On January 7th-8th Vintage High School hosted its 13th Annual Asics Napa Valley Girls Classic, which is known for having the best competition from both the northern and the southern sections. Over 300 girls showed up to wrestle that morning, including returning champions, state placers, and California High School’s very own Alyssa Garcia. After pinning the girls from North Salinas, Newark Memorial, and winning her semifinals match in triple overtime against Vintage High, the competition came down to the best of the South as she faced La Serna’s Desiree Ramos in the finals. Three periods later Alyssa emerged as the tournament champion for the 103 lb weight class with a final score of 5-2. The win was a true victory for both Cal High and Alyssa, having lost to Desiree 2-3 in the finals at South Hills the week prior (Amanda Osborne took first for her weight class at the South Hills girls tournament, but did not compete at Napa due to an injury).

Cal High would like to give a very special thanks to Coach Mike Duran from Baldwin Park for taking Alyssa along with his girls to the tournament. We look forward to competing at his school on January 22nd!

Cal is proud of Matt’s (Class of 2009) accomplishments!!

Cougars roll past Nation’s best to capture 2011 Cliff Keen JC Championship
January 9, 2011
Cedar Falls, IA — Clackamas CC entered the tournament with a NJCAA #7 ranking, but are sure to move up considerably as they posted three convincing wins over highly ranked teams including double-digit defeats of top-ranked Harper College and defending NJCAA national Champion Iowa Central CC.

Impressive showing considering the Cougars are not at full strength and did not recieve many bonus points from top-ranked Terrence Williams and Tyrell Fortune in the first two matches. 2nd-ranked 165 lber Derrick Mestrovich was missing from the line up and is currently nursing an injury.

The Cougars rolled past perennial power Iowa Central in the opener 27-13 Saturday, gaining 18 valuable points on pins by Kegan Handlovic (125), Cody Randall (141) and Matt Melendrez (157). “This was a huge win to get us started and our guys believing in our chances,” said Rhoden.

The Cougars then stunned 2010 NJCAA non-scholarship champion Harper in Sunday morning’s semifinals to the tune of a 24-9 beat down to advance to the championship match. “We got a great start from our lower weights and our guys were fired up.” “We knew who we were up against and we showed up big time,” said Rhoden of the semi final victory.

The Cougars got huge wins over several highly-ranked Harper opponents including Handlovic’s dec over #2 Eduardo Dominguez, Melendrez’s fall over #1 Phillip Starnes, Williams (#1 174) dec over top-ranked 165 lber Luke Roth and Fortune’s dec over #3 Adam Chalphant.

The other semifinalist Labette CC easily dispatched Cougar Region 18 rival SW Oregon CC 34-4 to set up the title match.

Clackamas began the championship match with a fall by Handlovic and a decision by Martin Gonzalez (133) over 7th-ranked Ty Fittje to kick of the contest with a 9-0 lead. Labette quickly retaliated with a pair of wins to draw close at 9-7 before Melendrez pinned his third victim in just over four minutes to make it 15-7.

Clackamas put the dagger in deeper as CCC won the next three bouts including a huge technical fall by Terrence William (165), who is wrestling down a weight class in place of Mestrovich, to give Clackamas all it needed in the 30-10 rout. “In this final match we just kept talking about finishing the tournament with a big one and our guys stepped up huge to take this win back home to Clackamas.” Our kids wanted to bring the first National Dual Championship to the College,” added Rhoden.

Melendrez, with his three falls, was selected the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. “Matty wrestled an incredible tournament for us.” He is wrestling exactly as we hoped he would when we signed him a year ago,” said Coach Rhoden. “Our coaches are so happy for him because his commitment level is matching his talent level,” concluded Rhoden.

Cal crowned four individual champions as it earned a first place finish at Santa Fe’s Scuffle Tournament. Miguel Rosales (119), Juan Rosales (125), Torrey Moreno (135), and Andrew Garcia ended up at the top of the podium. Torrey was impressive by pinning all of his opponents, earning him the lower weight MVP Award. Other Condors placing were Andy Arriaga 5th (103), Fernando Ravago 2nd (125), Miguel Maldonado 4th (130), Nick Mercado 3rd (140), Juan Mendez 6th (145), Isaac Manzano 4th(171), David Manzano 4th (189), and Victor Lopez 4th (HWT).

Next for the Condors is league competition against Pioneer on Thursday
Cal will then compete at Five Counties on Friday and Saturday at Fountain Valley HS

Cal opened up league competition with wins over El Rancho’s Varsity and JV teams.
The Condors will compete this weekend at Santa Fe’s varsity tournament. Cal will send an A and a B team.

Thursday January 6th 2011
4:00pm JV
Varsity to follow JV

Cal will make its 8th straight appearance at Rosemead’s West Coast Classic two-day tournament. This event will feature 50 teams; 12 which will be at our CIF. The Condors will take two teams, giving an opportunity to JV wrestlers in the cusp of making or aspiring to be Varsity a taste of some stiff competition. The A team will have the opportunity to build their resume toward a favorable seeding at CIF and the B team will benefit from the tournament as they become the A team next year. Elias Mercado (7th), Miguel Rosales (4th), Juan Rosales (7th) Torrey Moreno (6th), Andrew Garcia (4th) hope to improve on last year’s finish at West Coast. Torrey Moreno (5th) and Miguel Maldonado (7th) also placed in 2008.

