SUNSET REGION: Cimarron, Arbor View pull ahead

The opening day of the Sunset Region wrestling tournament on Friday saw a few surprises.
Cimarron-Memorial and Arbor View sitting at the top of the team standings wasn’t one of them.

The Spartans and Aggies each advanced nine wrestlers to the semifinals and are expected to battle for the team title today when the tournament resumes at Centennial.

Consolation matches are to begin at 10 a.m., with the semifinals set for noon and the championship matches at 6:30 p.m.

The top three finishers in each weight class advance to the Division I state tournament, which begins Friday at the Reno Livestock Events Center.

“It’s far from over,” Cimarron coach Mike Garcia said. “There’s a lot of toss-up matches, and to win a championship you’ve got to win those. In general, we are.”

Cimarron, the Southwest League champion, finished the first day with 80 points, just ahead of Arbor View (72 points), which captured the Northwest League title. Centennial (59½) and Shadow Ridge (59) aren’t far behind.

The Aggies dominated the lighter weights, placing John Vigil and Robert Gilgallon in the semifinals at 120 pounds. Gilgallon upset Jonah McKee of Shadow Ridge 8-4 in the quarterfinals. McKee won the region title and was the state runner-up at 106 pounds last year.

The top two seeds in the 132-pound division lost in the quarterfinals. Kyler Atkinson of Legacy knocked off top-seeded Enzo Perez of Spring Valley, 5-3. In addition, Palo Verde’s Josh Pine pinned No. 2 seed Jacob Saavedra of Cimarron in 1:05.

At 138, London Thomas of Cimarron beat Bishop Gorman’s Brett Bushell 13-0 in the quarterfinals and stayed on course to meet defending state champion Kyle Leet of Palo Verde in the final. Leet, the top seed, pinned both of his opponents.

The top four seeds in the heavyweight division advanced, setting up an intriguing semifinal round. Top seed Silvano Villanueva of Spring Valley won both of his matches without taking the mat and will meet Cimarron’s Austin Sinyard, the runner-up at state a year ago. The other semifinal features Arbor View’s Sterlin Smokey against Centennial’s Jordan Karst, who was third at state last year.