Season ends for Martinez, Hoover wrestling

Arguably the best season in the history of Hoover High wrestling ended at Friday’s first day of the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet.

Tornadoes senior Geraldy Martinez, his school and the area’s only qualifier to the two-day tournament at Ontario’s Citizen Business Bank Arena, finished 0-2 and was eliminated from further postseason consideration.

“I’m glad that he got there for himself and for his school and I love the kid,” Hoover Coach Dave Beard said. “I think he represents Hoover very well and even though it’s the end of the season, Geraldy will have plenty more opportunities to pick up wins in his life. This isn’t the end of success for him.”

The 145-pounder joined the ranks of Arthur Ghukasyan and Edmen Shahbazyan as the program’s only wrestlers to advance to the Masters Meet, but came up one round short of qualifying to the CIF State Meet as Ghukasyan and Shahbazyan did in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Martinez opened against Charter Oak’s Gustavo Garcia and missed on a couple of scoring chances before losing, 4-0.

“I thought he really started pretty well actually, although the score won’t indicate that,” Beard said. “He almost turned the guy, almost scored on two takedowns. He was out of bounds on one and on the other he picked up the guy and put him on his back and the guy grabbed his leg and it ended up being a stalemate. That’s four points right there that would have made a difference.”

Following a near three-hour-long break, Martinez dropped into the consolation bracket and struggled in an 11-6 loss to Santa Monica’s Nassir Grissom, which ended the Hoover grappler’s run.

For the postseason, Martinez was the Rio Hondo League runner-up and posted a 5-6 playoff mark that included a 4-2 run though the Coastal Division Championships at Corona Santiago High last weekend that translated into a fourth-place finish.

Despite Friday’s end, Martinez was part of a highly successful Hoover team.

The Tornadoes finished the regular season with an 11-5 record, a first-ever second-place finish in the Rio Hondo League, an inaugural dual meet postseason berth and the program’s first-ever ranking, as the team finished No. 10 in the Western Division.