The Cerritos College wrestling team obtained the CCCAA Team Dual State Championship over the past weekend in Fresno City.
The team started off to a rough start losing its first three matches. However, it was able to win six out of the 10 matches that occurred. The championship took place Sunday, Nov. 20.
With 133-pound Anthony Vargas still out of action, the Falcons were able to get the win and now look forward toward regionals.
The 165-pound and No. 4 rank, Kenneth Kirk was able to pick up a win for the team by pinning his opponent Josh Annis in 1:47.
Despite Kirk winning, Cerritos found itself losing to Fresno City by six points, he decided that he had no option but get some points for his team.
“I’m feeling good, I saw that we were losing by a bit, so I tried to get some big points for the team and do what I usually do and go out there and mess around,” he said.
He said,”I’m ready for individual regionals and state. I’m ready to do my best and win another state title as a team. I’m going to be pushing the pace and have the ability to finish the match and not finish on the bottom. It’s like coach says, he always wants us to finish on top.”
Regionals are set to take place Dec. 3.
Another victory on the night for the Falcons was the 197-pound top-ranked athlete, David Van Weems.
He was able to get his team an important five points during his battle on the mat against Kalvin Stuckey.
He expressed his feelings about both his win and walking into regionals,”This dual made me thrilled that we took state. It was an intense match. We lost our first three matches when we were going in, but as a team, we couldn’t ride the rollercoaster so we actually pulled through and actually did our job again.
“Now that we’re done with that, it’s on to individual state. So, we still got to work together as a team. Make sure everybody’s ready to push forward, we already had a 6 a.m. workout. I feel strong, I’ve wrestled everybody in the state, I’ve wrestled the top 8 guys [in the state]. I’m feeling ready, it’s about time. We’ve been building up the season all the way to this.”
A major and the last victory of the night came from the 285-pound and No. 2 ranked in the state, David Zavala.
Being the last match of the night, Zavala gained the win that the team needed to secure the championship by defeating Angel Mariscal.
Although the win was due to a penalty by Mariscal, the 285-pound athlete expressed his thoughts about the win and regionals, “Well, a win is a win and I felt good about that win. He was a good wrestler, he was fine by my books.
“And state, right now I just want to fine tune everything, get in the best shape and take care of all of these bumps and bruises that we all got.”
Head coach Don Garriott, who has been leading these men to victory after victory explained not only how he feels about the win but also how things are looking up for regionals.
“I feel great about winning the team dual state, it’s the first one that I’ve won since we’ve been here or that I’ve been here.
“And it’s kind of a hard thing because it’s something that you get so excited about and you feel accomplished when you do it, but it’s not the end of the season yet. You still got to maintain that motivation,” he said.
He continued, “What we did this week is we started 6:30 in the morning runs. You know, just to kind of show them that we’re not going to sit back on this we’re going to work harder now. So that what we’re doing now.”
Garriott, went on to explain that even though the teams conditioning as gotten a lot better since the beginning of the season he feels that it isn’t where it needs to be. Thus, he has them running at 6:30 a.m.
According to Garriott, he wants to keep pushing the players until they get there.
