Warden followed with another first round pin in 2:13 over Zach Roberson of Bakersfield.
Rounding out the medals was Brian Horn (Fresh-165-Rocklin HS). Brian Horn won his first match, 10-9 before falling to #1 ranked Victor Vargas of Fresno. He came back with an 11-3 win over Marc Chamberlain of Chabot. He lost his next two matches to wrestlers from the south to finish 8th.
Two other wrestlers who competed at state for SCC were Trevor Mattox (Fresh-133-Pittman HS) and Dylan Crawford (Fresh-157-Lodi HS). Both went 0-2 at the state meet, but they will be back with the other 7 freshman (9 total starters) to help lead the Panthers next season.
Great finish Panther wrestlers. Now it is time to whip up the class finals and see how many Academic All Americans we can get this season!
You can get all the state results at: http://static.psbin.com/1/4/b4wq942e3ynghs/2017_CCCAA_State_Final_Brackets.pdf
Team Scores and Award winners: http://static.psbin.com/b/z/sjq4i1cmqv8bvi/2017_State_Medalists_Team_-_Other_Awards.pdf
