Will C. Wood High would have the second-largest girls team at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters tournament if not for Kali Daniel. The senior thought she had little chance of qualifying, so she will be at Disneyland on Friday instead of Adventist Health Arena in Stockton. Nine girls will have to do.
Make that a school-record contingent of nine. Daniel would have been No. 10 by finishing fourth at 100 pounds in the section Central Regional last Saturday in Lodi. The top eight finishers in each of 14 weight classes qualified for the Masters. There were just 14 girls competing in the century class.
All 14 had byes in the first round. The top two seeds also had one in the second round. A second-round victory put Daniel in the quarterfinals against Elk Grove’s Jennifer Wells, who pinned Daniel in 1:23. Daniel won three consolation matches before losing 18-5 to Wells in the third-place match.
Daniel was one of four Wood girls to finish in the top four of their respective weight classes. The other three were Nehemiah Lewis (third at 135), Abigail English-Reed (third at 145) and Dayanna Aguilar-Bermudez (fourth at 190). Lewis was pinned and English-Reed was on the wrong side of a 3-2 decision in the semifinals.
English-Reed led 2-0 and was 15 seconds away from going to the finals when Sheldon’s Joslyn Glass scored a takedown. Glass then defeated Cesar Chavez’s Natalin Hout 9-4 to claim the title. English-Reed bounced back to finish third with a 5-0 win against Amador’s Nicali Brown.
Gia Machado (105), Bailey Franco (110), Madison Devalle (125), Faith Raji (139), Mia Espreo (140), and Cass Edralin (155) will also make the trip to the Masters. The Wildcats will spend two nights in Stockton after having to gather at 5 a.m. in Vacaville and drive to Lodi to make the weigh-ins at 7 for the Central Regional.
There was not enough room in the van for coach Thor Jensen’s wife, so Johanna drove by herself to the Central Regional. Jensen would have gladly gone with his wife, but he joked that leaving assistant Lloyd Wilson to drive the van was risky because Wilson has a habit of dozing off on trips.
Wilson is usually stoic when he sits alongside Jensen during a tournament, but he sprang to his feet last Saturday as Franco battled Galt’s Jacqueline Dahl in an elimination match. Bailey must have made Wilson’s day by scoring three nearfalls in an 18-0 technical fall that clinched her trip to the Masters.
Wood also had three boys qualify for the Masters with Jacob Lopez (115), Matthew English-Reed (146) and Adrian Badell (167). Lopez is the highest-seeded Wood boy at No. 2. Badell is sixth and English-Reed is 32nd. English-Reed, a freshman, will start against top seed Kai Yi-Berg of Folsom.
Lopez is seeded second after finishing sixth at the Division III meet. He was pinned by Vacaville’s Gabe Martinez in the fifth-place match and Martinez is seeded 32nd for the Masters. That means Martinez will start against Elk Grove’s Isaiah Gonzaga, the top seed who is ranked 12th in the state,
Vacaville is taking all 14 of its boys and three girls to the Masters. Three of the 17 earned titles last Saturday, Kaelena Ahrens claimed the 120 championship at the Central Regional. Daniel Maranan (132) and Brady Wight (190) came home with crowns from the section Division III boys tournament.
Ahrens is the only Vacaville wrestler to earn a top seed. She was seeded sixth last year and won her first match by pin before being pinned by Oak Ridge’s JJ DeLeon in the quarterfinals. Ahrens led 10-2 in the third-place match before being pinned by Livingston’s Aleyda Revuelta.
Maranan pinned his four opponents, including three in the first round. Wight won a battle of state-ranked wrestlers in the finals by beating Oakdale’s Xander Birakos 10-0. Wight is ranked sixth and Birakos 12th in the state, but Birakos drew a higher seed (third) than Wight (fifth) for the Masters.
Wight could run into top seed Noah Daniels of Sheldon in the semifinals. Wight won his first three matches by pin at the Masters last year, but he was not as fortunate in the semifinals with a 17-0 loss to Brokton Borelli of Los Banos. Borelli upset top seed Levi Bussey of Granite Bay in the finals.
A pin in his first consolation match sent Wright against Pitman’s Carter Vannest in a battle for third place. It was not much of a battle, however, as Vannest won 22-6. Vannest is the seventh seed this year. Yuba City’s DJ Pitts McNeal is seeded third even though he lost 9-6 to Wight at the Division III meet.
Joining Maranan and Wight in Stockton will be Eli Mayer (108), Gabe Martinez (115), Ethan Busby (122), Brett Crowley (128), Jack Giangrasso (140), David Clark (146), Brandon Lee (152), Damian Garcia (159), Gabe Ingraham (167), Wyatt Thaller (177), Aiden Yanez (217) and Erza Cremo (287).
