Westlake’s Hunter Wrestles With Demons, Wraps Up 3rd

Westlake High’s Billy Hunter, devastated by a loss in the quarterfinals, threw his battered character on the mat four times Saturday in the state wrestling tournament at University of the Pacific.

Hunter, the top-seeded wrestler in the 175-pound division, was on a mission to prove he was worthy of the 37-0 record he brought to Stockton. He had seen so many favorites lose in the championship bracket, then suffer emotional letdowns that led them to the wrestling graveyard.

So Hunter trudged through the consolation bracket Saturday, seeming to dig deeper and deeper each time in search of intensity, and finished with a 1-0 win over Aptos’ Brian Acosta-Avila in the third-place match.

“It was a meat grinder,” Hunter said. “It’s so hard to come back, mentally, after you’ve been beaten.”

Especially when you’re the favorite, as was Hunter. He was beaten, 3-1, by Ukiah’s Brett Colombini--the eventual state champion--on Friday and spent most of the evening agonizing over his first loss in 40 matches this season and only his 14th in 144 high school matches.

“At first, it was hard just trying to accept it,” Hunter said. “But I had to come back. I just had to.”

And come back he did, conquering perhaps the most difficult aspect of the state tournament: mental toughness. Hunter (43-1) wrestled four times Saturday, including two matches within an hour. But he said that the physical exhaustion didn’t measure up to the mental strain.

“It’s not half as hard on you, physically,” he said.

Agoura High’s Steve Baer can understand the mental demands. But Baer could not meet his final challenge and lost the third-place match, 11-2, to Selma’s Nick Quintana.

Baer, a senior, advanced to the semifinals of the 105-pound division Friday and became the first Agoura wrestler to get that far in the program’s 19-year history. But Trinity’s Erin Razo pinned him in just 1 minute 49 seconds in the semifinals.

“I was really fired up for that, but I didn’t even get a chance to wrestle,” Baer said, shaking his head. “I didn’t even get a chance.”

The loss pushed Baer into the unforgiving consolation bracket, in which he overcame a 6-2 deficit with a takedown and near fall in the final 10 seconds to beat Clovis’ Nick Zinkin, 7-6.

Baer faced another mental hurdle against Quintana, whom Baer had beaten, 5-4, to reach the semifinals.

“It’s almost impossible to win when you’ve already beaten somebody and you face him again,” Agoura assistant Dennis Ritterbush said. “The other kid doesn’t have anything to lose.”

Baer also was fighting a letdown brought on by the realization that he wouldn’t be part of Prime Ticket’s broadcast of the finals.

“It makes it so much harder when you’re focused for the championship and you suddenly have to settle for something less,” Baer said.

Westlake’s Neal Mason (44-5) lost in the semifinals of the 154-pound division and settled for fifth place. Mason, only the second Warrior to reach the semifinals, lost his first two matches Saturday by a total of three points.

Mason was beaten, 5-4, by Long Beach Poly’s Lemans Wells in the semifinals then lost, 2-0, to Valhalla’s Jason Hendrick in the consolation semifinals. He then beat San Juan’s Javier Hernandez, 4-1, to earn a medal.

“I wanted to be standing on the winner’s pedestal, so I am happy with that,” Mason said.

Newbury Park heavyweight Jeff Jay (33-5) didn’t fare as well. Jay, a senior who lost in the quarterfinals Friday, was eliminated, 3-1, by Rim of the World’s Jeff Maier in the consolation bracket.