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.

Jags take fifth in San Ysidro wrestling tournament

With the Division IV CIF Wrestling Tournament three weeks away, the Valley Center varsity wrestling team has finally jelled into a very competitive team.
After taking a fifth place finish out of 23 schools at the San Ysidro Tournament and trailing by only six points top-ranked Clairemont High School, the Jaguars find themselves in store for an exciting season finale.
Other schools that will make the race interesting for championship are returning Division IV champions Imperial, Olympian , and Palo Verde high schools. Whichever school comes with the best effort will win the championship.
The Jaguars had eight place winners in the tournament. Juan Oros won his finals match with a 12-second pin over San Ysidro’s Miguel Flores. Dylan Smith made his second trip to the finals, earning a second place finish. Manny Boyle made his debut with third place victory over Mission Hills’ Marcus Cummiskey. Fourth place finishers were Dustin Miller, Christian Guerrero, Kyle Glennie, and fifth place finishers were Daquota Avila and Damian Stehly.
The Jaguars also earned their second consecutive team victory with a win over Guajome Park Academy, 56–6 on Thursday.
Freshmen Matt Barnes (154 pounds) will win his first varsity match with a 1:07 pin over opponent Jerod Adams. Also winning by pin were John Murphy (105 pounds), Dustin Miller (114 pounds), Daquota Avila (137 pounds), Pedro Flores (162 pounds), Kyle Glennie (191 pounds) and Jean-Marc Brierre (285 pounds). Christian Guerrero (142 pounds) won an 8–2 decision and Kevin Murphy (147 pounds) received a win by forfeit.
Valley Center is 2–1 in league so far, and the Jaguars hit the mat again on Thursday at home against Canyon Crest at 7 p.m.

Oros wins, Jags take ninth in San Pasqual wrestling tourney

Senior wrestler Juan Oros not only won the 105-pound weight class, but was also given the Most Outstanding Lightweight Wrestler award in the San Pasqual Wrestling Tournament this weekend.
The day didn’t start off as planned for Oros, however. Overweight by nearly a pound with only thirty minutes to shed the weight, Oros had to somehow work the weight off in the back seat of Coach Miller’s pickup truck. With the heater blasting, Oros did sit-ups and pepper-steps in the back seat until he arrived at San Pasqual High School right on weight.
Pinning all three opponents on the way to the finals, Oros was confident that he would win the championship. However, his finals match-up opponent, Jordon Griffin of Hilltop High, had other plans.
Oros spent a lot of energy executing two hard driving takedown attempts in the first period, only to come up scoreless. What was expected to be an easy victory for Oros turned out to be an aggravating, back-and-forth battle that ended up a tie in regulation time. So the match went into sudden death overtime, first takedown wins. Griffin attempted and nearly scored a double leg takedown, but Oros was able to counter the attack and stepped over for the takedown and the championship.
Junior Dylan Smith continued his winning ways at 162 pounds by finishing third place. Placing in their first varsity tournament, junior Damian Stehly finished third at 173 pounds, sophomore Daquota Avila finished second place at 137 pounds, and sophomore Christian Guerrero finished in fifth place at 132 pounds.
The Jaguars finished ninth as a team in a field of 23 schools.
Bouncing back from a Valley League loss to Orange Glen Patriots, 52–19, the Jaguars defeated the San Dieguito Academy Mustangs, 60–12. Individual winners were: Juan Oros (105 pounds), Zach Dewey (127 pounds), Christian Guerrero (132 pounds), Daquota Avila (137 pounds), Kevin Murphy(147 pounds), Damian Stehly (162 pounds), Dylan Smith (173 pounds), Jesus Diaz (191 pounds), and Aydin Cooper (heavyweight).