Sunnyside High School’s nationally-regarded wrestling program went toe-to-to with California’s best Saturday near San Diego, falling 47-15 to Poway High School, with the host Titans taking 10 of 14 individual matches from the visiting Blue Devils.
While Poway wrestlers took the last six decisions in the “Battle of #1s” event to secure the victory, the Blue Devils drew the first points out of the gate. At 147 pounds, Sunnyside’s Carlos Stanton, an Iowa State commit, pinned Poway’s Mario Carini to open the match.
Sunnyside’s four individual wins on the day:
147 pounds: Stanton defeated Carini
168 pounds: Nico Pina defeated Aliaksandr Kikiniou
Poway’s Adam Farha, right, wrestles Sunnyside’s Wayne Candeleria in the heavyweight division.
193 pounds: Lucas Mata defeated Ben Bomberger
141 pounds: Sergio Vega defeated Paul Kelly
Poway’s Elias Navida, right, wrestles Sunnyside’s Adyn Bostick in the 135-pound match Saturday.
The finale put Vega, ranked second nationally at that weight class, and Kelly, ranked third, against each other to close out the meet, pitting the top-ranked teams in each state against each other. Vega, now 107-1 in his prep career, defeated Kelly 6-0 a week after suffering his first career loss at the Flowing Wells Tournament.
“I felt pretty good after coming from last week’s loss, there wasn’t any more pressure,” Vega told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I actually know (Kelly), we wrestled a few times in kids tournaments in Arizona. This was the first time I beat him; he was 2-0.
“He always did have some slick moves,” Kelly said.
— The San Diego Union-Tribune
contributed to this report.
Poway’s Robert Platt, right, wrestles Sunnyside’s Rene Bostick in the 218-pound weight class Saturday.
Poway’s Laird Root wrestle’s Sunnyside’s Fetu Tualofi during the 155-pound match Saturday at Poway High School north of San Diego.
Poway’s Devin Bobzien, left, wrestles Sunnyside’s Chris Lopez in the 123-pound match.
Poway’s Arseni Kikiniou, top, wrestles Sunnyside’s Julian Canez in the 109-pound match.
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