Hoover High’s Edmen Shahbazyan can’t survive slow start at state

It wasn’t the sort of start or finish, for that matter, that Hoover High senior Edmen Shahbazyan expected in his first trip to the CIF State Championship Wrestling Tournament on Friday afternoon.

The 195-pounder had a slow and costly beginning, which led to an 0-2 record and an exit from the state two-day-long tournament held at Bakersfield’s Rabobank Arena.

The defeats put a sour note on an otherwise wonderful season for Shahbazyan, who finished runner-up in the Rio Hondo League, third at the CIF Southern Section Coastal Division Championships and fourth at the CIF-SS Masters Meet.

Shahbazyan also finished with a 20-7 record and had the distinction of being the area’s only qualifier to state.

“I was just completely out of it today, I don’t know,” Shahbazyan said. “I just didn’t perform well. The guys were average. The competition I faced last week was much better; I just didn’t wrestle.”

Shahbazyan began the afternoon with a tough defeat as he was pinned by San Mateo Serra junior Dominick Christmas with one second remaining in the third period.

“Edmen was only down 3-2 at that point where he got pinned at the last second,” Hoover Coach Dave Beard said. “He needed to get off the floor to force a tie and just couldn’t do it and the other guy took advantage.”

The loss wasn’t necessarily a death sentence for Shahbazyan, who had been in a similar situation at the Coastal Division Championships at Lake Elsinore Lakeside High on Feb. 21.

Shahbazyan dropped his opening bout, only to win five straight matches in earning advancement to Masters.

However, on Friday, there was no such magic.

Shahbazyan dropped to the consolation bracket after his defeat and was beaten by Bakersfield Highland senior Eric Saavedra, 6-0, to conclude Shahbazyan’s season.

Perhaps Shahbazyan’s qualification to state proved his ultimate downfall as the grappler injured his neck at last Saturday’s Masters Meet in the final bout of the day.

“Sometimes you just have those days when you wrestle bad and it’s a shame,” Beard said. “Edmen had that neck injury, which didn’t lead to as good a week of practice as we would have liked.”

Despite the loss, Shahbazyan can also take solace in being only his school’s second-ever qualifier to state.

“It was a great experience to be in a big arena competing in front of so many people,” said Shahbazyan, an aspiring mixed martial arts fighter. “I wanted to finish strong and I’ll learn from this.”