Sports
Poway High Wrestling Team as Impressive as Ever
A record point total in winning the Reno Tournament of Champions shows the Titans are strong again.
Big surprise, right? The Poway High wrestling team may have one of its strongest teams ever for the 2011-12 season. But when have the Titans not had a dominant team when it comes to San Diego Section competition?
The chances that coach Wayne Branstetter's matmen will claim a 32nd section championship later this winter look pretty good based on the results of the recent Reno Tournament of Champions, one of the most prestigious events in high school wrestling.
The Titans finished well ahead of the pack, claiming the title with a record 270.5 points, 59 ahead of runner-up Union High of of Tulsa, OK. In fact, of the 92 teams competing, only the second-, third- and fourth-place finishers had as many as half the points that the Titans accumulated.
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Five Poway wrestlers, including one from the "B" team that tied the Carlsbad High "A" team for 28th place with 58 points, earned an All-America certificate for finishing in the top three in their respective weight classes.
Connor King won the title in the 170-pound division, improving his season record to 16-0 with his six wins in Reno. The championship match went to King on a 4-3 decision over two-time Nevada state champion Steven Elicegui of Earl Wooster High in Reno.
Find out what's happening in Powaywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Also earning All-America status were 106-pound runner-up Tirso Lara and third-place finishers Victor Lopez (132 pounds), Richard Durr (220) and "B" team member Ralph Tovar (126). Lopez had been the last Poway wrestler to win a Reno TOC title when he took the 103-pound class in 2009.
The other eight Titans who placed in the top eight were Tim Chassen (195) in fourth; Josh Miranda (126) and Kelly Simmons (285) in fifth; Gabe Faller (120), Braulio Banuelos (152) and Brit Bastow (182) in sixth; and Colt Doyle (113) and Steve Cervantes (160) in seventh.
The Titans return from the holiday break for the Jan. 6-7 Doc Buchanan Tournament at Clovis High near Fresno. Clovis, like Poway, is a perennial powerhouse that will be in the running for a state title.
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