Oros wins section title, Jags finish second in CIF wrestling tournament

Juan Oros shows off his medal and winning bracket from the CIF tournament.

The Jaguars finished second in CIF Division IV this season.

Senior wrestler Juan Oros won the 105-pound division to lead the Valley Center varsity wrestling team to a second place finish in the CIF Division IV wrestling tournament at Olympian High School on Saturday.
The Jaguars tallied 179.5 points to finish just behind tournament winner Clairemont with 190 points, and will send eight wrestlers to the Masters meet on Saturday. The Jags beat out the rest of the top five: La Jolla in third with 170.5, Imperial in fourth with 164.5 and Olympian in fifth with 145.5.
Oros came back late in the match to pull out a 6–4 decision over Tirso Lara of Imperial in the championship round, after rolling through the first three matches of the day with lightning-fast pins.
Meanwhile, Dylan Smith finished second in the 162-pound division after falling to Matt Vasquez of La Jolla in a 4–3 decision that went to four overtime periods before a champion was crowned.
In the third place matches, both Dustin Miller at 114 pounds and Lorenzo Gomez at 287 pounds won to secure a top-three spot for the Jaguars. Miller won a 5–0 decision over Jerrick Ello of Olympian, while Gomez won a 3–1 decision over Lance Angulo of Holtville.
Four of Valley Center’s wrestlers made it to the third place matches, only to suffer losses because of the five-match rule. Those four Jaguars were Manny Boyle at 121 pounds, Daquota Avila at 137 pounds, Kyle Glennie at 191 pounds and Travis Weddington at 217 pounds.
Those eight wrestlers—Oros, Smith, Miller, Gomez, Boyle, Avila, Glennie and Weddington—will represent Valley Center in the CIF San Diego Section Masters Tournament this Friday and Saturday at Canyon Crest Academy.

(photos by Gabriel Santana)

Five wrestlers take first place as Jaguars win Escondido Rumble

On Friday, 26 Valley Center wrestlers traveled to Escondido High School for a two-day wrestling extravaganza called The Rumble, and after a day that lived up to its name, the Jaguars came away with the tournament championship.
Each wrestler was guaranteed five matches, and those with highest win/loss records were entered into the medal tournament, where they could wrestle three additional matches. Sixteen Jaguars advanced to the medals’ tournament, with five winning championships in their respective classes—Sam McCuskey (98 pounds), Dustin Miller (106 pounds), Manny Boyle (122 pounds), Damian Stehly (173 pounds) and Travis Weddington (217 pounds).
Meanwhile, John Mayo took second at 98 pounds and Trevor Ryback finished third at 115 pounds. Four Valley Center wrestlers took fourth—John Murphy (114 pounds), James Oakley (122 pounds), Daquota Avila (138 pounds) and Kevin Izadi (heavyweight).
Five Jags finished seventh in the tournament—Zach Dewey (128 pounds), Kaulana Miller (128 pounds), Christian Guerrero (133 pounds), Jesus Diaz (191 pounds) and Lorenzo Gomez (heavyweight).
After more than 120 individual matches, 11 Jaguars earned medals for finishing in the top four.
But the biggest surprise of the day was winning the tournament championship. The tournament’s design is give underclassmen more opportunity to wrestle prior the entering the CIF tournaments. The Jaguars gained valuable experience that will be helpful for this coming CIF Division IV Tournament coming up on Saturday at Olympian High School in Chula Vista. Wrestling begins at 9 a.m. with the championship finals scheduled at 6 p.m.
The Valley Center wrestlers suffered a setback with a league finale loss to Del Norte High School, 39–27, on Thursday.
Two forfeits and some lackluster performances led the Jaguars to their demise, but two Jags won by pin—Juan Oros at 105 pounds and Dustin Miller at 114 pounds—while Christian Guerrero won a 5–4 decision at 132 pounds and Dylan Smith won a technical fall at 173 pounds.
The Jaguars finish the season in third place in Valley League with a 3–2 league record and a 4-4 overall mark.