Northview’s Flores and Manigault Roll

Caleb Flores and Shad Manigault advanced to the semifinals and led a Northview charge into fifth place after the first day of the state wrestling championships at Rabobank Arena.

Flores, ranked No. 1 in the state at 119 pounds, easily moved through the first day, posting three victories by technical fall and one by an 11-5 decision. He outscored his four opponents, 76-23, Friday, and will face No. 5-ranked Joe Boone of Poway in the semifinals today.

Manigault, ranked No. 2 in the state at 140 pounds, prevailed, 4-2, in a tough quarterfinal match against Andrew Leveille of Folsom. He will face fourth-ranked Armando Gonzalez of Gilroy in the semifinals.

Northview, with four wrestlers still in contention, has 46 team points. Clovis Buchanan leads the tournament with 90, two ahead of Poway. Temecula Valley, which had Ryan Smith (171) and Aaron Navarrete (125) advance to the semifinals, is in seventh place with 44 points.

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel is the only other Southland team in the top 10. Led by Justin Paulsen’s advancement to the 112 semifinals, Calvary Chapel is eighth with 41.5 points.

Other semifinalists from the Southland include: Thomas Williams of Covina South Hills (103), Scott Prentice of Alhambra (125), Jeff Marval of Moreno Valley Canyon Springs (130), Chris Drouin of Temecula Chaparral (135), Jake Pinkham of Huntington Beach Edison (189), Nate Willard of Atascadero (189), Geoff Hewitt of Corona Santiago (215), Romney Fuga of Edison (275) and Sione Fua of Encino Crespi (275).

Adam Wilson of Santa Maria Righetti, the Southern Section Masters champion at 171 pounds, lost his opening match against Martin Beeler of Ripon and was eliminated by a 7-1 loss to Herman Kucukkoseoglu of Chino Hills Ayala in the fourth round.

Masters champions who were eliminated Friday were Drew Velasco of North Torrance (103), George Munoz of West Covina (152) and Ryan Hoover of Hesperia (275).