Coyotes, Hawks end duals strong
Tyler Takeda/The Madera Tribune Madera’s Mario Moreno ended the Big XII Duals, hosted by the Liberty Hawks, with a pin at 120 pounds to help the Coyotes to the silver division championship Saturday at Ranchos Middle School.
The Madera Coyotes and Liberty Hawks wrestling teams both went undefeated during the bracket rounds to close out the second annual Big XII Duals, hosted by the Hawks at Ranchos Middle School.
The Coyotes defeated Clovis East to win the Silver Division championship and went 4-1 during the duals Saturday.
“The rotationals are good team building,” Madera head coach Joe Romine said. “It’s good to bring the team together. They realize even though they lose a match, if they don’t lose bad, they still help the team.”
The Coyotes defeated Sanger 51-21 to advance to the Silver Division Championship and then defeated Clovis East 41-27.
“A kid can lose a match, but feel he did his part,” Romine said. “It’s not too bad to finish 4-1 with our only loss coming to Buchanan. We’re trying to get better. That’s the plan. We have some guys with a lot of experience. We have some fresh faces, too.”
Although the Hawks lost all three of their pool play matches, they battled tough in a 42-36 loss to Mission Oak and a 45-36 loss to Dos Palos.
“I felt like Day 1 was a good performance for us,” head coach Jay Pumarejo said. “We were in the top five for most of the day in a 20-team tournament. A lot of our kids wrestled Friay in the junior varsity tournament. Today, we didn’t perform as well in the morning, but had a good afternoon.”
The Hawks turned it around in the afternoon with a 39-27 win over Sunnyside-Fresno and a 42-33 victory over Merced.
“Wrestling is definitely revealing,” Pumarejo said. “For the kids to come in the afternoon, after not only competing in the second day in a row as well as hosting a tournament for the second day in a row, reveals how tough and how much heart these kids have.”
The Selma Bears defeated the Clovis North Broncos to win the second annual Big XII duals while Buchanan earned the third place plaque.
“I’m excited to start planning for next year,” Pumarejo said. “I have a lot of fun planning this. It ended up being a great event. Both days ended up being fantastic. It was full of compliments and not complaints. That’s due to the support the Madera Ranchos gives us.” Madera Coyotes
Madera lost its only dual of the day, 46-17, to Tri-River Athletic Conference’s Buchanan-Clovis Bears, who are also perennial Valley and State Champion front-runners.
Madera routed Sunnyside 63-6 and edged Shafter 36-30 to advance to the silver division.
The Coyotes faced County/Metro Athletic Conference rival Sanger in the Silver division semifinals. Madera picked up nine victories, including forfeit wins from Oscar Ruiz (160 pounds), Josiah Morales (182), John Cook (285) and Josue Romero (113).
Madera opened the dual with a pin from Mario Moreno, at 120 pounds, with one second left in the first period.
After Sanger won back-to-back decisions, Matt Montelongo dominated his 138-pound opponent. He scored five points in the first period and held an 8-0 lead before pinning his opponent.
Angel Guizar picked up a second period pin at 152 pounds for a 30-12 lead.
Hulise Santiago, at 195 pounds, had takedowns in the first two periods and a reversal in the third for a 7-2 decision.
Alexa Vaca recorded a second period pin at 220 pounds for Madera’s final dual-match victory over Sanger for the 51-24 victory.
Clovis East opened its dual against Madera with a pin at 126 pounds. Rudy Paredes, at 132 pounds, won by a 7-5 decision to cut the Clovis East lead to 6-3.
Madera’s next two wresters were pinned in the second period for an 18-3 Clovis East lead.
Guizar won by a 5-1 decision at 152 pounds while Ruiz won by a narrow 2-0 decision at 160 pounds.
Another Clovis East pin opened a 24-9 lead.
Josiah Morales started a Madera comeback with an 8-0 major decision at 182 pounds. Hulise Santiago followed with a pin with 17 seconds left in the third period.
Ranjel Miranda won by forfeit to give Madera a 25-24 lead. Heavyweight John Cook lost by a 2-1 decision in overtime and Madera trailed 27-25.
Madera came back to close out the dual with three straight victories. Matthew Ornelas received a forfeit win at 106 pounds.
Giovanni Madrigal clinched the Madera victory with a 10-2 major decision at 113 pounds.
Moreno put the final touches on the win with a pin with seven seconds left in the second period. Liberty Hawks
After the Hawks lost all three matches in pool play, Liberty won both matches in bracket play to close the Big XII Duals on a positive note.
Opening bracket play, the Hawks battled enough to pick up a 39-27 victory over Sunnyside-Fresno.
The Hawks received five forfeits — Zach Santoro (120 pounds), Jarred Dotson (132), Sam Rauschenberg (195), Angel Lugo (220) and Cole Diebert (106) to record victories despite getting pinned four times.
Conner Hiatt earned a 6-4 victory at 138 pounds for Liberty’s first dual win.
Kaleb Roth, who went undefeated, including a win over Clovis North, pinned his 182 pound opponent with 45 seconds left in the second period. Those were all the points Liberty needed for a 39-27 victory.
The Hawks closed bracket play with a 42-33 victory over Merced.
Helping the Hawks to the victory were forfeit victories from Nathan Pearce, Chris Imirian, Roth, Rauschenberg and Tanner Cundall.
Dotson led the Hawks with a pin a second period pin at 132 pounds.
Lugo picked up Liberty’s other non-forfeit victory with a second period pin with three seconds left in the second period.