Masters fate still up in air for Hoover wrestling
Whether or not the Hoover High wrestling program will have a representative at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet for a fourth straight season might not be answered until the two-day tournament gets underway Friday morning.
That’s because junior Allen Melikyan finished as a first alternate at 160 pounds on Saturday’s second day of the Southern Section Inland Division Championships at Temecula Valley High.
“We’re heading down to Masters; I’m taking Allen and he’ll still probably get in,” Hoover Coach Dave Beard said. “It would have been nice if he would clinched a spot, but I still think he’ll be wrestling.”
To automatically qualify to Masters, a wrestler needs to finish in the top five in his or her respective weight class.
Melikyan had that opportunity when he faced off with Northview’s Brando Reynoso in the fifth-place match.
Reynoso immediately had Melikyan in trouble with a toss, takedown and 4-0 lead in the opening round. Though Melikyan fought back, Reynoso ultimately won a thriller, 7-6, to take fifth place and put Melikyan in sixth and waiting for an opportunity.
Melikyan picked up a couple of pins Friday before suffering a 6-2 loss to Lompoc’s top-seeded Jacob Wright in the championship quarterfinals.
The defeat dropped Melikyan into the consolation bracket and he opened Saturday with a 5-3 win over Etiwanda’s Lance Stark followed by 12-6 decision over Vista Murrieta’s Raqueal Wagstaff.
Melikyan, however, was topped by Irvine’s Kaimana McCreadie and then by Reynoso.
Should Melikyan wrestle at Masters, he would join an illustrious list of Hoover qualifiers in Geraldy Martinez (145 pounds), Arthur Ghukasyan (160) and Edmen Shahbazyan (195).
Melikyan was one of two Hoover wrestlers to advance to Saturday’s second day.
Hoover sophomore Tigran Aleksanyan finished eighth at 138 pounds with a 4-3 record.
Aleksanyan posted a 3-1 record on Friday, which included two consolation pins over Santa Monica’s Sam Feffer (1:49) and Pomona’s Luis Castro (2:29).
In consolation action Saturday, Aleksanyan opened with a 14-10 victory over Temecula Valley’s Michael Alawneh before losing, 7-2, to Great Oak’s Kevin Karpenske and, 6-0, to Santa Monica’s Jorge Arevalo.
“I was really proud of Tigran’s effort,” Beard said. “If you look at both Allen and Tigran, they both lost at Rio Hondo League finals and both came back to do pretty well at CIF.”
Friday marked the end of the season for seven additional Tornadoes wrestlers.
Seniors Quinton Smith and Chris White picked up one victory each in their swansongs.
White pinned Santa Monica’s Nathan Garcia in the first round of the 220-pound bracket before suffering back-to-back losses and ending with a 1-2 record.
Smith was pinned in the first round of the 170-pound bracket, but responded with a fall in 3:32 over Murrieta Valley’s Gavin Schell. Smith, though, finished 1-2 after falling in the next round, 6-5.
Hoover’s Dakarri Malone (106 pounds), Angel Celio (113), Arthur Harutyunyan (132), Andrew Shin (182) and Azad Markosian (heavyweight) all finished 0-2.
