Local wrestlers provide early upsets at Five Counties

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Two Southern Section wrestlers knocked off the top seeds in their weight classes in the early rounds of the Five Counties wrestling tournament Friday at Fountain Valley, although only one of them will be taking part in Saturday’s action.

Unseeded Frank Martinez of Northview downed top-seeded Justin Arrendondo of Clovis Buchanan, 4-3, in the second round. Martinez, who took first place at Northview, Lemoore and Nogales this season, then pinned 16th-seeded David Wood of La Costa Canyon in 5 minutes 45 seconds to advance to Saturday’s championship quarterfinal match against ninth-seeded Derek Dixon of Vista.

Unseeded Mark Robles of Camarillo pinned top-seeded Jesse Delgado of Gilroy in 1:57 in the second round of the 112-pound weight class. But the good fortune ended for Robles, who was defeated by 16th-seeded Bobby Morales of Laguna Hills, 9-5, in the third round and then eliminated by default in the consolation bracket. Morales will face ninth-seeded Alfonso Osuna of Brawley in the championship quarterfinals.

Poway (95.5) led the team standings after three championship rounds and two consolation rounds, followed by Selma (77.5) and Temecula Valley (73). With a lot of wrestling still to come, some other notable local teams are checking in as follows: San Clemente is eighth, Laguna Hills is 11th, El Doroado is 12th, Northview is 16th, Corona Centennial is 20th, Irvine is 22nd, South Hills is 24th, Hesperia is 27th, Santa Fe is 28th and North Torrance is 30th.

-- Chuck Schilken, guest blogger

-- Image from http://fivecounties.net/