SANTA ANA, Calif. – The Santa Ana College Wrestling team hosted its annual tournament on Saturday, September 29th inside Cook Gym. Santa Ana placed 6th out of 24 teams with a trio of Dons earning medals by finishing in the top three of their weight classes.
Joshua Fuentes - Norikiyo took second place in the 141 pounds division, defeating three opponents before suffering his only loss of the day the championship round. Fuentes – Norikiyo made a statement in the first round with a dominant 18-3 technical fall result. He followed that with a default win in the second round and then scraped out a 3-1 victory against Nicholas Camacho from Cerritos College in the semi-finals.
In his first competition of the season, Luis Vargas was seeded sixth in the 157 pound division but still fought his way to the championship round. Vargas cruised through the first round with a fall result just 4:22 minutes in. In the next round, he outscored his opponent by a score of 15-7 to advance to the semi-finals where he would stay undefeated with a technical fall. Vargas fell in the championship to top seeded Ruben Garcia from Fresno City College but showed the field that he's one of the best in the state.
After dropping his first match of the day, Oliver Rivero battled his way through the consolation bracket to finish third in the 133 pound division. Rivero won six of his seven matches to reach the podium, earning his second consecutive medal after placing first in the West Hills Tournament.
Santa Ana will try to carry this success into conference action when they go on the road to face Rio Hondo College in a dual on October 10th at 7:00 p.m.
