Three Warrior wrestlers reach semifinals of Londos tournament

Three members of Fallbrook High School’s wrestling team reached the semifinals of the Jim Londos Memorial Wrestling Tournament held January 8 at Orange Glen High School.

“All three of those guys but for a couple of mistakes could have easily been in the finals,” said Fallbrook coach Greg Wagaman.

Fallbrook finished 11th as a team despite taking only nine wrestlers. A high school wrestling meet consists of 14 different weight classes, so the Warriors immediately were deprived of the opportunity to place in five of those weight divisions. In other classes the Warriors competed but failed to score points.

“We had a handful of matches that we just didn’t do well at,” Wagaman said.

The Warriors’ 11th-place finish was among 24 schools. “It was a high-quality tournament,” Wagaman said.

Fallbrook preceded the tournament - and began January - with a dual meet January 6 at El Camino. Fallbrook wrestled in ten classes, ceding the Wildcats 18 points by forfeits in three of those weight divisions while recording a scoreless double forfeit in the 112-pound class for which neither school had a competitor. Thus Fallbrook’s 37-28 victory translates to a 37-10 margin on the mat.

“We had a couple of really good weeks of practice,” Wagaman said. “We made progress on some of the errors we knew we had to take care of after Vegas.”

(Fallbrook’s previous meet had been the Las Vegas Holiday Classic tournament.)

The El Camino results also equate to eight Fallbrook wins and two losses, one by a major decision and one by a pin.

In the Jim Londos Memorial Wrestling Tournament two of Fallbrook’s semifinalists lost to the eventual champion while one lost to the runner-up. Andrew Tate lost to 112-pound champion Travis Ino of San Marcos by a decision while Blake Williams was pinned by eventual champion Calvin Wiss of San Clemente in the second period of the 135-pound semifinal match.

Cristian Vera lost a 1-0 match in the 215-pound semifinals to Easton Simmons of Steele Canyon. “We were really sure that he had a takedown, but we weren’t awarded it,” Wagaman said of Vera’s performance. “It was a really strong match for him.”

Tate also lost by a decision in the third-place match while Williams and Vera pinned their opponents in to take third-place finishes.

“They all pretty much came back and did a pretty good job,” Wagaman said. “Pretty much across the board we participated at a third-place level, which may not sound good, but for us that constitutes and improvement.”

In addition to the three semifinalists, Ryan Torres took seventh place in the 130-pound division.

“We won a couple of overtime matches at the tournament, which is very encouraging for us because we just outworked those guys,” Wagaman said. “I think it was a good launch for us.”

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