Pete Moye’
Sports Button

Even though 125-pounder Jake Harrison took first place in his weight class, it was not enough to keep the Cerritos College wrestling team at No. 2. As a team, Cerritos took fifth place at the Santa Ana Tournament on Saturday at Santa Ana College.

According to Head Coach Don Garriott, the problem was that the team didn’t have some of its best wrestlers competing.

Damien Gomez, at 125 pounds and Ramon Estrada, at 174 pounds, both took first in their weight classes and won all four of their matches at the West Hills Tournament.

However, both were unavailable to compete at Santa Ana.

Sophomore Jake Harrison won all four of his matches, including a 6-4 win over Fresno City’s Eugene Cancino, a pin on Mt. San Antonio’s Phillip Hendrix and a close 10-9 match against JR Davila of Fresno City.

Being his first time winning all four matches, Harrison said, “It was my first individual tournament so I wanted to start off the season strong and get a good state ranking in nice and early so I have a good start for the season.”

Freshman Keith Nieves, at 184 pounds, won his first three matches that took him to semi-finals but then was defeated 8-3 by Fito Juarez of Fresno City.

Nieves said, “I think I failed to focus on the little things like set ups.”

Freshman Tyree Cox took third in his 184 pound weight class. After losing his first match, he came back and won all five of his matches that included three pins and one shut out.

When it came to what helped him win the rest of his matches, Cox stated, “I just had to get into my zone and wrestle my match where I knew I was dominant.”

Cerritos will travel to Modesto College on Saturday where they will wrestle in the Modesto Tournament.