March 7, 2005

Westmont wrestlers shine placing in the top 20 at CCS

By Val Esquival
Times Correspondent

Westmont’s Tyler Porras wrestled with an injury and earned a fifth place berth.

Spanning from as far south as King City and as far north as San Francisco, the fiercest competition from the CCS gathered on the weekend of February 26-27 at Overfelt High School to determine who would compete at the prestigious state wrestling tournament in Bakersfield, Calif.

Although Westmont came away short of having a state qualifier this year, three Westmont Warriors walked away with medals. Returning section medallists senior Tyler Porras, battling an injury narrowly missed a state meet birth. After pinning his first two opponents, Porras lost his third match in the quarter finals to league rival Mark Taveres from Mt. Pleasant.

Battling back in the consolation rounds, Porras defeated 2004 state-qualifier Blaiz Davis of Hillsdale and Aaron Dorado of Greenfield to advance to the medal rounds. To advance to the third and fourth place bout, Porras lost to Ruben Lerma of North Salinas and injury defaulted to sixth place.

Senior Preston Falbo, the 2004-05 BVAL league champ at 140 pounds, defeated Harwinder Singh of Wilcox in dominating fashion recording a pin in 1:49 seconds. In a close-fought match, Austin Gubrud of Gilroy squeaked by Falbo with a 6-5 decision. In the consolation rounds, Falbo pinned Huy Vu of North Salinas before losing to Half Moon Bay’s Aaron Wilson in another close decision.

Two wrestlers that look to be on the rise are juniors Tony Christenbery (119) and Craig VanBuskirk (171). Christenbery went 5-2 in the tournament with both losses coming at the hands of senior Jemar Pesag of
Independence.

In an amazing show of heart and determination, VanBuskirk lost his first match on Friday to Luis Albarron of Gilroy. Battling back and winning his next five matches in the consolation rounds, VanBuskirk’s state meet birth was cut short by number two-seeded Travis Edwards of Monterey. Both wrestlers capped off their seasons with a sixth place finish at the CCS tournament and aspirations of a higher finish at next year’s tournament.

With two returning CCS medallists, it seems that the Warriors will return to the mat next year to improve upon their finish.

Warriors win round one against Lancers, drop quarterfinal game

Despite round two loss to Sequoia, win against Lancers sweet for Westmont

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Writer

The Westmont boys’ basketball squad lost a second-round 50-34 decision to Sequoia on Feb. 26, but not before adding some excitement to the CCS playoff picture.

Just three days prior, the Warriors got an upset over St. Francis on the road with a 62-59 win in the opening round of Division II playoffs.

“That’s basically how we’ve been playing all year,” said Westmont Head Coach Bill Gerth. “Great man-to-man defense, getting the loose balls. We’ve lost four to five games just like the one we just played right here. The ball rolled our way and I think we just outplayed them.”

For Westmont, which came into the game seeded twelfth, the win was redemption for a perceived slight from the fifth-seeded Lancers.

“St. Francis, right out of the CCS meeting, they knew they were going to beat us; that’s what they thought. They were already looking ahead to the Sequoia game,” said Westmont senior center Matt Hosack. “We just knew that they weren’t going to be ready to play tonight and if we came out strong, they wouldn’t be able to stop us.”

With a 48-47 lead in the fourth quarter, Westmont went on a 9-3 run to take a 7-point lead. Fuelin¥e run for the Warriors was junior guard Chantz Staden, who nailed back-to-back 3-pointers at 4:35 and 4:08 during the stretch.

Staden, who finished the night with 14 points, also hit a buzzer beating 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter to give the Warriors a 48-45 lead.

“I guess we love making it a good game because this whole year we’ve had leads and given up leads and the games have been close,” said Westmont guard Casey Modiri. “We just tightened up our defense and hit our shots at the end.”

After an Adam Budelli lay-up cut the Westmont lead back down to 5, Warrior forward Michael Weimer scored 4 points in just under 30 seconds for a modest 4-2 scoring run, sinking two free throws and converting on a lay-up to put Westmont up 61-54.

In an attempt to buy more time on the clock, the Lancers went to fouling Westmont players with regularity. Free throws have been the Warriors Achille’s heel for much of the season and this time proved to be no different, as Westmont sank one shot in eight attempts.

“I’m kind of used to it,” Gerth said of the Warriors’ free throw woes. “Like I said, many times this year we’ve actually lost games because we couldn’t hit a free throw down the stretch. We couldn’t hit them again today. They didn’t hurt us this time and I’m just used to it, I guess, us trying to beat ourselves.”

Meanwhile, the Lancers struggled to get back into the game but managed 5 points in the final 33 seconds of the contest, including a 3-pointer from Brady Fuerst. But the scoring surge was not enough for the Lancers, as Patrick O’Donnell failed to hit his two free throws with 4 seconds left, spoiling the only scoring opportunity left for St. Francis.

The win over St. Francis was short-lived for the Warriors however, as the team dropped a 50-34 decision to Sequoia on Feb. 26. After a close first half that saw the Sequoia Cherokee up 18-16, Westmont could not keep up for the final two quarters, getting outscored 32-18. Hosack, who finished his high school basketball career with 11 points in the game, led Westmont.