CIF Eastern Teams at West Coast
Agoura
Alemany
Bell Gardens
Calabasas
Crespi
El Rancho
Harvard Westlake
San Gabriel
Schurr
Simivalley
Westlake
Whittier

Previous Condors at WCC:

Champ Jon Toro 2008 MVP
Champ Matt Melendrez 2008
Champ Ruben Warr 2006
Champ Louie Audelo 2004
2nd Daniel Guzman 2008
2nd Gerardo Avila 2007
2nd Matt Melendrez 2007
3rd Anthony Zepeda 2009
3rd Scire Dompe 2005
3rd Brandon Dompe 2005
3rd Kenny Gonsalves 2005
3rd Nick Noriega 2006
4th Miguel Rosales 2009
4th Andrew Garcia 2009
4th Matt Melendrez 2006
4th Ben Taylor 2003
5th Kevin Orense 2007
5th Nick Noriega 2005
5th Ruben Warr 2005
5th Alex Gray 2008
5th Andres Cordova 2005
5th Torrey Moreno 2008
6th Torrey Moreno 2009
6th Elias Rodriguez 2008
7th Juan Rosales 2009
7th Elias Mercado 2009
7th Jeremy Araiza 2007
7th Richard Callahan 2007
7th Miguel Maldonado 2008
8th Jeremy Araiza 2006
8th Roy Ramirez 2006
8th Juvenal Magana 2003

103 Alyssa Garcia Decision
112 Bell
119 Raymond Guzman Fall
125 Miguel Rosales Fall
130 Miguel Maldonado Fall
135 Kain Archuleta Decision
140 Torrey Moreno Decision
145 Jeremy Silva Fall
152 Bell
160 Mike Garcia Fall
171 Bell
189 David Manzano Fall
215 Sal Nunez Fall
HWT Bell

Cal High 50 Bell High 21

Three weeks ago Cal High’s lady wrestlers kicked off their season with a bang at Savanna High School’s Rebel Clash, placing 2 out of 4 competitors. Nohely Benitez (126 lbs) and Sandra Salinas (154 lbs) represented Cal Hi well in the beginners division while returners Alyssa Garcia (108 lbs) and Amanda Osborne (189 lbs) wrestled their way to the top of the “experienced” brackets. Alyssa captured the gold for the 108 lb weight class, beating last year’s 108 lb state champion runner-up in the finals. Likewise, Amanda also faced some tough competitors but emerged with the gold for her respective weight class. Over all the tournament was a good opportunity for our new wrestlers to get their feet wet and for our returners to show how much they’ve improved.

The following weekend our ladies competed in Thousand Oaks High School’s Girls Tournament, held on December 4th. In addition to Leslie Garcia (103), Amanda Osborne (189), and Sandra Salinas (154), Cal High was represented by new wrestler Alex Corona (122). Although our ladies came across some stiff competition that day, 3 out of 4 wrestlers advanced to the medaling rounds: Leslie Garcia took home a 4th place medal as well as Sandra Salinas who pinned 3 out of her 5 opponents with a head and arm. Amanda Osborne took home the gold.

On December 11th our ladies competed for the third weekend in a row at the girls tournament held in West Covina. Alyssa Garcia (108), Alex Corona (118), Nohely Benitez (122), and Sandra Salinas (154) competed for Cal High that day. As always, the caliber of wrestlers present far exceeded the size of the tournament. Sandra Salinas had to default from the tournament due to an injury and Alyssa Garcia was Cal High’s only placer, taking home 4th.

Great job so far this season ladies!! Your hard work and tournament results forecast a promising season. Get ready for Lancaster High’s Lady Eagles Open on the 21st! And good luck to our boys tonight as they face Bell!

Leslie Garcia (103)

Amanda Osborne (189) and Sandra Salinas (154)

A strong contingent of JV wrestlers participated at San Marino’s tournament this past weekend. All wrestlers added experience to their resume that will hopefully allow them to jump to Varsity next year. Leading the way to make this leap are underclassmen that took first place at the tournament: Andrew Arriaga (103), Chris Garcia (112), Fernando Rabago (125), Josh Hernandez (125), Cain Archuleta (135), Andrew Mirales (140). Raymond Guzman (119) placed 2nd; Fernando Rabago was the lower MVP wrestler.

The second day at Edison for Cal began with the attrition of two wrestlers as Miguel Rosales (SATs) and Nick Mercado (minor injury) defaulted their matches. Juan Rosales lost a tough one to Mission Viejo, which he had defeated the previous week. Elias had a competitive match in the quarters against Santa Ana that ended up 9-6 in favor of the Saints. Elias managed to earn a 7th place medal, which is very respectable as a two-year wrestler. Miguel Maldonado won his first match of the day but fell shy from placing. Andrew Garcia lost in the quarterfinals but ended up placing 5th. Torrey Moreno had the best outing for the Condors, making it to the semifinals and losing there by one point. Torrey wrestled back to take 4th place.

Next for Cal is Rosemead’s West Coast Classic, where Cal will take an A and a B team.