STOCKTON, Calif. – Brandon Tierney and Wolfgang Bernal earned All-American status as they led the Santa Ana College Wrestling team to a seventh-place finish in the 2017 CCCAA State Wrestling Championships held at San Joaquin Delta College last weekend.
Tierney, a sophomore from Irvine High School, placed fourth overall in the 165-pound weight class after going 3-2 in the tournament. The sophomore showed great growth this year, as he improved from his seventh-place mark at 157 pounds in the 2016 CCCAA State Championships.
Freshman Wolfgang Bernal worked his way through the 149-pound bracket to take home the third-place medal in his first CCAA State Tournament. Bernal started the day with a 16-0 technical fall in his first match but fell to the loser's bracket with a tough 3-2 loss to the tournament runner-up Blake Boswell from Santa Rosa College. He then went undefeated for the rest of the tournament, earning the third-place finish with a record of 5-1.
Jeremy Huang, Joshua Fuentes - Norikiyo and Leonel Perez also competed in the CCCAA State Tournament for Dons and placed in the top eight in their respective weight classes. Huang went 3-3 to place 6th in the 141-pound class while Fuentes – Norikiyo placed 5th in the 133-pound class with a record of 4-2 and Perez went 2-3 for 8th place in the 184-pound class.
Another positive for the Dons was an individual accomplishment of Fuentes – Norikiyo, as he was named the recipient of the Manuel Gorrarian Award for most falls in the least accumulative time with 3:44.
The Santa Ana College Wrestling team will return next season with a goal of getting over the hump, as they have placed seventh for the second straight year.
