Hoover High wrestling pins its hope on six

If there’s a hope for the Hoover High wrestling program, it’s that one of the six grapplers participating in this weekend’s CIF Southern Section Coastal Division Individual Championships will qualify beyond the tournament to the following week’s CIF Southern Section Masters Meet.

To do so, one or more of the six wrestlers will need to finish in the top five at the two-day long divisional championships taking place at Lake Elsinore Lakeside High, beginning on Friday at 11 a.m.

The prize for finishing in the top five is a berth to the CIF-SS Masters Meet at Ontario’s Citizens Bank Arena, which commences Feb. 27.

“I don’t know if we have someone who can make it to Masters, but we’ve had some kids who have had some really good years and we’ll see,” Hoover High Coach Dave Beard said. “Hopefully we’ll get kids to day two and then to Masters.”

Last season, the Tornadoes took nine qualifiers to the Eastern Division Championships in Perris Citrus Hill High and only advanced one past the first day.

That wrestler – 160-pound senior Arthur Ghukasyan – went on to not only become his school’s first-ever Masters Meet qualifier, but advanced to state.

Ghukasyan was one of two Rio Hondo League champions for Hoover last season.

This year, the Tornadoes have one champion in Narek Zamanyan, who captured the 138-pound division at the league finals at Monrovia High on Jan. 31 with a 13-9 victory over St. Paul’s Ryan Rendich.

The junior enters Friday’s competition with a 22-7 record.

“This week is all about getting mentally ready,” Zamanyan said. “There isn’t anything you can learn in the next week to get better, so you work on your focus.”

Zamanyan is one of a few Tornadoes nursing injuries, but said that he will be ready to go Friday.

Last year, Zamanyan made more than just a brief appearance at CIF, finishing 2-2 in the first day. He was eliminated by Sultana’s Jacob Dennison in consolation competition.

“Last year was my first trip to CIF and I didn’t know what to expect,” Zamanyan said. “I feel like I have experience now.”

Outside of Zamanyan, Beard is also hoping one of his four league runner-up wrestlers will also make a surge.

Tornadoes 132-pounder Jesse Martinez admits that while he isn’t fully recovered from an injury suffered at league finals, he’s been encouraged by his progress since a 17-2 defeat to San Marino’s Julian Flores, who is ranked fourth in California according to thecaliforniawrestler.com.

“I’m not 100% healthy with my shoulder, but I’ll be out there,” said Martinez, who is 22-3 this year. “Even though I lost to the guy from San Marino, I know he’s ranked really high in state. I hung with him and I’m going to use that as motivation.”

Brother Geraldy Martinez (12-4) was an injury default loser at 145 pounds at league finals and is the most questionable for Friday.

In the upper weights, Hoover’s Murah Muradyan and Edmen Shahbazyan will attempt to recover from league finals losses.

Muradyan (12-6) was pinned by St. Paul’s David Castillo in the 170-pound finals, while Shahbazyan (10-2) lost a hard-fought 3-1 decision to La Cañada Russell Marki in the 195-pound final.

Perhaps if there’s one wrestler who’s best prepared for the first day, it’s Hoover’s Karlan Hakopyan (18-4).

The freshman was pinned in his opening bout of the league finals by South Pasadena’s Harry Yun.

From that defeat, though, 113-pounder rallied with a pin of Monrovia’s Nate Uretha before defeating La Cañada’s Lucian Ishiashi in the third-place bout.